LGBTQ news and entertainment
Sam Smith (photo: Aria Shahrokhshahi)
And, of course, how could I touch the subject without referencing the oh-so-awesome original version by our diva, Miss Summer? Produced by Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte, the track (considered the first electronic dance hit) was a Top 10 smash in the US and went all the way to #1 in the UK, Australia, and other countries.
Well, look at Sam Smith get down with his bad self.
After a tremendously successful year that saw Dancing With a Stranger garner an amazing one billion streams, hitting #1 in both the US and UK, and going platinum in 15 countries, it seems Mr. Smith is in the mood to dance about.
Smith begins his new single, “How Do You Sleep,” singing ‘I’m done hating myself for feeling / I’m done crying myself awake,’ to an ambient, light-as-air accompaniment before the track kicks into a mid-tempo dance groove complete with hooky chorus.
And that’s when Smith surprises by busting a move (a lot of them!) with a company of half-naked male dancers choreographed by Parris Goebel.
It’s a nice change of pace for the 4-time Grammy Award winner.
The singer tweeted to his fans, “My heart is beating so fast. I’m so proud of this one. Thank you to all the beautiful humans who’ve helped me really come out my shell over the past year. I hope you all enjoy this & please learn the moves so we can dance together soon.”
HOW DO YOU SLEEP? My heart is beating so fast. I’m so proud of this one. Thank you to all the beautiful humans who’ve helped me really come out my shell over the past year. I hope you all enjoy this & please learn the moves so we can dance together soon x https://t.co/HpvK3IPeYQ— Sam Smith (@samsmith) July 19, 2019
Back in 2014, out recording artist Sam Smith debuted his new cover of the Whitney Houston hit “How Will I Know” while visiting the SiriusXM Studios yesterday.
I love when folks slow a song down and we discover a whole new side to the writer’s work.
Gorgeous idea here.
(h/t JMG)
In this week’s podcast:
• Chicago police reportedly believe Empire star Jussie Smollett may have staged his alleged homophobic attack
• A federal judge ordered the Pentagon to stop discharging US military service members who are HIV+
• Tony Award-winner Ben Platt (Dear Evan Hansen) released his new music video and came out at the same time
• Sam Smith stands up against body shaming
• The 2019 NAACP Image Awards snubbed the ground-ground-breaking TV series from FX Pose
All that and more in this episode of The Randy Report.
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| Sam Smith (photo: Ryan Pfluger) |
Here’s something most of us mere mortals can relate to.
Grammy Award winner Sam Smith posted a shirtless photo of himself on a beach to his Instagram as he works towards overcoming his own sense of body shame.
In the caption, the singer admits he used to starve himself before photoshoots because of what he saw in the mirror.
“Yesterday I decided to fight the fuck back,” wrote Smith. “Reclaim my body and stop trying to change this chest and these hips and these curves that my mum and dad made and love so unconditionally.”
The shirtless pic was shot by photographer Ryan Pfluger on an undisclosed beach.
The post has garnered over 1 million likes since it was posted yesterday.
Here’s Smith’s full caption from the post:
In the past if I have ever done a photo shoot with so much as a t-shirt on, I have starved myself for weeks in advance and then picked and prodded at every picture and then normally taken the picture down.
Yesterday I decided to fight the fuck back. Reclaim my body and stop trying to change this chest and these hips and these curves that my mum and dad made and love so unconditionally.
Some may take this as narcissistic and showing off but if you knew how much courage it took to do this and the body trauma I have experienced as a kid you wouldn’t think those things.
Thank you for helping me celebrate my body AS IT IS @ryanpfluger I have never felt safer than I did with you.
I’ll always be at war with this bloody mirror but this shoot and this day was a step in the right fucking direction.
Tons of fans applauded the post, including America’s Next Top Model champ Nyle DiMarco, who wrote, “You look beautiful and I love that you’re embracing yourself. The benefits of embracing yourself outweigh the fallbacks of hiding. ALWAYS BE YOU!”
Out singer/songwriter (and newly-crowned 3-time Grammy Award winner) Brandi Carlile chimed in, “Sam. You look absolutely beautiful and healthy and you always have to me. You are a fucking dream. No one like you – I will get in a bar fight with anyone who says anything less.”
Sarah Jessica Parker added, “Simply divine my friend. Never more beautiful. I miss you.”
