Fascinating Aïda

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Fascinating Aïda are a cult British satirical musical comedy cabaret trio founded in 1983 by Dillie Keane. The group consisted of three members only until 1997. However, recently, the group has consisted of four people. Her current partners are Adèle Anderson (joined 1984), Russell Churney (joined 2003) and Liza Pulman (joined 2004). Although Keane announced her intention to disband the group at the end of 2003, there has been heavy pressure on them to keep going. The name "Fascinating Aïda" was selected when the group needed a name in the early 1980s before doing radio broadcast (the group had existed in an embrionic form as "Shame" prior to that). A friend of Dillie Keane was discussing the South American entertainer Super Olga and could not rememeber her name, instead calling her "Fascinating Aïda". This was then adopted by the trio as their stagename.

1 Songs
2 Awards
3 Former members
4 External links

[edit] Songs

The titles of their songs -- including The Herpes Tango, Chequebook Journalism, Politically Correct, Swiss Navy Blues, Kiss and Tell and Socialist Britain -- give some idea of the scope of their humour. Dillie Keane acknowledges Tom Lehrer as an influence.

Unafraid of having fun at the expense of other performers, Lieder, containing the lyrics 'Doesn't matter if you sing out of tune, so long as you're German', satirises in particular Lotte Lenya and Marlene Dietrich. Radiating Love looking at the consequences of nuclear fallout, asks Would you still hold my hand if my skin wasn't there?

The group has released seven albums: Sweet F.A. (1985), A Load of Old Sequins (1987), Live at the Lyric (1994), It, Wit, Don't Give a Shit Girls (1997), Barefaced Chic (1999) and One Last Flutter (2003). The seventh album, "Absolutely Fascinating" (2005) is a compilation album featuring the voice of Liza Pulman on some numbers which were re-recorded with updated lyrics, and released in the USA.

The group released a single in 1985 - Get Knotted - which, wasn't a huge success. The group don't like the song very much but did perform it during their One Last Flutter tour when the original line-up were back together.

[edit] Awards

The trio were awarded the City Limits Award for Most Popular Cabaret Act (1984) and were nominated for the Perrier Comedy Award in (1984). They have been nominated three times for Best Entertainment in the Laurence Olivier Awards (in 1997, 2000 and 2004). They were also nominated for a New York Drama Desk Award for Most Outstanding Revue in 2005.