Celebrities with single names: an academic analysis.

Rihanna choosing of late to reclaim the name Fenty is fascinating. We as a society often hold up celebrities with a single name as the epitome of success as they are evoked as an individual by so little, showing how transcendent they are, but perhaps we are overlooking the inherent paternalistic and racist subtleties of denying a person their full name in the media. Something peculiar happens at the intersection of being part of two marginalised communities which requires celebrities to remove an aspect of their identity before ascending to stardom – this, not their ubiquity, is what lies behind their single name; this is what makes Rihanna choosing to put the Fenty back in her identity so assertively and publicly absolutely fascinating.

Reel them off – Twiggy, Cher, Madonna, Iman, Selena, Bjork, Beyonce, Shakira, back to Rihanna. The things they have in common are twofold: some kind of ‘Other’ identity and sexuality, giving them exoticism. Each of these women, even the white ones, are from cultures outside of the normally privileged ‘WASP’ persona that makes up the majority of the English and American middle-classes. They may be racially or sexually ambiguous, working-class, from a different religion to the mainstream. Whatever aspect of exotic they are makes it OK, in the public imagination, to objectify them without the respect of learning to pronounce or spell a last name not from our culture. They are not the same as us, so we put them on a pedestal and allow ourselves to be entertained by their difference. This is Orientalism, plain and simple.

Looking back, we see also that the male originator of the trend – Valentino – also embodied these two things. Valentino was what we would nowadays call metrosexual: well-groomed, interested in fashion and jewellery and showing off his muscles. Valentino embodied a personal and screen persona that included aspects which are part of mainstream gay identity even today. Yet on-screen he was always paired with women, presented as sexually dominating and virile; a Latin lover. Celebrity personas in general may have been relatively new in silent-era Hollywood, but the cult of Valentino helped to code future celebrities from non-white or ‘difficult’ backgrounds as embodying an exotic sexuality which allows them into the space of mainstream culture whilst denying them the trappings of a unique identity.

These performers are in a gilded cage.

This othering of gay men shows that the argument that single names signify exoticism can also be applied to celebrity men as well as women: to Morrissey, who is gay and northern working-class; Prince, who is black and gay; Liberace, who was gay and whose name was noticeably Polish. Again, it is their ‘otherness’ which allows us to associate them with just one name, not their unique talent, and it is sex and the otherness that intersect in their star personas, allowing us to be titillated and entertained by their difference.

Each single-monikered celebrity has their own complex relationship with paternalism and othering, but Beyonce and Madonna in particular have explicit links. Although not the only white person listed, Madonna stands out as being white and American, although in American culture Italian and Irish are considered races or at least race-adjacent, and her Catholicism could be said to be a fact of otherness within the artistic establishment (highlighted in Gothic novels of the 18th Century a key aspect of Madonna’s identity within her career – just look at her burning crosses). Add in her motherlessness and complex relationship with her family (documented, and probably cemented by, her brother’s 2008 tell-all book) and the potent sexual agency and self-awareness that have been a part of her brand all through her career, and you see how Madonna could be denied the paternal connection and serious identity of a last name which would allow her to be a part of the establishment. Despite being at the top of the pop music game for forty years, Madonna still faces a lack of respect by the mainstream media, who focus on her sexuality and age, showing her as an outsider denied agency, an exotic entertainment.

Beyonce, on the other hand, has had omnipresent parents over the course of her career and could be considered to ‘rep’ people of colour in mainstream culture. The SNL skit ‘The Day Beyonce Turned Black’ is a parody of how a light-skinned, although non-passing, black woman identifying herself with her own culture was seen as controversial and unapologetic. Beyonce’s father was tied to her career until 2011; since then she has been inextricably publicly linked with Jay-Z. Using the name Ms Carter in songs and Mrs Carter on tour shows her diverging from her father (whose name she bore until marriage, although not in the public eye) and asserting her identity. But the public denied her this aspect of her identity: perhaps because she is an outspoken feminist and cannot, thus, choose to be tied to her husband in the pubic consciousness; but that would almost certainly not be the case were she not both black and sexy – were she not exotic. The public’s gaze is white and middle class, viewing even Beyonce as an outsider.

