« A feminine boy, a masculine girl “. At a time when more and more artists and anonymous people claim to be non-binary or change gender (like Rahim Redcar, ex-Christine and the Queens), the song “3e sexe” by Indochine has never seemed so relevant, 39 years after its creation. Yet at the time, many people were cautious about this title, ahead of its time, and at the heart of the new episode of the Purecharts “Face A” podcast. So we are at the beginning of 1985. Indochina is already well established thanks to the hit “L'aventurier” and the success of its first two albums, which even allowed them to export to Scandinavia.
At the time when Nicola Sirkis wrote “3rd Sex”, many English artists were shaking up dress codes and genres, from Boy George to Robert Smith via their model, David Bowie. “ I was in London and I saw this whole wave of heavily made-up groups like The Cure, Depeche Mode, Japan… I found this Japanese theater aspect very pretty. I remember that in London, the guys and the girls looked the same, they were totally stylish with the same makeup » recalls Nicola Sirkis, then aware that there is a place to be taken in French rock: “ [Il] wasn't very sexual. We had Telephone and Trust which had a “guys' locker room” feel and I never really liked that ».
“We were going to lose our entire female audience”
Inspired by the essay “The Second Sex” by Simone de Beauvoir, the singer from Indochina wrote the text of “3e sexe” with one idea in mind: “ If these two people, whom I saw in London, come to Paris or the Province, we will throw stones at them. The message is that the most evil people are the ones who spit on these people. This intolerance made me write this song “. As for the famous refrain and its “ we hold hands » ? It’s a nod to the Beatles classic, “I Want To Hold Your Hand”! “ We had to dare to write it in France, in French. But I didn't expect it to become an anthem, that even today people stop me in the street to say that this song is important to them, it's crazy » continues Nicola Sirkis.
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“The guys were panicked”
While preparing his third album, Indochina therefore abandons exotic adventures to tackle more “adult” themes, such as sexuality or androgynousness at the heart of this piece. And that doesn't please everyone, especially professionals! “ The record company didn't want it to be released as a single, saying that it was too much of a “homosexuality” song and that we were going to lose all our female audience. It was the big theory at the time. And then we found them all making boy bands » smiles the singer today. Because if the label is reluctant, the public directly adopts “3rd sex”. A lucky number, the single ranked third in the Top 50 and sold more than 600,000 copies. The album “3”, on which we also find the hits “Canary Bay”, “Three Nights per Week” and “Tes Yeux Noirs”, sold 750,000 copies and allowed the group to fill the Zénith de Paris for four evenings .
READ – Indochine: we ranked the group's albums, from worst to best!
A crazy success placing Indochina as the most popular French rock group at the time, just as Telephone was breaking up: “ I will always remember the 10/15/20 year old kids who called the radio stations saying “We want to listen to 3rd sex!”. The guys were panicked “. And Nicola Sirkis says he is still impressed by the longevity of the title: “ It's both sad and good that it exists. The world is still racist and homophobic, but young people bring hope on this ».
