Enigmatic Nicola SIRKIS. 40 years after his debut, in 1981, the founder and singer of the group new-wave INDOCHINE is a UFO for the entire French music scene.
Made famous by the legendary song ” The adventurer “, Which helped to launch the career of his group, the latter also made a lot of talk about him with his hit” 3rd sex “. So, a hymn of sexual liberation for the youth of the Mitterrand years not yet “disenchanted”? A hidden message about the sexuality of its leader? Or quite simply an effective or even a little provocative song? One thing is certain, “3e sexe”, released in 1985, was a decidedly modern hit for its time.
“A masculine girl, a feminine boy”. Does Nicola Sirkis admit to us half-heartedly that he is of the 3rd sex? Long hair, face made up, very androgynous outfits, a not really gendered style: Nicola Sirkis does everything to maintain doubt … like Mick JAGGER, David BOWIE… and many others since the 70s on the international scene. In France, the androynes singers are rarer. About ten years ago, there was Patrick JUVET. Nicola, he does not want that one sticks a label to him, nor that one sticks one to the youth. The song’s message is clear and even a little feminist: no one should be put in a box. At the time, the group was strongly criticized for its positions in its texts. “3e sexe” was born in response to this “witch hunt” of which the group began to fall victim, after only three years of success.
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In an interview given to Brut in 2020, Nicola Sirkis testifies:
“Back then anything that was different, whether it was dress, attitude, always elicited a pretty difficult kind of reaction.”
He who wrote the text in one shot, then still a teenager, was already aware of societal problems around sexuality and gender. He admits to having himself been the victim of harassment for the way he dressed, considered too feminine.
Inspired by the title “Male Female” from Jean-Luc Godard, with Chantal GOYA, a film released in 1966, the song is even, at its first listening, misunderstood by the record company and by some members of the group. Nicola Sirkis insists: this song is not a coming-out: “It’s a song about tolerance in general”. Sexual tolerance, however difficult to accept at a time when being of the “3rd sex” – even occasionally, the time of a kiss – was complicated, all the more so with the scourge of AIDS, gays were considered “responsible” of this disease.
In 2020, the INDOCHINE singer has also resumed his hit under the title “3 SEXE” with the artist Christine and the Queens. Not a random choice. Indeed, it is defined as “non-binary”, that is to say resulting from a third sex which is neither the masculine nor the feminine!
Thanks to this duo, the song doubles the strength of its “political” message thanks to the mixture of female and male voices, bringing up to date a societal issue that has unfortunately changed little since 1985.
Further proof that this transgenerational anthem calling for sexual tolerance has not aged a bit and that it is more relevant than ever!
On the occasion of the 40 years of the Indochine group’s career, find a special program on Melody:
- A hell of a fishing in Strasbourg, with INDOCHINE and Patrick HUSSON: June 1 at 8:40 p.m. (NEW)
- Platinum 45, with INDOCHINE: June 1 at 9.15 p.m. (NEW)
- All crazy about him, with INDOCHINE and Eros RAMAZZOTTI, June 4 at 8:40 PM (UNPUBLISHED)
- EUROTOP, with INDOCHINE and Joe COCKER: June 4 at 10 p.m. (NEW)
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