Adele Bertei

ADELE BERTEI began writing and playing music in Cleveland with Pere Ubu’s legendary Peter Laughner, and as a member of the Contortions, produced by Brian Eno on No New York. She was lead singer of the first out, queer, all-women rock band, the Bloods. Her career includes 1980s dance hit "Build Me a Bridge" and UK hits “Hyperactive!” with Thomas Dolby and “Just a Mirage” with Jellybean Benitez. Bertei has recorded vocals, performed, and written for such diverse acts as Tears for Fears, Culture Club, Whitney Houston, Scritti Politti, Sheena Easton, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Jellybean Benitez, the Pointer Sisters, and John Lurie. Bertei played a lead role in Lizzie Borden’s seminal feminist sci-fi film Born in Flames. She is the author of Peter and the Wolves published by Smog Veil Books 2020, and Why Labelle Matters, published by the University of Texas Press, a finalist for the 2021 Lambda Literary Awards. Twist: An American Girl, published by ZE Books 2023 is her origin story.