History Music / ReginaSpektor

** During her appearance on the ''Series/ColbertReport'', Colbert questioned whether or not she was a Soviet sleeper agent, bringing up her awesome "sexy spy name" as evidence.

* SignatureSong: "Fidelity" is her best-known, but "Samson" is quite popular too.

* SongOfSongTitles: "On the Radio" references Music/GunsNRoses' "November Rain", and "Edit" namechecks TheBeatles' "Dr. Robert" and PaulMcCartney's "Uncle Albert / Admiral Halsey".

** Then there's the bonus track "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7gX8UbDiGA Baobabs]]", using imagery from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's TheLittlePrince.

[[caption-width-right:350:[[OedipusRex Long live]] [[StealthPun the queeeeen...]]]]

* WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs - "Pavlov's Daughter".

* Adorkable: So very much.

* LiteraryAllusionTitle: "Samson" is based on the [[TheBible Biblical]] story and contains many references to it.

* BrooklynRage: Humourously describes herself as a "tough girl from The Bronx"

* HansChristianAndersen: Name dropped in "Prisoners," and his fairy tales have clearly influenced her UrbanFantasy stories.

* {{Homage}}: The music video for "Us" is an homage to the silent film [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-n6EN4DyuE ''Le Locataire Diabolique'']] by Georges Meliés.

* OurMermaidsAreDifferent: "Mermaid," as it's a retelling of the HansChristianAndersen tale in an UrbanFantasy setting. She mentions that the painful stabbing feeling in her feet causes her to bleed. She claims to have sold her voice for, among other things, a bottle of gin and a bump of cocaine before the narrative goes completely off the rails.

* RummageSaleReject: In a good way; her outfits appear to be put together by spinning through a Greenwich Village vintage store.

* ChristmasCake: She's 32 and still up for grabs, fellas!

* HairDecorations: [[http://www.last.fm/music/Regina+Spektor/+images/44655925 and sometimes she takes it]] BeyondTheImpossible.

* CoverVersion: LeonardCohen's "Chelsea Hotel #2", LeonardCohen's "Hallelujah", Hanna Szenes' "Halikha [=LeKesariya=] (Eli, Eli)", Malvina Reynolds' "Little Boxes", {{Madonna}}'s "Love Profusion", TheBeatles' "Real Love".
* CrypticConversation: her appearance on Jenny Owen Youngs's "Voice on Tape" has her speaking on Youngs' answering machine about some NoodleIncident in an adorably Russian-accented voice. A conversation between Regina and her brother Bear appears on "Soviet Kitch" under the cryptic title "*** ".

* HairDecorations: [[http://www.last.fm/music/Regina+Spektor/+images/44655925 and sometimes she takes it]] BeyondTheImpossible.

* LesYay: "Hotel Song" features the main character waking up in a hotel room next to some cocaine and questioning who a woman wearing her dress is. Other songs, such as "Somedays" and "Summer in the City" feature the narrator talking about being in love with and going to a protest to rubbing up against other women, [[TheCoverChangesTheGender but Spektor has said that she frequently writes songs from the perspectives of male characters]].

* MelismaticVocals: Especially in ''Dance Anthem of the 80s'', in which she takes us on a Middle Eastern folk music inspired melismatic ride up and down the word "sleep."

* ShoutOut: To Tom Waits in "Prisoners" (compare it to his song "9th & Hennipen"), Patti Smith in "Poor Little Rich Boy" with the repeated "so goddamn young", Boris Pasternak in "Après Moi," and about a hundred literary references, from Andersen to Margaret Atwood to Virginia Woolf to Edith Wharton's ''Ethan Fromm.'' A darker, more ambiguous one is to the famous antisemitic poet Ezra Pound in a song named either "Ezra Pound" or "If You're Never Sorry." She is the Umberto Eco of pianists.

* CelebrityResemblance: Many people have seen the resemblance between her and Music/ToriAmos. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FK_qRHoEkJU See for yourself]]. And there's a striking resemblance to Wedding Day!Chelsea Clinton and JudyGreer.
** And, oddly enough, a young (circa 1687) [[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ad/Anniex.jpg Anne, Queen of Great Britain.]]

* TheMusical: Her upcoming "Beauty," an adaptation of "Beauty and the Beast."

* CelebrityResemblance: Many people have seen the resemblance between her and ToriAmos. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FK_qRHoEkJU See for yourself]]. And there's a striking resemblance to Wedding Day!Chelsea Clinton and JudyGreer.

* SongOfSongTitles: "On the Radio" references Music/GunsNRoses' "November Rain".

* EveryGirlIsCuterWithHairDecs: [[http://www.last.fm/music/Regina+Spektor/+images/44655925 and sometimes she takes it]] BeyondTheImpossible.

* AudioErotica for some. Others find her voice cute in a non-sexy way.

* AwesomeMcCoolname: Not only is Regina Spektor an awesome name, her brother has a song named after him. "Bear Spektor." His name is ''Bear Spektor''.

* TheTropeSong: "Hotel Song", "Sailor Song".