all grown up

Bloc Party’s Kele Okereke has gone from indie rock cutie to full-on daddy

By · Updated on January 29, 2024

Seemed like only yesteryear that Bloc Party’s gay frontman Kele Okereke was a slender smooth-shaven indie rocker. But since Bloc Party recently released its sixth album, Alpha Games, we looked back in on the Nigerian-English artist and, wow — he’s 40 years old now and a full-on muscle daddy.

While Bloc Party fans may recall their first album in 2005, Silent Alarm, Okereke didn’t puyblicly come out until 2010, the same year he began releasing solo albums. He has expanded and increasingly embraced his queer identity since then.

In 2017, Okereke sang a romantic duet up with Olly Alexander. The track, “Grounds for Resentment”, tells the story of a same-sex romance from two perspectives. In 2019, he premiered Leave to Remain, a semi-autobiographical musical he co-wrote about a Black Nigerian man introducing his white boyfriend to his Catholic parents.

In the intervening years, Kele dropped his surname, had two kids with his partner, muscled up and grew a beard. if you weren’t a fan of his music before, his new lewk might inspire a newfound interest in Kele’s work.

 

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