31 Facts About Klaus Nomi

Klaus Sperber, known professionally as Klaus Nomi, was a German countertenor noted for his wide vocal range and an unusual, otherworldly stage persona.

Klaus Nomi was known for his bizarre and visionary theatrical live performances, heavy make-up, unusual costumes, and a highly stylized signature hairdo that flaunted a receding hairline.

Klaus Nomi's songs were equally unusual, ranging from synthesizer-laden interpretations of classical opera to post-punk covers of 1960s pop standards like Chubby Checker's "The Twist" and Lou Christie's "Lightnin' Strikes".

Klaus Nomi was one of David Bowie's backing singers for a 1979 performance on Saturday Night Live.

Klaus Nomi was born Klaus Sperber in Immenstadt, Bavaria, on January 24,1944.

Klaus Nomi was raised by his single mother, Bettina Sperber, who had fled Essen, Rhine Province, for the Allgau due to Allied bombing during World War II.

Klaus Nomi's father was a soldier in the German Army with whom Bettina had a brief relationship during his furlough; he died from influenza before Nomi's birth.

Klaus Nomi grew up listening to classical music, gaining an interest in opera from listening to soprano Maria Callas over the radio, but became fascinated with pop rock, buying Elvis Presley records with money he stole from his mother.

Klaus Nomi sang opera arias at the Berlin gay discotheque Kleist-Kasino, under the stage name "Renata Castrata".

Klaus Nomi appeared in some off-Broadway theater work and operated a pastry shop as a day job.

In 1977, Klaus Nomi appeared in a satirical camp production of Richard Wagner's Das Rheingold at Charles Ludlam's Ridiculous Theater Company as the Rheinmaidens and the Wood Bird.

In October 1978, he took the artistic name "NOMI", initially as a mononym before rendering it as "Klaus Nomi" and adopting it as a last name.

Klaus Nomi came to the attention of the East Village art scene on November 2,1978 with his performance in "New Wave Vaudeville", a four-night event at Irving Plaza MC'd by artist David McDermott.

At the New Wave Vaudeville show Klaus Nomi met Kristian Hoffman, a songwriter for the Mumps.

Hoffman helped Klaus Nomi choose his pop covers, including the Lou Christie song "Lightnin' Strikes".

Disagreements with the management Klaus Nomi engaged led to the dissolution of this band, and Klaus Nomi continued without them.

Klaus Nomi was briefly involved with Jean-Michel Basquiat, then known for his graffiti art as SAMO.

Klaus Nomi was so impressed with the plastic quasi-tuxedo suit that Bowie wore during "The Man Who Sold the World" that he commissioned one for himself.

Klaus Nomi wore the suit on the cover of his self-titled album, as well as during a number of his music videos.

Klaus Nomi wore his variant of the outfit, in monochromatic black-and-white with spandex and makeup to match, until the last few months of his life.

Klaus Nomi played a supporting role as a Nazi official in Anders Grafstrom's 1980 underground film The Long Island Four.

Klaus Nomi released his second album, Simple Man, in November 1982.

Klaus Nomi collaborated with producer Man Parrish, appearing on Parrish's 1982 album Man Parrish as a backup vocalist on the track "Six Simple Synthesizers".

The collar helped cover the outbreaks of Kaposi's sarcoma on his neck, one of the numerous AIDS-related diseases Klaus Nomi developed toward the end of his life.

Klaus Nomi died at the Sloan Kettering Hospital Center in New York City on August 6,1983, as a result of complications from AIDS.

Klaus Nomi was one of the earliest known figures from the arts community to die from the illness.

Filmmaker Andrew Horn and writer Jim Fouratt consider Klaus Nomi an important part of the 1980s East Village scene, which was a hotbed of development for punk rock music, the visual arts, and the avant-garde.

Klaus Nomi makes an appearance in Derf Backderf's graphic novel Punk Rock and Trailer Parks, released in 2008.

Klaus Nomi makes an appearance in the Adult Swim cartoon The Venture Bros.

Klaus Nomi made an appearance on The Special Without Brett Davis' TV Party homage.

Various songs by Klaus Nomi were interpreted by the German countertenor Nils Wanderer.