Backed Up

May 20th is a huge day for Birthday's of some of my FaVorite Hunks. With all those hot men blowing candles today, I didn't want to leave out Cher, who is also blowing out 71 of those suckers today. Initially I was going to feature Cher in my birthday post and loved the classic shot above of Cher and two of her backup dancers. The shot looks to be from the 70's or early 80's and had me thinking about featuring the changing look of male backup dancers over the decades.

That themed proved a bit overwhelming for this week, but saluting some of today's DIVA's hottest backup dancers seemed a bit more doable. Male backup dancers don't often get a lot of love. Some, like Kylie's below, have gotten a bit of on-line attention, but you know... they all have stories to tell. I hope if there isn't one already in the works, someone is planning a documentary on this usually nameless, but incredibly talented and hard working show business group.

Kylie Minogue's backup dancers in DNA

It was sort of surprising to me how many DIVA's have had romantic relationships with one of their hunky backups. Ariana, Madonna, Mariah, J-Lo have all had short lived roles in the hay with one of the dancers in their shows. Most of these relationships were not long lasting, and rarely did they lead to a walk down the isle, except for one notable exception..... that has a fun connection to birthday girl Cher.

Ariana Grande with Backup Dancer (and ex-Boyfriend Ricky Alvarez)

Madonna and Brahim Zaibat

Gaga's Boys Boys Boys

Mariah Carey and Bryan Tanaka

Jennifer Lopez and Casper Smart

J-Lo and dancers

Katy Perry and Lockhart Brownlie

Lockhart

Rita Ora

Ok, I had not heard of British Singer Rita Ora until I was 'googling' backup dancers, but the backup in question, and his incredible legs, as Glenn Close would say, could not be ignored.

Britney Baby

Britney and Chase Benz

Kevin Federline

That notable exception to that marriage rule is Kevin Federline who married Spears in 2004. Federline began his 'career' as one of Spears backup dancers and a little searching led me to fairly notable backup Federline performance. In the 2002 Will & Grace episode, Artificial Insemination, Federline went un-credited (except for IMDB) in his angel wings as one of Cher's backup angels. I am not 100% positive, but I think Kevin has to be the dancer directly behind Cher on the right. (left in the bottom image)