The band's current line-up consists of Jake Shears (vocals), Babydaddy (various instruments) and Del Marquis (guitar, bass).

[1][2] The band came to prominence following the release of their Grammy-nominated and chart-topping disco version of "Comfortably Numb" and subsequent debut album Scissor Sisters (2004).

[5] Originally named Dead Lesbian and the Fibrillating Scissor Sisters, the final two words being derived from the lesbian sexual act of tribadism,[1][2][6] the band was founded in 2000 after friends Jason "Jake Shears" Sellards and Scott "Babydaddy" Hoffman (who had met in 1999 in Lexington, Kentucky) both moved to New York City, enjoying its open and gay-friendly ethos.

The duo released a couple of singles to little success and began appearing at underground clubs on New York's Lower East Side.

"[8] Ana Matronic ran a weekly cabaret event known as Knock Off at a club called the Slipper Room in New York, where she liked to hire eccentric and alternative acts; one reporter described it as a place that "served up a racy, multigender revue of kitsch," and that a performer dressed as a giant vulva "enfolded me with her labia while singing "Lick Me in My Wet Spot" to the tune of "Hit Me With Your Best Shot".

They primarily played electroclash, which was popular at the time in the underground club scene of New York with bands like Peaches and Chicks on Speed.

Their first single "Electrobix" dealt with gay men's obsessions with working out but proved to be less popular than its B-side, a cover version of Pink Floyd's progressive rock classic "Comfortably Numb".

Matronic commented, "It's one of those songs that people were either gonna love or hate, and that's really, really powerful, because it basically means you're evoking a reaction in everyone.

Their version of "Comfortably Numb" became a hit in many dance clubs and, after sending Pink Floyd themselves a copy, the Scissor Sisters received positive remarks from the song's original writers Roger Waters and David Gilmour.

[15] Several media outlets noted that Scissor Sisters "stick out like a sore thumb" on the list of artists who have sold over 2 million copies of an album in the UK in the 21st century, the others being James Blunt, Robbie Williams, Keane, Dido, Coldplay and Norah Jones—artists considered "mainstream" compared to the Scissor Sisters' brash and controversial image.

According to Babydaddy, their purpose was "to create a perfect pop rock album that would pick you up at the beginning, take you on a journey in the middle, and set you right back down again in the same place at the end.

"[17] Nonetheless, neither the band nor the album proved to be a big commercial success in the US: major chain store Wal-Mart refused to stock it, claiming on its website that it contained "a snarling, swaggering attack on conservatism" in the form of the song "Tits on the Radio".

[18] The band refused to produce a "clean" version of the album, and Babydaddy remarked that, "We did have to slap a parental warning sticker on the disc, which is completely absurd.

However, they continued their success in Europe by performing at the Brixton Academy in London for Halloween 2004, where they asked the audience to dress up as the characters from The Rocky Horror Show; the band themselves did so too.

[20] Recording of the second album, Ta-Dah, commenced in mid-May 2005 at the Discoball; sneak previews of new songs were played at live performances, including "Everybody Wants the Same Thing", performed at the Live 8 concert, "Paul McCartney", "I Can't Decide", "Hybrid Man", "Forever Right Now" and "Hair Baby" (a title that refers to the phenomenon of tumors containing partially formed fetuses).

Among the assumed pseudonyms used to play a series of secret shows to test this new material were "Bridget Jones' Diarrhea", "Portion Control" and "Megapussi".

[21][full citation needed] Scissor Sisters were also one of the headlining acts at the British V Festival in 2005, where they collaborated on stage with Scottish rock group Franz Ferdinand to perform a cover version of David Bowie's "Suffragette City".

[23] The event, dubbed "Scissor Sisters Day", culminated in them actually standing in for presenter Pete Tong and hosting his three-hour slot themselves.

The Scissor Sisters ended their first UK tour at the Wembley Arena, London, from November 24 to 26, 2006, supported by new artist Lily Allen, who performed during the three days there.

[25] Premiering new material of this album at secret gigs in New York City's Mercury Lounge in October 2008, they assumed the names Queef Latina and Debbie's Hairy.

New songs included on the set list were "Television", "Who's Your Money",[26] "Other Girls", "Major for You", "None of My Business", "Singularity", "Do the Strand", "Who's There", "Not the Loving Kind", "Taking Shape" (with Babydaddy on lead vocals), and "Uroboros".

Shears and Scissor Sisters collaborator John "JJ" Garden provided the lyrics and score for a world-premiere musical adaptation of Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City, a much-loved series of novels (and later a television miniseries) about life in San Francisco in the 1970s.

"Shady Love" features guest vocals from Azealia Banks while Jake Shears performs under his pseudonym Krystal Pepsy.

[39] In June 2019, Shears stated the impetus for the band's hiatus was the success of "Let's Have a Kiki" in the US and wanting to end things on a high note: "I didn’t know what the fuck to say after that song, quite honestly.

They appear to have been heavily influenced by Elton John (who co-wrote and played piano on "I Don't Feel Like Dancin'") despite Shears commenting that he was not familiar with his work prior to the release of their record.

The band also has been compared to ABBA, the Bee Gees, Blondie, KC and the Sunshine Band, Duran Duran who were "the reason we got into music," Matronic stated, Supertramp, Siouxsie and the Banshees who Matronic "wouldn't be here without," David Bowie, 1970s-era Kiss, Queen, Chic, Richard O'Brien and various other dance, disco, rock, and funk acts.

"[43] In an interview featured on the We Are Scissor Sisters... And So Are You DVD, Shears states, "The fact that some of us are gay affects our music the same amount as it does that some of the members of Blondie are straight."

The visuals for Scissor Sisters' self-titled first album and its singles featured artwork by an English illustrator named Spookytim, who had a studio in Brighton called Studiospooky.

The artwork was created by a wide variety of techniques and mixed traditional paper-based processes with digital and photographic elements in order to reflect the multi-referential nature of the band's music.

In some of their early shows, Shears was known to remove all of his clothes onstage, harking back to his former profession as a go-go stripper; in others, he threw inflated condoms into the audience.