Overlooked No More: Klaus Nomi, Singer With an Otherworldly Persona
nytimes.comThis article is part of Overlooked, a series of obituaries about remarkable people whose deaths, beginning in 1851, went unreported in The Times.
A wide range of musical genres fueled New York’s nightclubs in the late 1970s and early ’80s, including new wave, no wave, punk and post punk.
Klaus Nomi, who performed during that era, defied being categorized under any of them. “I wouldn’t give it a label,” Nomi said of his sound in a Belgian television interview. “Maybe the only label is my own label: It’s Nomi style.” His music combined opera, infectious melodies, disco beats, German-accented countertenor vocals and undeniable grandeur.
He influenced everyone from the singer-songwriter Anohni to Lady Gaga; in 2009, when Morrissey was asked to select eight essential records for the BBC radio program “Desert Island Discs,” Nomi’s version of Schumann’s “Der Nussbaum” made the list.
