12 July 1986
I wouldn’t credit this singer or song with as much influence as to consider it a clapback or a putting-Madonna-back-in-her-box. Still, it’s pretty dispiriting that a record about a strong, independent woman making her own choices is immediately followed at number one both in Ireland and the UK by a song about the commodification of a woman as male possession and personal chattel. Chris De Burgh’s titular lady suddenly gains value, quantified as her being lovely and gorgeous, when he realises other men are giving her the same male gaze. Now he realises how much he loves her.
The record itself is just as sickening in execution as in concept. The whispered “cheek to cheek” and “I love you” are especially revolting. It’s odd to recall that before ‘The Lady In Red’ Chris De Burgh was mostly a folk-rock troubadour singing about the devil playing cards with God, and about not paying your ferryman. This sort of smarmy, Vaselined love song was a departure for him. But then, he did have a leery song about Patricia the stripper, so the appalling sexism was there all along.
It’s a matter of public record that Chris De Burgh wrote ‘The Lady In Red’ from the actual experience of seeing his wife dancing with another man, said to be Pat Kenny. It’s also public knowledge, having been reported widely in the press, that years later he cheated on his wife with a 19-year-old girl who was their childminder. Haters may see this as hypocritically betraying the sentiments of ‘The Lady In Red’, but I like to think of that revelation as firmly in keeping with Chris De Burgh’s core brand values (see above).
