Jimmy Somerville
Acting
Biography
James William Somerville (born 22 June 1961) is a singer from Glasgow, Scotland who rose to prominence in the 1980s with the synth-pop groups Bronski Beat and the Communards. With Bronski Beat, Somerville achieved commercial success with the 1984 single "Smalltown Boy", which peaked at number three on the UK Singles Chart, topped the charts in Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands and the Hot Dance Club Play chart in the United States. Additionally, the single peaked within the top ten of the charts in Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and West Germany, and also charted on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States. Bronski Beat's debut album The Age of Consent (1984) was the only release Somerville contributed to as lead vocalist before leaving the band in 1985 and joining The Communards. Following the deaths of Larry Steinbachek in 2016 and Steve Bronski in 2021, Somerville is the only surviving founding member of Bronski Beat. The Communards, with Somerville on lead vocals, released their debut album Communards in 1986, spawning the internationally successful single "Don't Leave Me This Way". It reached the top spot in the United Kingdom, Belgium, Ireland, the Netherlands and the US Dance Club Songs. "Don't Leave Me This Way" was the best selling single of 1986 in the United Kingdom. Follow up single, "So Cold the Night", also achieved commercial success across Europe. Their second studio album Red was released in 1987 and continued their chart success. The Communards disbanded in 1988. Following the disbandment of The Communards, Somerville launched his solo career. He is known in particular for his powerful and soulful countertenor/falsetto singing voice. Born on 22 June 1961, James William Somerville grew up in Ruchill, a neighbourhood of northern Glasgow. In 1980, he moved to London, where he lived in squats. He immersed himself in gay culture, and attended the London Gay Teenage Group. In 1983, Somerville co-founded the synth-pop group Bronski Beat, which had several hits in the British charts. Their biggest hit was "Smalltown Boy", which peaked at number three on the UK Singles Chart. In the music video Somerville plays the song's titular character, who leaves his hostile hometown for the friendlier city, reflecting Somerville's own experiences when he moved to London. Bronski Beat signed a recording contract with London Records in 1984 after doing only nine live gigs. The band's debut single, "Smalltown Boy", about a gay teenager leaving his family and fleeing his home town, was a hit, peaking at No 3 in the UK Singles Chart, and topping charts in Belgium and the Netherlands. The single was accompanied by a promotional video directed by Bernard Rose, showing Somerville trying to befriend an attractive diver at a swimming pool, then being attacked by the diver's homophobic associates, being returned to his family by the police and having to leave home. (The police officer was played by Colin Bell, then the marketing manager of London Records.) "Smalltown Boy" reached 48 in the U.S. chart and peaked at 8 in Australia. ... Source: Article "Jimmy Somerville" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA.
Known For
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Morgenmagazin
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Champs-Elysées
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ZDF-Fernsehgarten
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Sacrée soirée
A Time Prophet predicted that Kai would be the one to destroy the divine order in the league of the 20,000 planets, someday that will happen, but not today. Today a cowardly security guard, an undead assassin, a female with a body designed for sex and a robot head madly in love with her all make up the crew of the spaceship Lexx, the most powerful weapon in the two universes.
Lexx
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Le monde est à vous
Star Academy is a French reality television show produced by the Dutch company Endemol. It consists of a contest of young singers. It spawned an equally successful show in Quebec called Star Académie. It is broadcast on TF1. At the end of each season, selected contestants would go on tour around France, Morocco, Switzerland, Belgium, Tunisia, and other French-speaking countries.
Star Academy
The likes of Antoine de Caunes, Jean Paul Gaultier, Davina McCall, and Lolo Ferrari are your guides to the weird and wonderful in Europe and beyond. How else would you learn about pubic hairdressers, the Penis Olympics, or the latest Japanese sex toys?
Eurotrash
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Stars 90
The biggest night in the British music calendar, the BRIT Awards celebrate the biggest successes in music & promote new talent.
The BRIT Awards
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Musik für Sie
England, 1600. Queen Elizabeth I promises Orlando, a young nobleman obsessed with poetry, that she will grant him land and fortune if he agrees to satisfy a very particular request.
Orlando
This music special is dedicated to dispelling the prejudices associated with the HIV infection and raising money for AIDS research and relief. Some of today's most celebrated recording artists performing their interpretations of the classic songs of Cole Porter.
Red Hot + Blue: A Tribute to Cole Porter
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Ambitions
Looks like an alien, sings like a diva - Klaus Nomi was one of the 1980s' most profoundly bizarre characters to emerge through rock music: a counter tenor who sang pop music like opera and brought opera to club audiences and made them like it. The Nomi Song is a film about fame, death, friendship, betrayal, opera, and the greatest New Wave rock star that never was!
The Nomi Song
The evolution of disco music through interviews and clips - Acid House, House, Disco, Funk, Italo-Disco, Italodance. Interviewed – Baby Ford, Deee-Lite, Frankie Knuckles, Mark Moore, Mel Cheren Featuring 5000 Volts, Amii Stewart, Anita Ward, Baby Ford, Bananarama, Black Box, Cerrone, Communards, The, Deee-Lite, Donna Summer, Eartha Kitt, Edwin Starr, Evelyn Champagne King, Evelyn Thomas, Farm, The, Giorgio Moroder, Gloria Gaynor, Hot Gossip, Hues Corporation, Isaac Hayes, Kool And The Gang, Kylie Minogue, M, Michael Zager, Miguel Brown, Musique, New Order, Odyssey, S'Express, Shannon, Shirley & Co, Sylvester, Three Degrees, Trammps, Van Mccoy, Village People
Rhythm Divine: The Story of Disco
Documentary containing interviews and concert footage of the various musicians and bands within the Red Wedge organization on a tour within the UK.
Days Like These
Collection of music videos by Jimmy Somerville, both as solo artist as well as with the bands Bronski Beat and The Communards.
Jimmy Somerville: The Video Collection 1984/1990 (Featuring Bronski Beat and The Communards)
A black and white, fantasy-like recreation of high-society gay men during the Harlem Renaissance, with archival footage and photographs intercut with a story. A wake is going on, with mourners gathered around a coffin. Downstairs is an elegant bar where tuxedoed men dance and talk. One of them has a dream in which he comes upon Beauty, who seems to reject him, although when he awakes, Beauty is sleeping beside him. His story and his visits to the jazz and dance club are framed by voices reading from the poetry and essays of Hughes and others. The text is rarely explicit, but the freedom of gay Black men in the 1920s in Harlem is suggested and celebrated visually.
Looking for Langston
A documentary tribute to River Phoenix stressing the impact that River Phoenix had on gay men, lesbians, and bisexuals.