The French pop star has endured the death of his mother, record industry resistance and a backlash after adopting male pronouns. In an emotional interview, he talks about the struggle to understand himself and the music he makes
There are some musicians who seem made for, and by, their work, who make music that lives through them, from their toes to the tip of their quivering quiff. Redcar, formerly known as Chris, also known as Christine and the Queens, and born Héloïse Letissier (a name he still occasionally uses), is one of those. Pure, intimate vocals, exceptional songwriting, a gift for theatrics and a dancing ability that moves from Michael Jackson to West Side Story via Cabaret’s MC has taken Christine and the Queens from French-speaking niche outsider to the mainstream. Singles Tilted (2014), from debut album Chaleur Humaine, and Girlfriend (from Chris, 2018) are the most well-known tracks, though true fans have enjoyed more outre offerings, such as the video for 5 Dollars, where we watch our hero(ine) donning bondage gear before putting on a man’s suit.
I interviewed him on stage in London in 2018 for the release of his second album and the outpouring of love from the young, mostly queer audience was palpable and moving. That was when he was Chris, a woman playing with masculine tropes, who wondered about switching between female and neutral pronouns. “My journey with gender has always been tumultuous,” he told the New York Times earlier this year. Then, in August, Chris took to social media to announce that “je me genre au masculin” (“I self-gender as male”) and would be using male pronouns from then on. About the same time, he started calling himself Redcar, or Red, rather than Chris. This name comes from the cars he kept seeing when his mum died, and forms part of the title of his new album, Redcar Les Adorables Étoiles. The album is sung mostly in French, with a splashy, open 1980s sound, hooks galore and much musing on love and sex. I love it.
