Scottish singer-songwriter

Jimmy Somerville

James William Somerville is a singer from Glasgow, Scotland who rose to prominence in the 1980s with the synth-pop groups Bronski Beat and the Communards. With Bronski Beat, Somerville achieved commercial success with the 1984 single "Smalltown Boy", which peaked at number three on the UK Singles Chart, topped the charts in Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands and the Hot Dance Club Play chart in the United States. Additionally, the single peaked within the top ten of the charts in Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and West Germany, and also charted on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States. Bronski Beat's debut album The Age of Consent (1984) was the only release Somerville contributed to as lead vocalist before leaving the band in 1985 and joining The Communards.

Born

1961

June 22

Died

Living

Era

1960s

Country

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About

Jimmy, in brief

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Life timeline

Key dates

1961 Born

Also on June 22

What else happened on this day, through history

-217 Battle of Raphia: Ptolemy IV Philopator of Egypt defeats Antiochus III the Great of the Seleucid kingdom.
-168 Battle of Pydna: Romans under Lucius Aemilius Paullus defeat Macedonian King Perseus who surrenders after the battle, ending the Third Macedonian War.
431 The Council of Ephesus, the third ecumenical council, begins, dealing with Nestorianism.
813 Battle of Versinikia: The Bulgars led by Krum defeat the Byzantine army near Edirne. Emperor Michael I is forced to abdicate in favor of Leo V the Armenian.

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The world in 1961

When Jimmy arrived

april 11 The trial of Adolf Eichmann begins in Jerusalem.
april 12 Space Race: The Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human to travel into outer space and perform the first crewed orbital flight, Vostok 1.
april 16 In a nationally broadcast speech, Cuban leader Fidel Castro declares that he is a Marxist–Leninist and that Cuba is going to adopt Communism.
april 17 Bay of Pigs Invasion: A group of Cuban exiles financed and trained by the CIA lands at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba with the aim of ousting Fidel Castro.

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Same-day contemporaries

Also born on June 22

Abbas Kiarostami 1940–2016 Iranian film director, screenwriter, poet, and photographer (born 1940) Clifton McNeely 1919– American basketball player and coach (died 2003) Darryl Brohman 1956– Australian rugby league player and sportscaster Jo Cox 1974–2016 English political activist and MP (born 1974) Maximilian von Spee 1861–1914 Danish-German admiral (born 1861) Prunella Scales 1932–2025 English actress (died 2025) Rui Zong 662–716 Chinese emperor (born 662) Stephen Chow 1962– Hong Kong actor, director, producer, and screenwriter Ura Kazuki 1992– Japanese sumo wrestler

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Same-year contemporaries

Also born in 1961

Alain Vigneault 1961– Canadian ice hockey player and coach Ann Coulter 1961– American political commentator and author Artur Ekert 1961– Polish-British physicist and academic Ben Summerskill 1961– English businessman and journalist Cam Cameron 1961– American football player and coach Carl Lewis 1961– American long jumper and runner Christian Okoye 1961– American football player Cindy Herron 1961– American singer-songwriter and actress David Armstrong-Jones 1961– 2nd Earl of Snowdon, English businessman

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Keep going

More to explore

Jimmy's birthday June 22 Jimmy's zodiac Cancer When Jimmy arrived 1961