It is notable that some white celebrities have attempted to claim what is perceived to be the power of the single name: Britney Spears had some success in 2010 incorporating the slogan “it’s Britney, bitch” into her music and image. Spears had to come through a very public meltdown in order to be at this stage of her career and her life is heavily controlled by her father. Arguably, she sits at the intersection of public mental health difficulties and sexiness, and that stage in particular of her career involved swearwords and stripping which are broadly considered taboo things for sweet white girls. It’s worth noting that Britney plays with this ‘bad girl’ image throughout her career whilst asserting that it’s not fully true, that the real her is sweet – or perhaps more accurately “not that innocent“, the perfect amount of innocence. Now that she has grown up, the cursing has come back although it remains mild and is focussed on the all-American, capitalist value of the ‘hustle’. Compared to the same phenomenon being managed into Rihanna‘s career, it didn’t stick as an aspect of Spears’ identity: her website and Las Vegas residency still use her surname, showing that as long as mental health problems are temporary and American capitalist values are stuck to, America will not dismiss your full self and you can be welcomed back into the fold. Ultimately, Spears is still too ‘all-American’ to fully shed her last name. The childhood sweetheart persona fits her, and her claim to her father’s name is legitimate.

By the time Rihanna’s music came to focus on the ‘hustle’, she had already begun to assert her Caribbean identity and white media showed its distrust of and disrespect for this aspect of her identity. Unlike Beyonce and Madonna, however, Rihanna has not played into the single-name narrative: she has now come to this stage in her career, the stage in which she has sufficient power to control her own image. We see her unlike other artists using her industry clout and business diversity to assert her last name and other previously underplayed aspects of her identity as part of her public persona. Her heritage was included in her music at the beginning of her career with a Caribbean sound achieved through instrumentation and a guest appearance by Sean Paul as well as fellow Barbadian Dwayne Husbands. By her third album, that was gone, as her label sought to attract a mainstream (and therefore white) audience, and Rihanna was presented to the public as part of the American urban music canon. However she has retained enough control over her career to claw her identity back, and began showcasing her black heritage first through tweets, then by showcasing herself as openly Barbadian in a way which attracted column inches, it being apparently noteworthy. Rihanna’s relationship with her name and heritage is complex as it is tied to business ventures for whom inclusivity is a major drive: Fenty Beauty and Savage x Fenty both use shade diversity as their key promise in advertisements, and have been heavily promoted by vloggers and instagrammers, but mere marketing does not undo the significance of a black, female pop star asserting her identity.

Names are powerful. People anglicising their names, choosing entirely new western-sounding names, changing their name at marriage or upon being bought as slaves or converted to a new religion are all acts of assimilation and possession to the hegemony of white, male power structures. Rihanna using her name to assert her identity as a unique individual, as well as a black and non-American or European woman, is a sign of a shift within mainstream power dynamics.

FOOTNOTE – Examples like Divine, Sting, Bono, Grimes and P!nk have not been included in this as these are nicknames not derived from their given names. Although P!nk and Divine probably have as much claim to othering as the featured artists the relationship between their personas and their given names is much more complex, and would have to span persons such as Rita Hayworth and Alice Cooper as well as the idea of a pinup or rap name in modern culture. I would also like to write a piece dedicated to Zendaya Coleman, who often goes by Zendaya in the press as well as in her career, as arguably removing her last name denies the idea that a black woman can be middle-class and allows her to be exoticised despite her all-American heritage and good-girl persona. I would also welcome a feminist / Marxist academic critique of this article as I think there is room in the dialectic for nuance and would love to see these ideas developed.

To-Do:

• Buy: laundry pods, vitamin pills, frozen vegetables.
• Go to the opticians! Your glasses are the wrong prescription and the arm has fallen off one pair!
• Collect dad’s parcel from the bike shop next door.

Today’s Culture:

• Tribune magazine. Because I can’t afford the LRB subscription fees.
• BBC Radio 3. The best way to wake up in a morning.
• Being in my own damn home. Happy half term / reading week, all, and may they continue to coincide forever! ❤️