Frankie Evans
The uncredited human voice of The Atomic Songbirds from 1939 until her death in 1957
Frankie Evans was Frank Evans' younger sister and, for eighteen years, the secret voice of The Atomic Songbirds. An autistic woman with an unusual and captivating voice, she refused to perform under her own name, and chose instead to let the robots take the credit. Frank, ever the protective older brother, honored her wish. The mechanical Songbirds could replicate instrumental melodies with perfect precision, but every vocal the public heard from 1939 onward was hers. When additional vocal textures were needed, Frank quietly hired other singers; the lead was always Frankie.
She sang the December 1940 performance at the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow that began Tekhnosoyuz, though the timeline of that night does not name her. The world did not learn who had been singing until 1957, when she was struck and killed by a reckless driver. The revelation sent shockwaves through the world and confirmed what skeptics had long suspected: no machine, no matter how advanced, could yet replicate the soul of a human performer. Without her, the band had no voice.
Frank's answer was the robot vocalist he unveiled in 1960 and named for her: Frankie Evans, later Frankie Evanz, built to carry her voice and personality forward. Her own singing survives on "A Distant Song for Moscow", Frank's private copy of the 1940 concert, never registered or broadcast, which is why it escaped the 2020 Prohibition.
Outside the fiction
Frankie Evans, the human singer, is a fictional character in the Atomic Timeline, written by Illia Tsariuk. She is distinct from Frankie Evanz, the android who carries her name.
Full authorship statement on the colophon.
Questions
- What is the difference between Frankie Evans and Frankie Evanz?
- Frankie Evans was the human singer, Frank Evans' sister, who secretly voiced The Atomic Songbirds from 1939 until her death in 1957. Frankie Evanz is the android vocalist Frank built and named for her in 1960; the robot adopted the z herself decades later.
- Why did Frankie Evans hide that she was the band's singer?
- She refused to perform under her own name and chose to let the robots take the credit. Frank honored that wish and concealed it until her death in 1957 made the truth public.