English musician Deborah Ann Dyer, better known by her stage name Skin, was BOTD in 1967. Born in London to Jamaican immigrant parents, she was raised by her grandmother, who introduced her to the music of Bob Marley and the activism of Muhammad Ali. She studied interior architecture and design at Teesside Polytechnic, before moving into a musical career. In 1994, she cofounded rock band Skunk Anansie. Their 1995 debut album Paranoid & Sunburnt, a ferocious series of protest songs, generated the hit singles Weak and Charity. Much of the band’s appeal centred around Skin’s powerful soprano voice, trademark shaved head and intense performance style, and her unapologetic presence as a queer Black woman in the white-dominated world of 1990s BritPop. Their 1996 album Stoosh was a worldwide success, generating the hit singles Hedonism. They released a third album, Post Orgasmic Chill, before disbanding in 1991. Skin released her first solo album, Fleshwounds, in 2003, later blaming its commercial failure on her record company’s unwillingness to promote her as a solo artist. A second album, Fake Chemical State, followed in 2006. Skunk Anasie reformed in 2009 and have released six studio albums. A prominent critic of far-right politics, Skin has spoken about the increase in racism in British culture since the country’s anti-immigration-inspired exit from the European Union. She released an autobiography, It Takes Blood and Guts in 2020, and was appointed to the Order of the British Empire in 2021 for services to music. Openly bisexual since forever, Skin entered into a civil partnership with Christiana Wyly, in 2013, divorcing two years later. In 2020, she announced her engagement to New York cabaret performer Rayne Baron, with whom she has a child.