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The curious case of La Roux’s Elly Jackson

La Roux is the artist behind “Bullettproof,” a song you’ve surely heard on the radio, on America’s Got Talent or at dance parties this summer. La Roux is 22-year-old Elly Jackson and Ben Langmaid, though he remains behind-the-scenes. Elly is the face of La Roux, and her androgynous style coupled with her artistic electro-pop has made her a favorite of gay women. But is she gay? Queer? Into women at all? Last year, Jackson spoke with Heat magazine about her female fans, and it appeared she wasn’t interested in women:

It’s the fact that they think I want their bras – that’s what’s weird about it. One girl in Toronto stood there for ages with her boobs out. Everyone just thinks I’m a raging lesbian and I want to see everyone’s boobs. Sorry, I’m not.
However, she didn’t specify that she wasn’t into women at all. And six months later, she told another publication:
“I can appreciate other women. Beyonce is beautiful. But I find men or women sexy. The Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal is hot and I’ve always fancied James Dean – but weirdly, I want to look like the people I fancy. I don’t have a sexuality. I don’t feel like I’m female or male. I don’t belong to the gay or straight society, if there is such a thing. I feel like I’m capable of falling in love with other people. I’m not saying I’m bisexual, I’m just sexual!”
And then The Guardian ran an extensive profile of the singer:
Longing for the days of the gender-bending pop star, she is delighted that not only is fellow female synth siren Ladyhawke openly gay but that Ricky Martin has tentatively admitted to being bisexual. So is La Roux gay? “Nope,” she says, on the Eurostar back to London. Has she swung both ways? “I love everything. I’m greedy.” She is suddenly reticent. “Not necessarily in practice. In theory. I wouldn’t say even if I had.” She takes the comic route out. “You can fall in love with vegetables. People have got married to aubergines before. Anyone,” she declares, “is capable of falling in love with anyone.”

This mysteriousness carries over into La Roux’s performance, especially in the making of her new video for “Tiger Lily.” In a behind-the-scenes video on set, Elly describes the concept of being the stalker of “the prey,” another woman named Natasha, and how she wanted it to be someone just as androgynous, if not more so, than she is.  

Jackson is on the cover of Paper magazine’s fashion issue this month, with an accompanying spread by queer photographer Cass Bird. She discusses her look, acknowledging her uncanny resemblance to another androgynous red-haired woman.

“Now I’m very into blacks and golds. It’s a lot more slick, a lot more simple. I suppose, in a way, it’s a bit more ’50s. It’s gone a bit rockabilly now — not in a punky way, but in a soft, slick, Tilda-crossed-with-Buddy-Holly sort of way. But not musically at all! Oh God, Tilda Swinton crossed with Buddy Holly? Can you imagine?”
She says her androgynous style stems from her being a quarter French and having red hair, and that it’s an important part of her performance. She wants to “represent an alternative to the way other female pop stars promote themselves,” Paper writes.
“It’s really important for young girls because there isn’t anything else. If you’re not into that very exposed female look, what else is there? Apart from looking up to boys, which is what I did. I was always looking up to men, which is probably why I was all weird.”

But the “weird” is working in her favor, and it’s not just for her lesbian fans. Designers Viktor & Rolf were inspired by La Roux and invited her to play during their menswear show at Paris Fashion Week. They told Paper:

“She plays with gender stereotypes, and we find that brave and inspiring. She has a unique personality and we are drawn to such uncompromising figures. It is also refreshing to see how successful she is, just being herself.”
At the show, Jackson donned “custom blue-silk jacket and black tuxedo pants, a reflection of the sort of look that Jackson’s drawn to naturally,” which Viktor & Rolf say is because “Her personal style is ultra-boyish, and we loved dressing her in our Monsieur line. It was the first thing that came to mind when we thought about the show: to dress her, a girl, in our men’s stuff.”

And that’s what she’s most comfortable in. La Roux said she refuses to wear heels and would play dress up in her parents’ closets when she was younger, but was more David Bowie than Madonna, which she brings to her current persona, on stage and off.

If Elly Jackson isn’t queer at all, it still doesn’t hurt to have a successful performer showing that femininity isn’t applicable to all women, and androgyny can be sexy, even if unrelated to sexuality altogether. She’s one of those mysterious musicians who keeps you wanting more, looking for clues while divulging peeks at her life through intimate interviews and Tweets like this: Jackson is living in her own world, and it’s an inviting one for queer women.

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