David Byrne

Born in 1952 in Dumbarton, Scotland and raised in the United States, David Byrne came to prominence in New York in the mid-1970s as the singer, guitarist and principal songwriter of Talking Heads, associated with the new wave, art rock and post-punk scenes in clubs like CBGB. After the band's split in the early 1990s, Byrne pursued a solo path that mixed experimental pop, Afro-Latin music, funk and more intimate songwriting. As early as My Life in the Bush of Ghosts with Brian Eno (1981) and later Rei Momo (1989), he explored hybrids of rock, electronic music and Caribbean traditions, before returning to an orchestral pop on Grown Backwards (2004) and a more direct format with American Utopia (2018), extended on stage by a show combining choreography and a mobile ensemble. Byrne has collaborated widely—most notably with Brian Eno on Everything That Happens Will Happen Today (2008) and with St. Vincent on Love This Giant (2012)—and has developed parallel work for film, dance and musical theatre, as well as pursuing curatorial and writing projects that extend his reflection on the city, sound and popular cultures.