Bearforce1

This four-member male singing group from the Netherlands gently satirizes boy bandss, which are traditionally made up of young men markedly less mature than the members of Bearforce 1[2003]. The Bearforcers sing disco-style music in English, and first-appeared at small gay rallies and events in Europe and then in large concert venues.

The group identifies themselves as Robert Brown, grandson of a famous Belfast opera singer, Peter, who “studied to be a bishop,” Yuri, son of an Olympic Judo champion, and Ian, who “studied to be a biologist. Eddi E’Elia, who was born in Italy and raised in Australia, is described as the “International “Spare Bear.”

The group’s title is a take-off on “Air Force One,” the name of the airplane reserved for the president of the United States. The name also references the term bear,(gay slang for chunky and/or muscular and often hirsute men. The very contrast of the maturing Bearforce1 singers with the thin younger men usually in boys’ bands is part of the joke.

Bearforce1 combines choreography with signature gestures when they sing the words “Bear-Force-One.” Their moves generally combine occasional slightly bawdy bumps with an innocent simplicity which both celebrates and spoofs disco dance style.

As the 2007 holiday season began, the group released on YouTube, a carefully crafted medley video called “Christmas is here.” [2004] With bright up-tempo electronic keyboard music, rapid editing, quick humorous shots and vignettes, and more sophisticated vocal arrangements than they had previously essayed, the piece became very popular. The video was shot both in a studio setting, and at a ski resort, with quick cuts between the locales. The video opens with an original tune and then intersperses it with upbeat versions of other traditional Christmas songs. Included are scenes of singers riding a ski lift, appearances by Santa Claus, and a cameo of a dog wearing red reindeer antlers. The group may be moving away from parody as they develop and deepen their own group personality.

Whether this group could achieve the enormous celebrity and commercial success which attended a somewhat comparable late 1970's gay men’s singing group called The Village People, remains to be seen.