Tag: out musicians

Posted on

Billy Porter Debuts Music Video: “I Want My Art To Make A Difference”

During former Vice President Joe Biden’s streaming event on Saturday celebrating the one-year anniversary of his entry into the 2020 presidential race, Emmy/Tony/Grammy Award winner Billy Porter premiered the lyric video for his new single, “For What It’s Worth.” Biden’s “Soul of a Nation” event encouraged supporters to take action to help support their local communities as well as thanking front line essential workers and first responders. It was a theme of community that inspired Porter to record the ubiquitous classic: “I decided to record ‘For What It’s Worth’ because I wanted to have my art and my music matter, make a difference. I come from the generation where the music reflected what was going on in the world. I wanted to have a hand in bringing that back and speaking truth directly to power.” Tying into the theme of Biden’s event, Porter called for citizens to make sure they are registered to vote and then do so in November. “Our voices and our votes matter now more than ever,” said Porter. “I’m not going to tell you who to vote for, I just want you to vote. I, personally, will be casting my vote for Joe Biden.” You can register to vote by clicking here. For the song’s video, Porter turned to artist Kameron Neal to create a compelling and important piece of visual art. “This lyric video is EVERYTHING!,” said Porter. “Kameron Neal did an amazing job of capturing the right tone with the right imagery, usage of color, the interesting typography, and the reference to the classic Selma to Montgomery March photo. When I saw the final version, I cried.”

Posted on

Out Music: Billy Porter Covers Classic Protest Song ‘For What It’s Worth’

Billy Porter (photo: Santiago Felipe)
Grammy/Emmy/Tony Award winner Billy Porter releases his latest single, a cover of Stephen Stills’ Buffalo Springfield classic, “For What It’s Worth.” “I decided to record ‘For What It’s Worth’ because I wanted to have my art and my music matter, make a difference,” Porter said in a statement. “I’ve always been a political person. I come from the generation where the music reflected what was going on in the world, in the day. The song was written and performed sort of during the Civil Rights Era, the Vietnam War, it was protest music and I wanted to have a hand in bringing that back and speaking truth directly to power.” Porter has re-imagined the folk-rock classic adding a soulful spin that rocks out as much as it “grooves out.” Porter’s innovative take finds him laying down multiple vocal parts that build to an uplifting crescendo that takes the iconic tune into new territory. “I am both proud and delighted that Billy Porter is covering my song: ‘For What It’s Worth,”’ said Stephen Stills. “For many years no one tried to ‘make it theirs’ as covers are supposed to do. That an artist of Billy’s caliber has chosen to add his flourish to my song from so many years ago is totally in keeping with what I intended.” “One of the heartening things that I’ve seen during the Coronavirus outbreak is how we’ve all banded together. Everyone doing their part, checking on each other, using technology to connect with one another,” said Porter. “I think the messages in ‘For What It’s Worth’ are so relevant now. It’s a song about unifying and coming together to make a change.”

And speaking of change, Porter is also keeping an eye on November when U.S. citizens will be voting for a new president. “While we’re all stuck at home, now is a great time to make sure you’re registered to vote,” he said. “The election is comin,’ y’all. Let’s get ready and stay ready.” Register to Vote!  https://linktr.ee/TheeBillyPorter “For What It’s Worth” is the follow-up to Porter’s recent single, “Love Yourself,” which hit #1 on the Billboard Club Play Songs Chart in summer of 2019 and was timed to World Pride/Stonewall50. The video for “Love Yourself” was a celebrity lip-sync extravaganza featuring cameos by Porter’s Pose co-stars along with Cyndi Lauper, Kelly Ripa, Debra Messing, Lin Manuel Miranda, and designer Christian Siriano, among many others.

Billy Porter covers iconic protest song, “For What It’s Worth”

