Scissor Sisters ‘really proud’ of Ana Matronic for turning down reunion tour

Reunion announcements have been flying this year from Oasis to Girls Aloud, but it was the shock return of the Scissor Sisters that really got fans going.

Not that the band — made up of Jake Shears, Babydaddy, and Del Marquis — have noticed since they’re steering clear of social media as much as possible.

Jake confessed he had taken Instagram off his phone completely as the trio sat down with ahead of their highly-anticipated 2025 tour.

‘Do you feel like it’s good? You can tell us,’ Babydaddy says of the response to the announcement, adding he’s ‘really happy’ to hear the love the UK still has for The Scissor Sisters.

While the enthusiasm for the Filthy/Gorgeous hitmakers reunion has been huge, fans have also been incredibly vocal about bandmate Ana Matronic’s absence.

The Scissor Sisters are ‘actually really proud’ that the singer prioritised her own needs and turned down the 20th anniversary tour.

Babydaddy, the band’s multi-instrumentalist, ‘really wanted to make sure [Ana] was asked to be a part of it’ but says ‘it was not something she wanted to do at the moment.’

Ana released a statement after the announcement, revealing she had other exciting projects in the works and contracts were already signed.

‘I don’t think it’s really for us to question or push her to do something that doesn’t feel right,’ he continued. ‘We should all be doing this for the right reasons and with the right feeling in mind.

‘So I’m actually really proud of her for being able to say, “I don’t think this is right for me”.’

Jake, 46, shared: ‘Her spirit is gonna be with us. Nothing stays the same. One of my mottos is “You can never go home again” and I think there’s so much truth to that.

‘It will be a different thing, and that’s very exciting to me, even though there’s a sadness to it as well. But it’s going to be exciting to see how it changes.’

Guitarist Del reassures us that any changes made are going to still honour the original ‘core’ of the tracks as they don’t want to ‘alienate’ fans.

He continued: ‘Everything is a creative challenge and we’ve always been attentive to the details and allowed chaos to happen in those spaces. This will not be different and we’re not getting on stage unless it’s an incredible show.’

Babydaddy, 48, added: ‘I hate to speak for [Ana]. What I will say is, I definitely have seen some of this stuff with people missing her, and I feel the same way. I’m gonna miss her on stage as well.’

Some fans even began demanding the entire tour be postponed to allow Ana’s return but the 20th anniversary felt too ‘important’ to let slip away.

‘It felt like we should do something to honour this,’ Babydaddy adds, as Del, 47, teases ‘dot dot dot’ when asked about the possibility of a 25th anniversary tour.

‘There is a sense of like, we’re not getting any younger,’ says Jake. ‘Time goes on and life passes you by and it’s like, now is the time.’

As for who could fill the gap left by Ana, Jake lights up at ‘s (totally unfounded) suggestion that living legend Cher might be up for a surprise appearance on tour.

He recalls: ‘One of my biggest disappointments is that Cher came to see us and after the show, she said to me, “That Mary song was really good. That sounds like something I could sing.”‘

It’s ‘not too late’ for Cher’s version, insists Babydaddy, with Jake joking his ‘head would explode’ if she agreed.

It’s been 12 years since the Scissor Sisters went on an indefinite hiatus, however, the band reiterates that was never a firm break-up.

Jake shared: ‘My friend Andy said he felt the last few years in the UK, there was an invisibility cloak around Scissor Sisters, so it’s sort of fun right now to rip the invisibility cloak [off]’.

Coming out from this ‘cloak’ has extra significance given the band has always been open about their sexual identities, without being put into a Gay Icon box.

The group made the conscious decision not to ‘constantly identify’ as a queer act in the early days but never shied away from those conversations either.

‘We weren’t hiding behind anything at all,’ recalls Babydaddy. ‘We didn’t want people to think [our identity] meant you weren’t invited or you weren’t allowed to be a part of it.

‘So we avoided that and I wonder if avoiding labelling ourselves in that way is maybe one of the reasons that people don’t consider us a gay or queer band.’

Del references Queen, who ‘if you’re looking for it and it’s on your radar, there’s queerness about that band’ but were not politically engaged LGBTQ+ icons.

The Scissor Sisters just wanted their music to be the driving force, feeling they did not match the music expected of a ‘Gay Band’ at the time.

Despite this, the very LGBTQ+ coded Let’s Have a Kiki was the last big hit for the Scissor Sisters and has taken on a life of its own within pop culture.

‘It’s so wild, I’m just glad it exists’ laughs Babydaddy when discussing the Glee version mashup with Turkey Lurkey Time — a Thanksgiving favourite.

Jake chimes in: ‘Sarah Jessica Parker opening that song. I will never forget seeing it live on television. I was just like, this is the weirdest … what the hell is going on?

‘It made us so happy. I love it. It’s amazing when things you make find their way into pop culture.’

Scissor Sisters have not ruled out the possibility of returning to the studio, hoping that the magic of the tour might spark some songwriting energy.

For now, they’re just keen to share their love of their debut album with the thousands of fans who will be flooding into arenas across the country — and possibly Glastonbury, which Jake says he would keep playing until he ‘kicks the bucket’.

‘These songs have stood the test of time and I think that they’ve become a lot bigger [over the years],’ adds the Return to Oz singer.

‘Either this is going to be the beginning of something new and amazing, or it’s going to be the end? We don’t know.’