Sparks

American by birth, brothers Ron and Russell Mael (born in California in 1945 and 1948 respectively) found refuge in the UK, where their music was better accepted. After an album under the name Halfnelson (produced by Todd Rundgren), the eccentric duo established themselves as one of the great figures of 1970s glam rock, thanks in particular to the album Kimono My House (1973), hailed as a masterpiece, and the success of "This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us", which reached number two in the UK. In the same melody-rich vein, Propaganda (1974), Indiscreet (1975) and Big Beat (1976) follow, with new chart-toppers, before a turn to disco and synth pop on No. 1 in Heaven (1979) and Terminal Jive (1980, with the French hit "When I'm with You"), produced by Giorgio Moroder. Although the music changed and became more danceable in the 1980s(Music That You Can Dance To, 1986), the image of the Mael brothers remained unchanged (singer with falsetto voice, Ron Mael moustache). In 1989, Sparks collaborated with another duo, Rita Mitsouko, on "Singing in the Shower". Returning to the bouncy melodies of their early days in the following decade, Sparks returned to a certain musical standard with the albums Plagiarism (1997 re-recordings) and Balls (2000), without losing the biting irony of their lyrics. Other successes on their own label include Lil' Beethoven (2002) and Hello Young Lovers (2006), as well as the pop opera The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman (2009). In 2015, Sparks teamed up with Scottish band Franz Ferdinand for the album FFS, then made a comeback under his own name with Hippopotamus (2017), followed by a collaboration with French director Leos Carax for the Cannes Film Festival musical Annette, recorded alongside the album A Steady, Drip, Drip, Drip (2020). The unsinkable duo returned to Island Records in 2023 for The Girl Is Crying in Her Latte, which reached No. 7 in the UK, followed in 2025 by Mad!