The Bond Singer as Bond Girl: ‘Nobody Does it Better’ - Global Bond Girls: The Impact of a Complex Cultural Icon

Two men shaped the sound of James Bond, Monty Norman and John Barry, but it is women who have given voice to most of the James Bond songs. This project considers not only which divas have left their mark on Bond and why, it does so to consider how the women who sing the Bond opening song be considered as ‘Bond girls’. While much attention has been given to the ‘seen on screen’ Bond girls in terms of gender, sexualisation, and stereotypes, less scholarship has been given to the ‘heard on screen’ Bond girls particularly in terms of how they contribute to Bond girl understandings and meanings. This project seeks to fill this gap by interrogating the songs and performances of Bond divas to consider their contribution to Bond iconography and to widen discussion of who and what constitutes a ‘Bond girl’. While the divas examined in this project may not sit neatly into the typology of Bond girls they add much to the scholarship of Bond and are worthy of analysis. Via a content analysis of the Bond title song lyrics and performance, this study seeks to offer new insights into the cultural significance of ‘Bond girls’.