Posted on

News Round-Up: April 21, 2020

(via Instagram)
Some news items you might have missed: • InstaHunks: Woofy Steve_in_LA (above) chilled with his bestie today. What a handsome dog…the canine is a looker, too. Follow Steve on Instagram here. • Instinct Magazine: World of Wonder Productions, in partnership with The Stonewall Inn, will present a live-stream concert on Thursday, April 23rd at 8PM ET/ 5 PT, hosted by Michelle Visage and Tyler Oakley with proceeds from the event to benefit LGBTQ+ nightlife industry professionals affected by COVID-19. Among those scheduled to appear are Alan Cumming, Betty Who, Greyson Chance, John Cameron Mitchell, Kim Petras, Lorna Luft, Peppermint, Rufus Wainwright, Shoshana Bean, Todrick Hall, Troye Sivan, VINCINT and a special performance by Cyndi Lauper. • NBC News: The crew for The Ellen DeGeneres Show is furious over lack of communication from the producers, a proposed pay cut during the coronavirus threat, and the hiring of a non-union tech company to help DeGeneres tape remotely from her home in California. • Advocate: According to a new independent poll from Levada Center almost one in five (18 percent) of Russians believe that LGBTQ people should be “eliminated,” while 32 percent of Russians believe that gays and lesbians should be “isolated from society.” And that’s actually an improvement from past surveys. • Pink News: A trans woman was stabbed 20 times and had her eye gouged out to ‘send a message’ to Colombia’s LGBT+ community, say local leaders. • Politico: The Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday reaffirmed its support for the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that the Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election with the goal of putting Donald Trump in the Oval Office. Tuesday’s bipartisan report, from a panel chaired by North Carolina Republican Richard Burr, undercuts Trump’s years of efforts to portray allegations of Kremlin assistance to his campaign as a “hoax,” driven by Democrats and a “deep state” embedded within the government bureaucracy. • Out Music: LA-based indie artist Onsen releases the new song “Be There”, a track about the one that got away. Though the track is about lost love, it was written when the epiphany of desire occurred but before the letdown. As a result, it reflects on the relationship in a positive light.

Drew Straus, aka Onsen, gives his side of the story: “After playing it cool for too long, a person I liked had drifted away. ‘Be There’ is a confession, that I took them for granted and realized foolishly late that I’m on board and want to make it work.”

Posted on

News Round-Up: April 17, 2020

Sean Hayes on Seth Rudetsky’s Back to School podcast
Some news items you might have missed: • Podcast: Before Sean Hayes (above) was winning Emmy awards, he was winning the Golden Crutch award for being the clumsiest person in his high school drama department. Hear how he earned the title, plus how he coped with getting hazed, on this week’s episode of Seth Rudetsky’s Back to School. Continue reading “News Round-Up: April 17, 2020”

Posted on

News Round-Up: April 14, 2020

Former Rep. Aaron Schock (3rd from right – screen capture)
Some news items you might have missed: • Instagram: The rules are clearly different for folks like former Rep. Aaron Schock (above) who doesn’t seem to be keeping any ‘social distance’ down in Cabo. • OUT: Talk show host Ellen DeGeneres is making headlines again as thousands of petitioners are asking that she be replaced on her show by Ellen Page in a campaign that seems partially comedic and partially serious. • Twitter: A group of housemates in the UK decided to recreate their favorite nightclub G-A-Y, since they couldn’t visit it in person. Check out the results complete with promo street team, doorman/bouncer, bartender, a couple making out, disco lighting, and Rihanna’s gay anthem, “We Found Love.”

• 48 Hills: San Francisco Pride announced today that it is canceling (not postponing) this year’s June Parade and Celebration—the largest in the Western United States—as COVID continues to take its toll. • Wonkette: Someone should tell Fox News‘ Tucker Carlson that breast cancer and opioid addiction aren’t contagious like COVID-19. • Out Music: LGBTQ singer and TV personality, Trent Crews, drops his new single, “Papi,” which also features transgender rapper, ballroom scene personality and actress Precious (“Viceland’). The new track – a bouncy, urban pop bop – is an undeniably groovy listen. Crews is perhaps best known for his previous role in season 8 of VH1’s Love & Hip Hop: New York. Let me know what you think in the comments 🙂

Posted on

News Round-Up: April 13, 2020

InstaHunk Green.Joel
Some news items you might have missed: • InstaHunks: Hunky Green.Joel (above) makes it black and white – he wants you to “Rise up and attack the day with enthusiasm!!”  • Boy Culture: Matt Rettenmund pays tribute to Madonna on the 30th anniversary of the Blond Ambition Tour with lots of rare video clips from the record-setting production. • The Gaily Grind: Ireland’s prime minister, openly gay Leo Varadkar, will be returning to medical practice to work as a doctor as the country battles the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. The prime minister left the medical profession in 2013 after working as a doctor for seven years. By 2017, he’d become the country’s youngest-ever prime minister. • Out Music: California native St. Panther recently released her debut single, “Infrastructure,” in advance of her upcoming album later this summer. The out hip-hop artist brings a 90s sensibility to a very ‘now’ soul sound. Drop the beat below.

