Paralympian Ellie Simmonds, competitor in Strictly Come Dancing 2022
It's the 30th anniversary of the International Day of Persons with Disabilties today, dear reader, so I thought I'd bring a bit of class into proceedings by featuring three of the most accomplished disabled perfomers of classical music:
But what of the geniuses-who-happened-to-be-disabled who hit our charts? There are obvious candidates such as Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles [both blind, like Sr. Feliciano], John Cougar Mellencamp [born with spina bifida] and many, many artists on the autistic [such as Susan Boyle or Courtney Love] or bipolar [like Adam Ant, Sia or Ray Davies] spectrum, but in my opinion, the singer with the most defiant, in-yer-face, "who the fuck do you think you're looking at" attitude of 'em all is worthy of "pride of place" on this day:
