News that Scissor Sisters are heading back out on tour next year will be bittersweet to many fans, as not all members of the group are taking part.
On Thursday morning, it was confirmed that Jake Shears, Del Marquis and Babydaddy will be a three-piece when Scissor Sisters hit the road in 2025, as vocalist Ana Matronic is not returning this time around.
Ana was one of the group’s two singers throughout their initial run, taking the lead on singles like Kiss You Off and Let’s Have A Kiki.
However, when the reunion tour was announced, a press release explained that she had “decided not to join the tour as she has other projects she is focusing on right now”.
Del Marquis said: “We’ve spent a lot of time collectively thinking about what we can add to our show that isn’t a ‘replacement’ for Ana in any way. She’s part of the spirit of this band and we want to honour that.”
Lead singer Jake also said that working out how Scissor Sisters would move forward as a three-piece provided something of a “fun challenge”.
“The way I see it is this: if it’s gonna be different, why not make it an interesting kind of different?” he claimed.
Jake also told The Independent: “I think it just didn’t line up. It’s not something that she wanted to do at this moment in time. And I didn’t want that to keep us from coming out and playing these songs.”
Meanwhile, Babydaddy noted to BBC News that Ana’s absence gives them an opportunity to “get some people on stage and ask some friends to do fun things”.
HuffPost UK has contacted Ana Matronic’s team for comment. As of yet, she has not spoken publicly about her former bandmates’ upcoming tour.
The Scissor Sisters tour will begin on Friday 16 May in Nottingham, before hitting up Glasgow, Bournemouth, Cardiff, Manchester and London in the following week.
It will then conclude with a series of shows in Leeds, Birmingham, Belfast and Dublin.
Tickets are going on sale at 9am on Friday 8 November on the group’s official website, with a pre-sale also taking place at the same time two days earlier.
Scissor Sisters first burst onto the music scene in 2004 when they released their self-titled debut album, spawning hit singles Take Your Mama, Laura and their reimagined cover of Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb.
In the decade that followed, they secured more hits like Fire With Fire, the Calvin Harris collaboration Only The Horses and their biggest chart hit, I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’.
During their time together they were nominated for six Brit Awards, and won three.
Although they officially disbanded in 2012, they came together in 2017 for the release of the charity single SWERLK, featuring MNDR.