What if your favourite pop star was secretly a spy? We recently spoke with Dr. Giles Masters, Music Fellow by Examination at Magdalen College, about the fact that musicians make excellent spies.
Giles’ research focuses on twentieth-century music, cultural politics, and institutional history, and what you may not know is that musicians have often been tangled up in political intrigue…
1. Fame opens doors
Being a celebrity seems like it would make spying impossible – but fame can actually be a great cover. It gives you access to people and places that the rest of us can only dream of!
Take Josephine Baker, the iconic performer of the 1920s and 1930s as an example. She was a huge global mega star: an actress, dancer, and singer she became the first black woman to star in a major motion picture.
She was also a secret agent for the French Resistance during the Second World War.
Using her celebrity status, she gained access to influential social circles and military information at diplomatic parties in the Italian and Japanese embassies. She wrote notes on her arms about what she heard, and hid them underneath her sleeves. When told about the danger she simply said “Nobody would think I’m a spy”. She carried intelligence to the Allies using invisible ink on her sheet music, smuggled important people out of France in her security team, and even hid secret documents in her costumes!
In 1961 she was awarded the Croix de Guerre and the Legion of Honour, and her bravery, daring, and espionage work were revealed to the world.
2. Musicians travel – a lot
Pop stars are always going on international tours – it’s the perfect excuse to carry information across borders.
John Dowland, a famous Renaissance composer, is a 16th century example. Known for his very sad lute songs: “Flow my tears”, “I saw my Lady weepe”, and “In darkness let me dwell”, he is also suspected of being a spy.
After being rejected from a position in the court of Elizabeth I, he embarked on a trip around Europe to try and find a position in a neighbouring country. In 1595, he sent a letter to Robert Cecil, who was extensively involved in state security as Elizabeth’s principal minister, informing on people he’d met in Florence and Rome.
In 1598 he went to the court of the King of Denmark (Christian IV), often travelling back and forth between Copenhagen and London. Whilst in Denmark he was sent a secret letter by the British Ambassador asking him to inform on goings-on in King Christian IV’s court (although this letter was confiscated by Danish officials so we don’t know if he actually did inform on King Christian).
The thing about John Dowland, though, is that he was often sent back to England to run “errands” for the King with suspiciously large amounts of money… perhaps he was a double agent all along!
3. Musical tech expertise
Musicians’ technical skills with sound and other equipment can also make them very useful to intelligence services.
You may have already heard of Leon Theremin, the inventor of the Theremin—a unique instrument you play without touching. Theremin was a Russian inventor, but he had lived in the US for quite some time. However, he abruptly went back to the Soviet Union in 1938 and many people thought he had been kidnapped.
Theremin invented a device called “The Thing,” a tiny listening tool that requires no power source and is virtually undetectable. The soviets disguised it in a wooden carving, and this was gifted to the U.S. Ambassador in Moscow by Soviet schoolchildren in 1945.
For seven years, it hung in his office, secretly transmitting his secret conversations back to the Soviet government.
More musicians, more secrets
These are just a few examples, but Giles said that there may be more hidden cases of musicians working as spies. After all, if you’re any good at spying, no one ever finds out. So, the next time you’re listening to your favourite pop star, ask yourself this: could they be… a spy?
Giles is currently a Fellow at Magdalen College, and in 2024, he was awarded the Jerome Roche Prize by the Royal Musical Association for ‘an outstanding article by a scholar in the early stages of their career’. His research has been supported by organisations including the Music & Letters Trust and the New York Public Library.
