Fridae

British duo, the Pet Shop Boys (PSB) has made homophobic rapper Eminem the subject of a gay one-night-stand fantasy in The Night I Fell In Love, a new track in their upcoming album, Release.

Sung in first-person by openly gay frontman, Neil Tennant, the song tells a story of a young male student about meeting the hip-hop star backstage and becoming "secret lovers" after following him to a hotel room for a "private performance."

While the track song does not reference Eminem or his Slim Shady or Marshall Mathers monikers, the lyrics clearly spell out the star's identity. Dr. Dre, Eminem's mentor and producer was however referenced in the song: "We joked about Dre and his homies."

Tennant sings: "I said we could be secret lovers/ Just him and me/ Then he joked/ Hey man, your name isn't Stan, is it?/ We should be together."

Stan is the title of a hugely successful duet he sang with Dido about a male fan's crazed obsession with the rapper. In the video, the British singer portrays a lonely pregnant woman who is losing her boyfriend to his idol Eminem. Finally the tale ends with Stan tying her up and driving into a nearby river with her in the trunk.

A later verse says, "I asked why have I heard so much about you being charged with homophobia and stuff, and he just shrugged." The rapper has long attracted criticism from the gay community with homophobic lyrics in his songs.

The other half of PSB, Chris Lowe told the Calgary Sun that Tennant wrote the song "to turn the tables on the rapper."

"Eminem's defence of the homophobic lyrics on his albums has always been that he's not speaking as himself, he's speaking as a character, and he's representing homophobia in America," Tennant explained.

Release, the eighth studio album from the duo will be available in the US on April 23.