SHAKEPEARS SISTER
STAY
1992Shakespears Sister is an Irish/American pop duo, that started as a solo project of former Bananarama (
yeah, that one) member Sioban Fahey. The group’s name comes from The Smith’s song
Shakespeare’s Sister and the misspelling was first accidental, but Fahey decided to run with it. Shakespears Sister started gaining steam after American vocalist Marcy Levy (going with a stage name Marcella Detroit) joined forces with Fahey. The duo’s biggest moment of glory was the second single from their second album Hormonally Yours, called Stay.
The two women have drastically different voices, with Fahey having deep, husky and low-key style of vocals while Detroit’s vocal stylings are clearly influenced by soul music, she can hit very high notes and generally sings with a lot of flair. In Stay Detroit is singing the lead vocals for most of the song, professing her undying love to a man in verses over delicate string and synth backing.
In the song’s video, she sings the song to her lover who lies comatose in a bed. Fahey joins in in the bridge, where the song takes more sinister vibe with an industrial-esque beat, distorted guitar and Siobhan singing in rather threatening tone. In the music video she appears as some sort of angel of death coming to claim the poor man’s soul. The two women tussle over the man’s life and in the end, he wakes up and embraces Detroit, while Fahey walks away from the scene.
Sounds dramatic, innit? Well. Two things make the video ridiculously campy. Fahey is dressed in a golden glittery one-piece that would’ve been tacky in the eighties, never mind in 1992. Also, her acting is very hammy. For what could’ve been very dark and threatening scene, it becomes pretty silly. But maybe that was the idea all along.
Stay was a smash hit in UK, staying eight weeks at number one and also hit number four in Billboard Hot 100. But the band’s moment at the top was fleeting. The two women were falling out and eventually in 1993 Fahey ended their partnership during an acceptance speech at Ivor Novello awards (which was delivered by publisher, she didn’t attend the show). Consquently, women did not speak to each other for 25 years. Fahey did later revive Shakespears Sister moniker for little to no fanfare.
However, they finally spoke with each other and made up their differences in 2018, releasing a compilation album with two new songs. The music video to
All the Queen’s Horses actually references the music video to Stay multiple times.