Which openly gay man won an Oscar, and why is Sam Smith wrong? The emergence of the group Clean Bandit What are your plans for the near future

25.06.2019

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The most sensational group of 2014 transforms both dance and classical music ...

At first glance, classical symphonic and dance music do not go well together. The refined restraint of a concert hall and the noisy atmosphere of an ordinary, average, nightclub, this is heaven and earth. But this difference, apparently, cannot be considered insurmountable. Mozart and Beethoven were very famous during their lifetime, just like David Guetta and Tiesto in 2014. Therefore, it is possible that such different music, if performed correctly, can also coexist. After all, how else to explain the fast-paced road to fame of the band Clean Bandit!

Clean bandit is a British electro band founded in 2009. This group released the track "Mozart" s House "in 2013, which was marked at number 17 on the UK Singles Chart, and in 2014 released a new single" Rather Be ", which reached number 1 on the same chart.

Breakthrough

Clean Bandit took a long time to achieve success. Early on in their career, a recording studio asked if they were a cheap pop group. But whoever laughs last, and in this case it was the Cambridge quartet, when their fourth single, Rather Be - an elegant and cheerful mix of violin melodies, dance rhythms and head-spinning soul vocals by Jess Glynn - soared to the top of several European charts at the start. 2014 year. He also has an incredible 184 million views on YouTube and that number is growing.

Carier start

Three members of the group - Jack Patterson, Grace Chatto and Milan Neil Emine-Smith met while attending Jesus College, Cambridge University. They studied Russian, architecture and economics, among other subjects. Grace and Milan played a string quartet together, but Clean Bandit essentially began to take shape when Grace and Jack began dating, and Jack, an aspiring producer and club impresario, began remixing his girlfriend's classic compositions with energetic house beats. ... When his brother, Luke, joined him and began playing drums, the Clean Bandit was formed.

First hit

“When we started, we just wanted to write music that we could dance to and that stood out from the crowd,” Grace tells Varsity magazine at Cambridge University. It’s hard to think of a better description of their first single, Mozart’s House, combining fragments from Wolfgang Amadeus’s # 21 string quartet with house beats and infectious vocals performed by their friend Ssegawa-Ssekintu Kiwanuka. It was released by the British dance music studio Black Butter, which gave rise to such bands as Rudimental and Gorgon City. The single became a minor sensation, proving that the idea of electronic chamber music was not so ridiculous.

Worldwide recognition

Clean Bandit didn't settle for the success of their single, released earlier in the year, and worked hard throughout 2014. The long-awaited debut album New Eyes was released in May, and in August they released the single Come Over, featuring vocals by reggae vocalist Stylo G. Then Real Love came out in November (a new composition later added to the special edition of the album) and took second place. in the UK charts.

Versatility

The relentless creative work of Clean Bandit is a search in different directions. They take filming as seriously as they take music. Jack studied at the All-Russian State University of Cinematography, and currently the group has its own production company, Clean Film, which has created all the clips of the group, as well as fulfilling other orders. Clean Bandit have proven themselves worth something in the classical genre too, with the BBC Philharmonic in a special 45-minute Symphony in Three Movements program on Zane Lowe's Radio 1 show.

Looking to the future

Making the music of the future is not easy because not everyone is able to understand such music. “At a party I met a guy who was very angry with us for using excerpts from Shostakovich's # 8 string quartet,” Jack says in an interview with the Guardian. - He tried to convince me that this is impossible. I think he thought it was humiliating for a work of art, but he really didn't know what he was talking about. He was not even able to sing a simple melody! "

These guys have skill and a head on their shoulders

, Baroque pop, Classical electronic music

Years 2008 - present Country United Kingdom United Kingdom Song language English Label Warner Music Group Composition

Jack Patterson
Luke Patterson
Grace Chatto

Former
the participants

Milan Neil Amin-Smith
Ssegawa-Ssekintu Kiwanuka

cleanbandit.co.uk Clean Bandit at Wikimedia Commons

Clean bandit is a British electro band founded in 2008. This band released the track "Mozart" s House "in 2010, which was marked 17th on the UK Singles Chart. And in 2014 they released a new single" Rather Be ", which reached # 1 on the same chart. In 2015, the composition was awarded Grammy Awards for Best Dance Recording.

Musical style

Clean Bandit's music combines electronic and classical music to create deep house tracks.

