The person whose birthday we're celebrating today may seem a bit oddish, to say the least. No, strike that - Pete Burns has been called far worse things than those we're about to utter and he doesn't mind any of them so here it goes: he's had more plastic surgeries than the uncrowned king of plastic surgery Michael Jackson (a title he's still disputing with Jocelyn Wildenstein, aka Cat Woman, aka the supreme freak of the celebrity world), his fall has been steeper than Michael's, and his sexuality (or simply sex?) has been questioned at least twice a day since he made his grand entrance in the spotlight. He's a freak, a monster, a man who looks like a woman but still claims to be a man, a truly terrifying sight for all those who lay eyes on his face. Then again, if we were to listen to his own words, there is a certain philosophy behind the hundred plastic surgical interventions, some hidden meaning that eludes us. Well, we'll see about that...

Born near Liverpool to a Jewish aristocrat mother and a Scottish father, Pete's life kinda bears a resemblance to the stories we've read in classic tragic novels. His mother fled the Holocaust by marrying the first British soldier that came along (i.e. Pete's father) but not before having to hide in people's cellars, eating wax candles but, hey, at least she was glamorous! Pete recalls her mother telling him, back when he still was a little boy, that during those days of cellar-hiding-candle-eating terror, she kept her mink coat and her hairdresser. I guess we now know where Pete got his fashion sense, right?

When he (might as well call him that, since he's so adamant about it) was a pre-teen, his mother went on a downwards spiral of alcohol and tranquilizers, after hearing her husband had been tortured and killed by the Nazi in a Berlin school yard. And trouble was not present only at home because, in school too, people had difficulties accepting this boy who spoke English with a very marked German accent and who liked to dress up in women's clothes (at least occasionally). Pete fought back the best way he knew how: aged 14, he showed up at school one morning with his eyebrows shaved off completely, with red fiery hair and one huuuuge earring dangling from his ear. Before the principal got to kick him out, he seized the chance of letting him know that he would never ever set foot in his f**king school again!

After working in clothing stores for a while, 1980 finds Pete trying to form a band: first, he performed with Mysterious Girls and Nightmares in Wax and, a couple of years later, he had already gathered all the necessary members for Dead or Alive, his very own personal vehicle to fame. Sure, you might say, what is so special about this band, since most of its albums were sold in the UK and Japan? Well, do you remember a track called 'You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)' that used to cause such a frenzy in clubs all over the world back in the colorful days of the '80s? Well, it was theirs!

Dead or Alive enjoyed (and still does) a lot of fame mostly because of the colorful stage persona of Pete: dressing up a la Boy George, wearing heavy makeup and a trademark patch over his left eye, Pete introduced the androgynous man look into the mainstream. Since then, he traveled a long way, having now reached a stage in which all boundaries between man and woman (or, our notions of them) are erased, completely annulled, which is exactly what he wanted. Or so he says.

In recent years, Pete took a break from music to do some good ol' reality shows: he was a guest (and an annoying one, according to many) on 'Celebrity Big Brother UK' and the star of his own show, 'Pete Burns' Cosmetic Surgery Nightmares', that detailed his many plastic interventions and what exactly went wrong with them. Because, as you can see for yourselves, something went very wrong at one point in time with Pete's face. In fact, it went so bad that he needed more than 100 interventions on his lips alone, to get them to the stage they are now - that's the extent to which a surgeon had ruined them. Pete recalls those days after the botched surgery, when he couldn't go out of his house for fear puss might be seeping from his lips - and for that, he asked the guilty doctor to pay him damages of £1 million. After all, it's his fault that he talked his patient into getting other two substances put in his already pumped up lips when he (the patient, that is, Pete) wanted them all out, isn't it?

When the fame of Dead or Alive was at its peak, Burns' mother passed away from cancer - a tragic event that would mark him for life. Later on, he got married to his high school sweetheart, Lynn, a woman open minded enough not to be bothered that her husband was using all the foundation or the conditioner. 25 years later, she could take it no more and filed for divorce; a couple of days later, Pete went on national television to announce his engagement to one of his boyfriends (they even exchanged skull rings, isn't it sweet?!); the next day, the engagement was off. Since then, the outrageous singer switched boyfriends faster than you can say 'manwhatareyoudoingtoyourface' and even stalked and beat the crap out of one, for which he spent his due time in jail.

Many tend to avert their eyes when they see Pete Burns' face and the way it resembles a spooky mask: maybe (just maybe!) they have good reasons for acting like this! On his behalf, he says he's not undergoing so many surgeries because he wants to look like a woman, but claims that he's doing it as some sort of art form. Apparently, as painters express themselves via their paintings, Pete uses his own body to express himself artistically and that is why, when he reaches 65, he will still be having intervention after intervention so as not to grow old with the same face. Then again, if past experiences are supposed to be like a lesson for all our future actions (which they should, by the way), Pete should remember that, after the last botched surgery, the doctors had to literally put and glue his face together piece by piece and that he had to spend a few good months in a mental hospital because of it. Just sayin', I don't know...

Friends claim Pete is a down to earth, intelligent, normal guy who never let fame go to his head. That he exercises, cooks and does laundry every single day of his life. Sure, he takes 'care' of his body in ways no other man does but should that make him any better or worse than the rest of us? Those who did not get to see this soft side of him say that he's just a one-time hit wonder who got addicted to plastic surgery and who will certainly end up dead in an alley, with his face in pieces. That he's a joke of himself, which unfortunately is no longer funny. That he should crawl back into the hole he came from. Now let's hear it from you: is Pete Burns an artist or just a freak? A genial and worthy celebrity or just a loser who refuses to let go? IN or OUT?

Discography:

• 1984, 'Sophisticated Boom Boom'

• 1985, 'Youthquake'

• 1986, 'Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know'

• 1987, 'Rip It Up'

• 1988, 'Nude'

• 1990, 'Fan the Flame (Part 1)' - released only in Japan

• 1995, 'Nukleopatra'

• 2000, 'Fragile' - released only in Japan

• 2001, 'Unbreakable '- released only in Japan

• 2003, 'Evolution: the Hits'