• LA Times: Event production companies, that usually build tents, staging and facilities for tens of thousands of revelers at music, sports and dining events have seen hundreds of such events canceled. But they are now busy using their resources to help build temporary hospital stations to help accommodate the COVID-19 pandemic. • NY Times: A member of the crew of the coronavirus-infected USS Theodore Roosevelt died Monday of complications related to the disease, 11 days after the aircraft carrier’s captain was fired for pressing his concern that the Navy had done too little to safeguard his crew. Of the 4,860 crew members aboard the Roosevelt, 585 have tested positive for COVID-19. • NY Post: Bishop Gerald O. Glenn, the Pastor of New Deliverance Evangelistic Church in Richmond who proudly defied coronavirus safety guidelines in order to hold church services, died from COVID-19 complications on Saturday. He told the congregation he’d keep preaching “unless I’m in jail or the hospital” because “people are healed” in his church. • Broadway Cares: The stream of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS’ benefit concert celebrating Disney on Broadway’s 25th anniversary will be rescheduled for Friday, April 17, 2020, at 7 PM ET after the American Federation of Musicians dropped its opposition to the stream. The online playback will raise money for Broadway Cares’ COVID-19 Emergency Assistance Fund, which is helping everyone in the theater and performing arts community impacted by the pandemic.

Posted on

What We’re Listening To This Week

New music to add to your playlists this week: Randy Report favorite Niko reached out this week and shared two new remixes (that I really like). Like many of us, plans and scheduled were shifted and rearranged due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, but Niko is of a mind that maybe we could all use some music to bounce to. “So, I decided to release two remixes that I’ve been sitting on, with the idea that these tracks can make someone dance… I think we all need a little escape during quarantine!” The double single, RMXD, features a remixed “Maybe” by Detroit-based DJ Voyage, and “Sexual Tension” from Norwegian producer Middelthon.

Out artist Someya playfully explores the fine line between love and lust in her latest single, “Hung Up Over You.” The mid-tempo bop finds a sweet balance of ambient groove and pensive, summer feels. The gloomy-day bop also acts as a celebration of the San Jose songstress’s bisexuality, as Someya features her first on-screen female love interest in the “Hung Up Over You” music video.

Bright Light Bright Light (aka Welsh pop star Rod Thomas) is taking fans out for a virtual night on the town in New York City with the release of the video for his disco/house dance-tastic single, “This Was My House.” Of the song, Paper Magazine said, “It’s not every day that we get a perfect disco song” while Rolling Stone praised its “buoyant beat to dance through pain and trouble.” The song features Madonna backup duo Niki Harris and Donna De Lory and is an inspired slice of prideful pop that serves as an ode to LGBTQ safe spaces. The video is an irreverently brilliant, campy look into the NYC LGBTQ+ nightlife scene, and features Bright Light Bright Light leading a merry march of party monsters into the subway system, through a dance club (Bedlam to be specific, which is also the location that the majority of the new album’s vocals were recorded in), and to the East Village rooftop of the apartment building he calls home.

Posted on

Out Music: International Artists Serve Up Virtual Collaboration “True Colors”

An international consortium of 16 LGBTQ+ music artists have come together for a virtual collaboration to encourage people to stay safe and support one another while much of the world is in lockdown via a touching cover of Cyndi Lauper’s LGBTQ+ anthem ‘True Colors.’ The diverse range of talent includes singer-songwriter Tom Goss, cabaret artist Dave the Bear, trans activist Mzz Kimberly, Britain’s Got Talent singer Rob King, guitar hero Mrs. Smith, and the multi-talented Graham J… plus Miles Elliot, Owen Gilhooly, Jason Thorpe, Randy Willcox, Patrick Masse, Felix Over, Lady Lola Lockdown, Syd Carter West, Chris Hibbert, and mental health advocate Paul Middleton, who masterminded the collaboration. “The aim of putting this project together was to let our community know that we are in this together,” said Middleton in a statement. “Wherever you are you can make a difference. To stay safe and look out for each other.”

If this world makes you crazy And you’ve taken all you can bear You call me up Because you know I’ll be there

Middleton adds, “The artists hope that as viewers listen to these words, the community will rise and show their true colors in supporting one another, the elderly and the vulnerable.”

Posted on

Out Music: Spencer Day & Effie Passero ‘State Of Emergency’

L-R Effie Passero, Spencer Day (screen capture)
Guest post by Lawrence Pfeil, Jr. Ever been minding your own business, just gigging in Mexico with an American Idol finalist, and the next thing you know you’re both quarantined because of a global pandemic?  Well, that’s exactly what happened a few weeks ago to out singer/songwriter and #1 Billboard chart-topper, Spencer Day. Now we’ve all had our lives upended by the coronavirus crisis, but not many of us are stuck in a foreign country like Spencer and Effie Passero.  If we were, suffice it to say we’d probably be handling it with anxiety and panic, rather than humor and music from a rooftop. But their new collaboration, “State of Emergency” proves even in the worst of times, it can be the best times if you’re there for each other. “Like many of you, we are trying to make the best of the worst and keep looking on the bright side of life,” the duo commented. “Earlier this month we came down to Mexico for some concerts, and then a week later it felt like the world was falling apart.” “This is a brand-new song we wrote after finding ourselves with the need for ‘social distancing’ down here in Mexico,” continued the artists. “We hope everyone is safe, healthy, and finding moments to smile.”