History

Formation and start of a career

Group members Jack Patterson, Luke Patterson, Grace Chatto, and Milan Neil Amin-Smith met while attending Jesus College, Cambridge University. By that time, Chatto was already forming a quartet with Amin-Smith. Chatto was dating Jack Patterson at the time and he decided to record her performances. Patterson began mixing her songs with electronic music, and after presenting the fruit of his labor to her, Chatto stated that she liked the idea. One of their friends, Ssegawa-Ssekintu Kiwanuka, wrote the lyrics for the songs at that time, and together they created the track Mozart's House. And thus they came up with the idea of creating a musical group. Clean bandit, they took from the translation of the Russian phrase, which in English means "pure (in the sense of natural, real) bandit", as her neighbor grandmother called her (from an interview on Megapolis FM). It is also worth noting that Chatto and Patterson lived in Russia for some time.

2012-14: debut album "New Eyes"

As of June 19, 2017, the Voice UK 2012 finalist Kirsten Joy is traveling with Clean Bandit as the lead singer of the group.

At the 2015 Coachella Festival, Clean Bandit performed the song "Disconnect" with Marina and The Diamonds. The track was released on June 23, 2017.

On October 16, 2017, Clean Bandit announced their new song "I Miss You" featuring American singer Julia Michaels. On the same day, the group announced their US tour, which will take place in March-April next year. The track "I Miss You" was released on October 27, 2017.

In early December 2017, the group announced that they were going to release their second album in the first months of 2018. They also revealed that all the songs they have released so far since their debut album will be on the new album.

2018 to present: second Clean Bandit album released

In early 2018, Clean Bandit performed at the 2018 Brit Awards nomination ceremony with their two most recent hits, Symphony and I Miss You, performed by Kirsten Joy. In addition, the group was awarded two nominations for the same award: “ British single "of the year and " British Video of the Year ", both times nominated for "Symphony".

Composition of the group

Grace Chatto (2008 - present) - cello, percussion, vocals
Jack Patterson (2008 - present) - bass guitar, keyboards, vocals, piano, sound effects, some wind instruments
Luke Patterson (2008 - present) - drums, percussion, some wind instruments

Former members

Neil Amin-Smith(2008-2016) - violin, keyboards, backing vocals
Ssegawa-Ssekintu Kiwanuka (Love Ssega)(2008-2010) - vocals

Concert participants

Nikki Kislin(2012-2013) - vocals
Yasmin Shahmir(2012-2013) - vocals
Florence Rawlings(2013-2016) - vocals
Elizabeth Troy(2013-2016) - vocals
Kirsten Joy
Yasmine Green(2016 - present) - vocals
Aaron Jones(2016 - present) - violin
Patrick Greenberg(2010 - present) - bass guitar

Nominations and awards

Prize	Nomination	Nominated work	Result
UK Music Video Awards	Best Dance Video - Budget	Mozart's House	Nomination
UK Music Video Awards	Best Pop Video - Budget	Telephone Breaking	Nomination

The current Oscar ceremony worried the public mainly for two reasons. The first reason: they will give or not. I mean, will Leo DiCaprio get the coveted "golden dolt", and will the endless memes on the Internet finally stop on the topic "DiCaprio agreed to star in a film about Oscar history in order to steal props from the set."

Honestly, if it were not for the Internet, then this topic would not be so worried, because in the long history of the award there have been people who were nominated for it 12 times - and never received anything. It's just that in those days there were no social networks where you can tirelessly make fun of Leo and the Oscars. Leonardo got a "boob", everyone can relax, including himself.

Reason two: many were wondering how the host of the ceremony, African-American Chris Rock, would react to the scandal on the eve of the Oscars on the racism of film academics, due to the fact that for the second year in a row not a single black actor was nominated in the main categories.

Black Chris in a white tuxedo was at his best and got around the situation as best he could - both yours and ours got it. On the one hand, racism was not spared, on the other, he shut up Judda Pinkett Smith, who was creating too much noise, recalling that, regardless of skin color, she never claimed the award: “Judda's boycott of Oscar is like a boycott of panties Rihanna from my side: nobody invited me there, ”said Rock from the stage.

What no one expected was an explosion of public outrage over the speech of British performer Sam Smith, who received the statuette for the best song for the next Bond film.

We already wrote that Sam, referring to the words of Sir Ian McKellen that no openly gay has ever won an Oscar, solemnly announced that he is incredibly happy to be the first of those. At the same time, he dedicated his award to the LGBT community, expressing the hope that someday it will become free and equal.

The aspiration itself is more than commendable - thank you Sam, we appreciate it. Only before such a responsible performance, it was necessary to learn the materiel better so as not to get into a puddle, because in fact open gays and lesbians received Oscars, and more than once. And the first of them was not even Milka's screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, who was very offended and for some reason told Sam Smith to stay away from his fiancé Tom Daley and stop texting him. The LGBT community immediately became overexcited and began to discuss the reasons and potential content of Sam's messages to Tom

But we are not talking about that now.

