Sylvester

Sylvester James Jr. (6 September 1947 – 16 December 1988), known as Sylvester, is an American singer-songwriter, active mainly in disco, rhythm and blues and soul. Known for his extravagant, androgynous appearance and his falsetto voice, he enjoyed disco hits in the late 1970s and in the 1980s.

Born in Watts, Los Angeles, he discovered singing in the gospel choir of his Pentecostal church. In 1970, he moved to San Francisco and joined the avant-garde drag troupe The Cockettes, where he performed solo numbers inspired by Billie Holiday and Josephine Baker. He then joined Sylvester and his Hot Band, an R&B and glam rock group, whose two albums for Blue Thumb Records (1973) remained commercially unsuccessful.

Signed to Fantasy Records, he released Step II (1978), a disco album from which 'You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)' and 'Dance (Disco Heat)' were taken, both hits in the United States and Europe. He then joined Megatone Records, the label of his friend Patrick Cowley, which released the hi-NRG hit 'Do Ya Wanna Funk'. An activist against HIV/AIDS, he died of complications from the disease in 1988 and bequeathed his future royalties to San Francisco organisations. Nicknamed 'Queen of Disco', he received the key to the city of San Francisco; he was posthumously inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame in 2005, and his life has been the subject of a biography, a documentary and a musical.