Brian Molko

Brian Molko is a British-American musician and songwriter, best known for being the lead vocalist and guitarist of the band Placebo. 

Placebo, created in 1994 by Brian Molko and Stefan Olsdal, became well known in the late 1990s for challenging gender norms, celebrating androgyny, and being openly queer. 

One of their early hits, “Nancy Boy”, celebrates queer culture and rejects the idea that everyone just wants to “fit in” to a straight world. 

This song also caught the attention of fellow bi artist David Bowie, leading Placebo to open for him a number of times and to play at his 50th birthday celebration in Madison Square Gardens. 

Molko has been openly and vocally bi for his entire career. In 2009 he wrote,

We were making quite the political statement in the context of that macho Britpop world during the mid-1990s by doing things like appearing on Top Of The Pops wearing dresses. We wanted to stand out like a sore thumb. But what it did was create a caricature of the band— like I’d see cartoons of me wearing a dress and having hairy legs. 

When you see that, you know you’re a caricature. I regretted being so frank about mine and Stefan’s sexuality because it freaked people out so much but, then again, it was important for us to stand up and be counted. It was about freedom and tolerance and acceptance in a prejudiced world. ^[1]