Anna Calvi, the Mercury-nominated musician, is set to perform at a concert on April 21 at the Southbank Centre in London to celebrate the 50th anniversary of David Bowie’s Aladdin Sane album. Calvi, who is openly lesbian, credits Bowie’s gender-bending androgyny for inspiring her as a queer artist. Bowie’s subversion of gender presentation paved the way for a generation of performers to explore gender expression and identity through their art.
Entering the music industry as an out lesbian in the late noughties, Calvi was part of a new generation of artists who were able to be explicit about their sexuality. She acknowledges that artists like Bowie helped to change the perception of queer people in the public’s eyes by not stigmatizing that part of themselves. His blasé attitude towards sexuality, regardless of how he identified, challenged societal norms, and helped strip away the idea that the LGBTQ+ community was “something kind of perverse.”
However, Calvi acknowledges that not everything is rosy, and she believes that the music industry, and society as a whole, still has a problem with representation. She criticizes the lack of space given to women performers on the UK’s biggest music platforms, citing the fact that no women were nominated in the best artist category at this year’s Brit Awards. She calls for more women to be featured on festival line-ups and in music studios, and urges the industry to broaden its definition of what makes a successful artist beyond the traditional straight, white male.
When talk turns to trans and non-binary rights, Calvi becomes increasingly passionate. She expresses concern about the reaction and kickback from people who are afraid of the idea that gender might be fluid. Calvi sees a “fake concern” in the anti-trans narrative, which contorts the fight for women’s rights. She suggests that instead of putting trans women under a microscope because they want to use the toilet, the focus should be on making misogyny a crime and increasing the pitiful one per cent conviction rate of rapists in the UK.
Calvi is looking forward to performing at the Southbank Centre as part of Aladdin Sane Live, a tribute to David Bowie’s queer legacy. For her, the event is a small reminder that queerness, gender expression, and non-conformity have always existed, in art and in life. The legacy of Bowie’s music and artistry will continue to influence and inspire artists for generations to come.