American musician, singer-songwriter, visual artist, and soprano
Diamanda Galás (born August 29, 1955) is an American musician, singer-songwriter, visual artist, and soprano. She has campaigned for AIDS education and the rights of the infected.
Her commitment to addressing social issues and her involvement in collective action has made her concentrate on themes as diverse as AIDS, mental illness, despair, loss of dignity, political injustice, historical revisionism, and war crimes, among other themes. Galás has attracted the attention of the press particularly for her voice – a soprano sfogato – and written accounts that describe her work as original and thought-provoking refer to her as "capable of the most unnerving vocal terror", an "aesthetic revolutionary", "a mourner for the world's victims" and "an envoy of risk, honesty and commitment".
As a composer, pianist, organist and performance artist, Galás has presented mainly her own work, but her live performances have also included works by other musicians, such as the avant-garde composers Iannis Xenakis and Vinko Globokar, jazz musician Bobby Bradford, saxophonist John Zorn, and Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones. Galás's recordings have also included collaborations, some of which are with the bands Recoil and Erasure, instrumentalist Barry Adamson, and musician Can Oral (also known as Khan), among others.
If you think I wear the cloak of filth, then let me tell you baby, I wear it real good.
It seems stupid when people limit themselves to one kind of music. It tells me they're not using their ears.
I wake up and I see the face of the devil and I ask him, "What time is it?"
I don't want to know about the constitution of the rapist--I want to kill him! I don't care if he is white or black, if he is middle-class or poor, if his mother hung him from the clothesline by his balls: I only want to kill him! Any woman who has been raped will agree.