Pet Shop Boys make Panti’s speech into dance track
By Nick Levine
Pet Shop Boys have turned Panti Bliss’s recent speech on homophobia into a dance track. Listen below.
Titled Oppressive (The Best Gay Possible), the ten-minute track sets key excerpts from the speech to what Pet Shop Boys frontman Neil Tennant describes as a “light house/trance” backing.
Tennant chips in with backing vocals, but the focus is on Panti’s powerful words.
Irish drag queen Panti Bliss, performed by Rory O’Neill, delivered the speech at The Abbey Theatre in Dublin on February 1 in the wake of the controversy over her recent appearance on an Irish chatshow, during which she singled out a number of Irish journalists and institutions for being homophobic.
During the speech, Panti outlines her thoughts on the controversy and what constitutes homophobia – watch it here. The speech has since gone viral and earned praise from well-known figures including Graham Norton and various LGBT rights groups.
Tennant hails the speech as “a great statement in this age when gay marriage and cruel homophobia exist side by side”, Pet Shop Boys commentator Wayne Studer reports, and Tennant and his bandmate Chris Lowe set it to music at the end of February.
“Pet Shop Boys + @PantiBliss team up on the special track Oppressive (The Best Gay Possible),” the duo tweeted earlier today, sharing a link to listen to the track on Soundcloud.
Listen to Oppressive (The Best Gay Possible) below: