Alexander Bard
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Alexander Bard (born March 17 1961 in Linköping) is a Swedish author, songwriter, producer, singer and actor.
He began his music career in the 80's with the a single "Life in a Goldfish Bowl" released under the name Baard. He later had some minor success as Barbie, which saw Bard in drag singing dance-oriented pop. After abandoning work on a second Barbie album, he formed Army of Lovers with two of Barbie's entourage, Farouk (Jean-Pierre Barda) and Katanga (La Camilla). Army of Lovers had several European hits, the biggest being "Crucified", but never made much of a dent in the US. They released several albums and dozens of singles, before Bard disbanded the group to concentrate on his new group Vacuum.
Vacuum consisted of Alexander Bard, Marina Schiptjenko (formerly of synthpop group Page) and newcomer Mattias Lindblom. Their first single "I Breathe" did very well - it was one of the fastest selling singles in Sweden in 1996. Further releases did not do as well, except in Russia and Ukraine, and Bard left after only two albums. Since then Bard has reformed Army of Lovers for a handful of new tracks and a greatest hit, and contributed to both Alcazar albums. He is also working with a new band "Bodies Without Organs" with Schiptjenko, Barda, and singer Martin Rolinski.
Besides the groups mentioned above, Alexander Bard has also worked as a songwriter and producer for several Swedish artists, often with Anders Wollbeck. He was once part owner of Stockholm records and currently has several Internet and music-related businesses. Bard has written a book Nätokraterna with Jan Suderqvist (published in English as Netocracy: The New Power Elite & Life After Capitalism, as well as in other languages) which presented his views on the future of the Internet. He has given lectures on the subject of the book as well as other topics, such as Zoroastrianism. He is a convert to that religion, and is active in that community. Bard is also bisexual.
Links
- The Shrine (http://www.the-shrine.tk/) - A site dedicated to his project BWO.
- Army of Lovers - WE ARE THE UNIVERSE (http://www.universe.armyoflovers.org/) - Fan website
See also: List of Swedes in musicsv:Alexander Bard