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As she reached the crescendo of Over the Rainbow — the song which made her a global star aged just 17 — it was unknown to the audience that they were watching her final live performance. Four months later, 47 year-old Garland was found dead in Chelsea, London, after accidentally overdosing on the drugs she had self-medicated with since childhood.

The rainbow is gone. Fifty years on, Garland superfan Ross Semple, 27, still listens to that Copenhagen concert religiously. He began watching her films, listening to her music and learning about her life. I sing to people! The buzz surrounding the release, partnered with the remake of A Star is Born — the iconic showbiz drama that earned Garland an Academy Award nomination in — has when gays turn 30 gif her distinctly gay legacy back into focus.

To many gay men, Garland is the mother of all icons. But why? While Garland was still alive, critics made ham-fisted attempts to answer this question. They are a persecuted group and they understand suffering. And so does Garland. But it's also important to recognise that they aren't the totality of gay men.

In fact, her life story is practically a blueprint for our modern understanding of what makes a gay icon. Analysing her story, from upbringing to death, helps us understand how and why some gay men look to famous women to help them navigate the world. Small town to Tinseltown. When Garland was four, the family moved to California following rumours that her father, a closeted bisexual, had made sexual advances towards young men.

After the family settled in California, Ethel Gumm began to promote her daughters as a performing trio, known as The Gumm Sisters. Much like her gingham-dressed alter ego, swept away by the winds into a magical, Technicolor world, Garland was plucked from obscurity to become a cultural icon.

From a young age, her self-image was relentlessly criticised by film executives who believed that she was unattractive. Alongside her mother, MGM executives controlled her image and encouraged her to take drugs to stay slim.

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She became this avatar for the rejected: not sexy enough, not pretty enough. A survivor is born. She married five times and two of her husbands were, like her father, suspected of being gay or bisexual. Garland first married at 19 when she eloped to Las Vegas with musician David Rose.

A year later, when she fell pregnant, her mother convinced her to have an illegal abortion. Drugs and financial instability were a near-constant presence in her life and she was suspended numerous times by MGM for missing shoot days or being incoherent, intoxicated and abusive on set.

At 32, she had already been divorced twice and suffered numerous breakdowns. The high-budget project was seen as her final throw of the dice in Hollywood. I hate him for failing and I hate me too. Yet the critical acclaim Garland received for A Star is Born was tarnished by its commercial underperformance.

Deemed too long, the film had to be cut considerably, leading to a botched edit that left viewers underwhelmed. It flopped at the box office and Warner Bros then cancelled the lucrative multi-film deal Garland had signed with them. She was widely expected to take home the Academy Award for her role in the film, with reporters even waiting by her hospital bedside to capture her reaction as she prepared to give birth.

Like a true survivor, Garland rebounded from the commercial failure of A Star is Born.