Eftersom jag inte kunde enas med mig själv om nån inbördes ordning av mina list-babes fick det bli bokstavsordning och först ut av topp 5 är såklart brittpop-hunken Damon Albarn:
Dream Eyes
Born 23 March 1968 (age 40)
Origin London, England
Genre(s) Alternative rock, Britpop, alternative hip hop, world music
Occupation(s) Musician, Singer-songwriter, Record Producer
Instrument(s) vocals, guitar, piano, organ, violin, recorder, vibraphone, synthesizer, melodica, bass guitar
Years active 1988 – present
Associated acts Blur Gorillaz The Good, the Bad and the Queen Monkey: Journey to the West
Popstar
Damon Albarn, IPA: (born in Leytonstone, London), is a Grammy Award-winning English singer-songwriter and record producer best known as the vocalist of legendary Britpop band Blur.
His electrical musical style and observational lyrics have made him one of England’s most successful musicians of the past 20 years. He has been involved in many high profile projects and collaborations throughout his career, but is perhaps best known internationally for his work with popular virtual band Gorillaz, within which he serves as the principal songwriter and, under the alias ”2D”, lead vocalist. Albarn came to prominence as the frontman of rock band Blur, and subsequent projects have included The Good, the Bad & the Queen, Monkey: Journey to the West and Mali Music.
Throughout his career, Albarn has composed six UK #1 albums and thirty-seven Top 40 hit singles, three of which (”Country House,” ”Beetlebum” and ”Dare”) reached #1. His song ”Feel Good Inc.” also reached #1 on the US Modern Rock Tracks, and stayed there for a total of 8 weeks. While his total record sales are unclear, he has sold in excess of 31 million albums as of 2008, and has earned considerable critical acclaim.
Albarn had a long-standing relationship with Elastica frontwoman Justine Frischmann. His involvement with her profoundly influenced his songwriting in Blur in the mid-to-late 1990s. ”Yuko and Hiro” from The Great Escape (1995) is about Damon’s love and infatuation with Justine and their inability to see each other. ”Beetlebum”, their single from the eponymous Blur (1997) was about Justine’s rumoured heroin addiction, while some songs as ”Tender” and ”No Distance Left to Run” from 13 (1999) are about their break-up. He now lives in Bayswater, London with artist Suzi Winstanley, and their daughter Missy, born in 1999. Albarn and Frischmann remain good friends.
Albarn was very close to his grandfather, Edward Albarn, who had been a conscientious objector in the Second World War and was involved in a farming community in Lincolnshire. Albarn himself is outspokenly anti-war and has criticised British involvement in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. In 2002 he and Robert Del Naja of Massive Attack took out full page advertisements in the NME challenging the need for war. Albarn contributed backing vocals to a song on Massive Attack’s 100th Window, released the following year.
Sing it like you mean it
In 2005 Albarn, among others, criticised the London Live 8 concert for not featuring enough black artists; among the few included were Ms. Dynamite, Snoop Dogg, and Youssou N’Dour. Eventually the organisers added a separate Somerset concert to the programme in order to showcase African musicians. Albarn said he did not want to perform at Live 8 because he thought it was too ”exclusive” and may have been motivated by self-gain.
In the nineties he spent a good deal of time in Reykjavík and for a time he became something of a permanent fixture in the ”Kaffibarinn”, a café/bar/inn of which he was part owner. He currently owns a house in Grafarvogur, a suburb of Reykjavík. He composed the soundtrack to the 2000 Icelandic film 101 Reykjavík.
Albarn is a vocal critic of celebrity culture, saying ”We need to dismantle very significant parts of our culture and really re-examine them. I suppose you start with the celebrity thing…. you have to get rid of things like The X Factor immediately.”
Albarn is a fan of classic rock band The Kinks which inspired his band Blur. Albarn performed Waterloo Sunset with Ray Davies in the mid 90s.
The glass bead necklace he frequently wears was a gift given to him by his mother when he was six.
Någonstans 1994 blev jag kär i de där stora blå ögonen och trots att han närmar sig the big 4 o är han still smashing till skillnad från andra 90-tals-hunkar som tappat med tiden. Det blir dessutom inte sämre av att jag för några år sedan mailade med honom via MySpace.
Huston we have contact!