The next person to speak out on the issue was none other than Sir McKellen personally, who explained to Sam that he was interpreting his words too literally. “I wanted to say that no openly gay actor has ever won an Oscar,” Sir explained on his Twitter account. “But that doesn't detract from Sam Smith's accomplishments. Congratulations to him and everyone else. "

McKellen and Black were far from the only ones who took part in the discussion of the incident. For example, Milan Neil Amin-Smith, violinist of the British group Clean Bandit, lashed out at Sam Smith, claiming that he "once again argued nonsense", and at the same time noting that his Oscar-winning song "Writing on the Wall" was not more than a "pale parody of" Song of the Earth "by Michael Jackson.

Milan Neil Amin-Smith is an openly gay boyfriend of Ollie Alexander from the Years & Years group and a Grammy winner, so this person, in principle, can afford to express some displeasure without resembling a mongrel barking at an elephant. Having a direct relationship with LGBT people, he reminded Sam Smith of a quote from a 2014 interview, when he said that "gays should not turn their sexuality into a topic of discussion at all."

Ollie Alexander and Milan Neil Amin-Smith

Frankly, some fragments of this "SamSmith Gate" resemble the notorious battle with cosmetic bags - and a considerable number of more or less famous people expressed their opinion on the topic. But one conclusion can be drawn from what happened: you need to know your history. Not only in order not to be trapped at such important events, broadcast all over the world, but also because many other representatives of the community helped pave the way to the top for people like Smith, thanks to which LGBT people in the West today have everything they have. ...

So let me remind you of some openly gays and lesbians who won Oscars long before Sam Smith.

Sir Elton John

In partnership with renowned librettist Tim Rice, Elton John composed Can you Feel the Love Tonight ?, which became a classic hit from the 1994 Walt Disney animated film The Lion King.

For this tape, Elton wrote several compositions, three of which were nominated for an Oscar in the category "Best Song for a Film", and the aforementioned "Can you Feel the Love Tonight?" she was honored. Together with Elton and Tim, of course.

Accepting the award, the musician dedicated it to his grandmother, who died a week before, noting that it was an incredible honor for him.

Dustin Lance Black

Tom Daley's fiancé (whom Sam Smith appears to be bombarded with text messages) received the Best Original Screenplay award for Milk in 2009.

In the film itself, it was about the famous Harvey Milk, a man who became one of the first openly gay men in politics, elected to a position "by the will of the people", and a year later was shot. Sean Penn, who brilliantly played Milka, received an Oscar for Best Male Lead.

Alan Ball

The creator of the cult series The Client is Always Dead and True Blood also received an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for American Beauty. This happened in 2000. At the same time, the tape won several more Academy Awards, including, in fact, "Best Film".

George Cukor

Believe it or not, director George Cukor was openly gay as early as 1964. It was with him that Audrey Hepburn played her first film career, it was after participating in his films that such actresses as Ingrid Bergman and Judy Holliday received Oscars.

Cukor himself won the Best Directing Award in 1965 for a film whose title will tell a lot even to those who are not overly interested in the classics of cinema: My Fair Lady.

And one more interesting remark: the penultimate work of Cukor brought him the experience of working with Soviet filmmakers - yes, there were also periods of detente in relations with the United States in Russia. In 1976, 20th Century Fox, together with Lenfilm, filmed The Blue Bird, based on the play of the same name by Maurice Maeterlinck, starring Elizabeth Taylor, Jane Fonda and Ava Gardner for a moment.

Howard Ashman

Writer, producer and composer Howard Ashman has won two Oscars: in 1990 he won the Best Song for The Little Mermaid, and two years later, another award in the same category, this time for Beauty and the Beast. As you might guess, Ashman reached the highest point of cinematic prestige working with Disney.

Howard Ashman died in 1991 from complications caused by AIDS, so the second Oscar was awarded to the composer posthumously, and the film "Beauty and the Beast" was dedicated to him.

Melissa Etheridge

Let us remind you once again that in English the word “gay” means all homosexual people, not just men. Therefore, when someone speaks English, they say, gay people have never won anything, they also mean lesbians.

So, in 2006, an open lesbian, legendary rock singer and winner of several Grammy Awards Melissa Etheridge added an Oscar to her collection of figurines. He was honored with Melissa for Best Song for a Film. In this case, it was a documentary called "An Inconvenient Truth," and the song was called "I Need to Wake Up."

Melissa Etheridge stepped out of the closet in 1993 and has been a prominent worldwide LGBT celebrity activist ever since. By the way, the singer came to the 2006 ceremony with her then partner, actress Tammy Lynn Michaels. Much more open.