“STATE OF EMERGENCY” Written by: Spencer Day & Effie Passero Performed by: Spencer Day, Effie Passero, Zoe Wood, Eduardo Leon Videographer: Daniel Marquez Ortega (The Groove House Studio) SPENCER DAY is one of the most acclaimed young artists creating witty and sophisticated pop songs in the tradition of the classic American writers. He has been called “compelling” by Time Out New York, “prodigiously talented” by the Village Voice, and “brilliant” by the San Francisco Chronicle. The Washington Post praised his “cool jazz sensibilities” and “cleverly crafted tales.” Day has wandered amid the expansive and diverse landscape of American music, developing an artistic sensibility that borrows from numerous sources: jazz, musical theater, cabaret, soul, folk, traditional and contemporary pop. He uses intuition and improvisation as his primary tools to craft a sound that is familiar, yet fresh and innovative at the same time. Day’s album Vagabond peaked at #11 on the Billboard Album Chart and stayed on the chart for 47 weeks. The lead single, “Til You Come To Me,” peaked at #3. His recent album, Daybreak, debuted at #1 on the iTunes Jazz Chart. Spencer’s first collaboration with Postmodern Jukebox just surpassed 1.5 million views on YouTube. Broadway By Day, his upcoming album of reimagined theater songs with surprising and inventive genre-blurring arrangements, will feature special guests Jane Monheit and Dave Koz. Follow Spencer Day on Facebook here, Twitter here, and Instagram here. EFFIE PASSERO is a classically trained performer turned singer-songwriter. After 12 years in Opera Theatre, she discovered her passion truly lies in storytelling and sharing her own life through music. In early 2018, she was seen on ABC”s first season of “American Idol,” placing in the top 20 contestants. In late 2018, she won the Hollywood Media in Music Award for her original song, “Sarsaparilla.” Effie has been brought into session singing, working on both Leonard Cohen and Barbra Streisand’s latest albums. She is currently finishing her first EP to be will be released in the fall. Follow Effie Passero on Facebook here, Twitter here, and Instagram here.

Lawrence Pfeil, Jr., is a freelance writer/playwright who has reviewed film and theatre, both on and off-Broadway, for media outlets including The Randy Report, the New York Blade, and Edge Publications. You can follow him at TheOUTfront.com.

Posted on

Music Video: Justin Utley Is The Action Hero We Need In ‘American Nightmare’

Justin Utley
Today I’m chatting with OUTMusic Award-winning singer/songwriter Justin Utley who just released his new music video and single, “American Nightmare,” where he plays a Jason Bourne-like action hero taking aim at conversion therapy and the current state of our union’s blind allegiance with political parties and religion. The single, which features an edgy rock-centric sound, is a different genre for the handsome singer who first rose to prominence in the country/pop/Americana realm. Justin explains, “This whole album has been about exploring edgier, darker themes that I’ve always wanted to take on but hadn’t because I was told to stay in my safe zone.” The music video is an adrenaline-driven roller-coaster ride; the track is a powerful rock anthem that perfectly frames Utley’s muscular vocals.

I first interviewed Justin back in 2012 when he had just won two OUTMusic Awards for his debut single, “Stand For Something.” He’s a highly sought-after performer who’s appeared on stages across North America and Europe. Along the way, he has shared the stage with top international acts including Dan Reynolds, Icona Pop, Tegan & Sara, Margaret Cho, and Billy Porter.

Justin Utley (photo: Ryan Bakerink)
In addition to taking stages by storm, Justin has also been an outspoken activist for the LGBTQ community working to outlaw so-called conversion therapy which seeks to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity through debunked pseudoscience. Thanks in great part to Justin’s efforts, his state of Utah became the 19th state to prohibit the harmful practice. Justin has appeared as a guest contributor on CNN, NPR, SiriusXM’s OutQ and MSNBC. He is a two-time recipient of the FBI’s “Inspiring Citizen of the Year” award, and “Artist of the Year” by SiriusXM’s OutQ Radio. This past fall, Justin Utley released his third studio album, Scars, a brutally honest, thought-provoking collection of songs. Hit the play button below and listen as I chat with the oh-so-talented Justin Utley.