Genderbending

The idea of genderbending songs is a tricky one for me, to be honest. I think that if you want to do it for a performance, it is... pointless, but overall it won't kill anyone. I like genderbending a lot, but I wouldn't really recommend it for anywhere professional. In particular, if you want to actually audition with a genderbent song... you shouldn't. Unless you're looking for a genderbent role. Auditions are for the purpose of showing what you do best and if you show "I'm a girl but I can play a guy really well" or vice versa, you're not exactly going to get the lead, most likely. Depending on the show, of course (insert Hedwig reference here.) Here are some tips for genderbending songs: 1) Make sure the lyrics don't contain things that obviously point to one gender. And I don't mean, "Oh, that line's kind of girly." I mean if you're a guy, don't be singing "No one thinks a pretty girl has feelings/No one gets her insecurity." Alternately, if you're a girl, don't sing "I'll Make a Man Out of You." The ultimate result of this is that it's just not believable, and is even less believable if you switch the pronouns. 2) I'm saying this once and I'll never say it again: DO. NOT. SWITCH. PRONOUNS. The only, ONLY time this is acceptable is when it changes the entire intent of the song, for example, any song from bare: a pop opera. If you're a girl and you're singing Absolution without changing pronouns, it takes away the entire meaning of the song, and that's not cool. But if you're just pulling a musical-no-homo and trying to make yourself seem straight, you need to either grow up or pick a different song. So many songs aren't pronoun specific, and you're just lame if you do that. 3) So many songs are non-gender specific, and it really comes down to who sang it first. I think you could obviously make the argument that different intentions become clear with the use of different genders, but I would argue that bringing different light to a song is rarely a harmful thing. Go with your gut on this one, and, most importantly, go with the play's gut. Research the show you're about to perform a song from and if it entirely ruins the message of the show (I'll use Absolution from bare: a pop opera here as an example again) then don't do it. 4) Also, if you're a girl, it is really easy to find a male song to use by looking through children's numbers. Jojo from Seussical, Colin from Secret Garden, or Billy Elliot are all good examples of males whose songs you can sing without having to blow through the stratosphere in your head voice or do that weird gravely thing that sopranos (including me) do when they try to hit low notes. This is really unorganized, but my overall advice is just to stick to your own preferred gender. If you need to change it up or whatever, then go for it, I guess, but there are plenty of songs that you can sing without having to deal with the drama. Also, if you feel more comfortable in a gender that is alternate to the one that you were assigned at birth (is that a good way to say that?) then look into musical characters that play to that, like Peter Pan, Edna Turnblad, or Hedwig. Look into Victor Victoria as well.