Bill Condon

The screenwriter for Gods and Monsters, co-starring Sir Ian McKellen, received an Oscar for his work in 1998 in the Best Adapted Screenplay category.

McKellen himself was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Supporting Actor category for this tape. His co-star and girlfriend Lynn Redgrave was nominated for an award in a similar female category.

In general, Bill Condon's arsenal as a screenwriter and director has many successful works: the recent film "Mr. Holmes" with the same Sir McKellen in the title role, "Twilight. Saga. Dawn "(no matter how we treat them)," Dreamgirls "and" Chicago ".

John Schlesinger

In 1970, an Oscar for Best Director went to openly gay John Schlesinger, who directed Midnight Cowboy.

Despite the lack of a frank homosexual component in the film, the film is considered a cult among the queer public due to the chemistry of the actors, Jon Voight (Angelina Jolie's father) and Dustin Hoffman, for whom "Midnight Cowboy" became the first appearance on the big screen.

In total, the film received three Oscars: for Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and in the main category for Best Film.

Stephen Sondheim

Renowned composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim won his Oscar for Best Song for a Film in 1990 when he composed Sooner or Later I Always Get My Man for Dick Tracy. Sang by her performer one of the main roles - Madonna.

This award joins the list of more than two dozen other awards received by Sondheim over the years for his work in theater and cinema.

NS e draw Almodovar

The famous Spanish director Pedro Almodovar needs no introduction, especially in a queer environment, since his rare film does not go without homosexual themes.

On account of Almodovar two Oscars for two tapes. One of them, "All About My Mother," was honored in 2000 for Best Foreign Language Film. The second, Talk to Her, was awarded an Oscar three years later for Best Original Screenplay, written by Almodovar himself. At the same time, the Spaniard claimed the award in the category "Best Director".

And a few words about gay actors who won an Oscar even before their official exit from the closet.

Sir John Gielgud

Sir John Gielgud won an Oscar in 1982 for Best Supporting Actor in Arthur. Then rivals Giglud in this nomination were Hollywood "heavyweights" Jack Nicholson and Ian Holm.

Gielgud, who passed away in 2000, is one of the few actors to have won four prestigious awards in film, television, music and theater: Oscars, Emmy, Grammy and Tony.

Back in 1953, Gielgud, usually reticent about his pursuit of casual sex, was caught by the police at a famous cruising destination. In those days, homosexuality in his native UK was considered a crime, and the Home Secretary, an ardent homophobic David Maxwell Fife, ordered the arrest of anyone who violated the "Victorian laws against homosexuality."

The actor could not bring forward any serious accusations, so he got off with only a fine. Despite the fact that this did not affect his career, and the theatergoers continued to give him a standing ovation, the incident led to a serious nervous breakdown.

Subsequently, the topic of Gilgud's homosexuality was carefully avoided. He himself dared to come out only in the last years of his life, cursing that he always admired people like Ian McKellen, who had the courage to do it before.

From 1977 to 1989 John Gielgud served as President of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts of Great Britain.

Jodie Foster

The winner of two Oscars, Jodie Foster, pulled out until 2013, although the “world community” knew that the famous actress lives with a woman long before this solemn event, which happened during the Foster award of the Golden Globe for his contribution to art.

In 1988, Jody won an Oscar for The Accused, in 1991 for The Silence of the Lambs. More is known about the second, although the first is a cult feminist tape. It is about two women: Sarah Tobios, who was the victim of gang rape (played by Foster) and Catherine Murphy, a lawyer who sought fair punishment for criminals. The movie is based on real events. Initially, the defendants were convicted only of petty hooliganism, believing that the victim was "herself to blame," provoking them to violence.

Interestingly, the role of Katherine Murphy in the tape was played by actress Kelly McGillis, who also came out as a lesbian in 2009.

Joel Gray

Joel Gray is best known to the world as the entertainer of the legendary Cabaret with Liza Minnelli. For him, the actor in 1973 and was awarded an Oscar in the category "Best Actor in a Supporting Role".

Gray emerged from the underground early last year, after turning 82.

“I don’t like labels,” the actor said then, “but if you want to put a label on me, then I am a human being. All people close to me have known who I am for a long time. True, in order to accept this part of myself, it took me time. To accept a part of the person I have always been. "

Electronic

Years 2008 - present Country United Kingdom United Kingdom Song language English Label Warner Music Group Composition

Jack Patterson
Luke Patterson
Grace Chatto

Former
the participants

Milan Neil Amin-Smith
Ssegawa-Ssekintu Kiwanuka

cleanbandit.co.uk Clean Bandit at Wikimedia Commons

Musical style

Clean Bandit's music combines electronic and classical music to create deep house tracks.