You’ve had a stellar year, David Bowie. Your retrospective at the V&A was a bona fide blockbuster, opening people’s eyes to just how varied and influential your contributions to art, fashion, and pop have been over the years and decades. And yet somehow you remain as much a mystery as a spider from Mars, impervious to scrutiny, forever unknowable. The open-ended title of the exhibition, David Bowie Is, said it all.

That’s because there’s been no one quite like you before or since. So while we, like the rest of the Internet, may have thought you and Tilda Swinton were the same person for a little longer than we care to admit, we should have remembered the lesson you yourself taught us at an early age, that everyone’s weirdness is unique. (Plus, you and she both showed up to that Chanel tribute to her.) Ziggy Stardust and his face bolt lit the way for generations of sensitive twinks like us. Power to the androgynes, we always say. 

While we’re at it, let’s also celebrate the fact that Aladdin Sane is 40, Labyrinth is nearly 30, and your model marriage to Iman is a young and beautiful 20-something. You know what? We’re going to give that Louis Vuitton ad more time to grow on us, because we’ll probably get it at some point in the future. Happy birthday, David Bowie!

Everyone, it’s time for some Dancing In the Streets…