Pfluger posted the photo on his own Instagram, writing,
“My MFA thesis was on how photography is therapy. I did a TEDx talk on how photography is therapy. I feel so lucky to have met the people I have in my career & even luckier to create meaningful connections after working with people. @samsmith thank you for trusting me to facilitate photographs that empower your ownership of your body and mind. I honestly wish everyone relinquished themselves to the experience like you did. An experience that has brought us closer together & I look forward to creating with you through the years. All the love. Xoxo”
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| InstaHunk Dan Tai |
Some news items you might have missed:
• InstaHunk Dan Tai asks, “Do you count your macros?” I don’t even know what that means (I’m sure it’s important) because calves, biceps, deltoids, face…
• Desperate Housewives/Ugly Betty star Vanessa Williams has been tapped for a lead role in Happy Accident, ABC’s family comedy pilot from the writers of Modern Family. #Yay!
• Congressional Republicans aren’t fond of Donald Trump’s idea to declare a ‘national emergency’ in order to get his beloved wall, but they’ve signaled they won’t put up a stink if he does.
• Reuters reports that The Trump administration’s $1.5 trillion cut tax package appeared to have no major impact on businesses’ capital investment or hiring plans.
• A new Washington Post/ABC News poll shows 56% of registered voters will “definitely” not vote for Donald Trump in the 2020 election.
• And speaking of the 2020 election, Sen. Kamala Harris of California broke records Monday night when her televised town hall became the most viewed event of its kind in cable news history with 1.957 million views. The event drew the most viewers of any cable-news, single-candidate town hall.
• Out singer/songwriter Sam Smith and former Fifth Harmony member Normani release their sensual, moody music video for their hit duet, “Dancing with a Stranger.”
Alone in a lavish mansion, both artists are attempting to get over former lovers. I like the song; not sure about Normani’s dancing in the middle there, but I guess it’s in the title so someone had to dance…?
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| (image via Facebook/SamSmith) |
Out singer/songwriter Sam Smith drops his latest, “Dancing With a Stranger,” an R&B mid tempo pop duet with former Fifth Harmony member, Normani.
Speaking to Billboard, Smith says the new song, “Bottles everything I was feeling whilst juggling my personal life and touring.”
”It is also such a beautiful moment for me as I’m a huge, huge fan of Normani and everything she is,” said the 4-time Grammy Award winner. “I’m so excited to watch her light shine.”
Normani returned the mutual love telling Billboard, “I never thought in a trillion years that I would be able to state that I have a record with this extremely gifted being.”
You have to imagine there are echoes from his breakup last summer with 13 Reasons Why star Brandon Flynn mixed into the recording as he sings: “I don’t want to be alone tonight, It’s pretty clear that I’m not over you, I’m still thinking ‘bout the things you do, So I don’t want to be alone tonight.”
In September, Smith shared with The Times, “I’m still trying to figure out what I took from that relationship and what it meant to me.”
He added, “It’s still quite raw.”
Listen to Sam Smith & Normani’s “Dancing With a Stranger” below.
As we come off our post-Pose withdrawal, Calvin Harris comes to the rescue with his latest dance track, “Promises,” featuring Sam Smith, which celebrates the world of LGBTQ ball culture.
The new Vogue-themed video opens with dancers describing the allure of the ball scene and the freedom that comes with it.
“It’s fantasy,” says one dancer. “One hundred percent fantasy.”
“Growing up in the Bronx you have to carry this tough skin,” says another. “Finding ‘Vogue,’ it allowed me to express myself in a way that I couldn’t express myself anywhere else.”
“Find that ‘inner person’ and you just kinda let it out.”
“You really can do anything, in that world, and be accepted,” extols another dancer before adding, “Be celebrated – not just accepted – be celebrated.”
The music video continues with Smith singing as several dancers spin, live, vogue and pose for their lives on the ball scene runway.
Along the way you may recognize Kevin Stea, who twirled for Madonna on her Blond Ambition tour.
If you miss Pose, (I know I do) or just want to escape into your own vogue, check out the new video below.
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| Sam Smith (image via Instagram) |
“Too Good At Goodbyes” is out singer/songwriter Sam Smith’s newest release since his Academy Award winning James Bond theme, “Writing’s On The Wall.”
“The song is about a relationship I was in and it’s basically about getting good at getting dumped,” Smith said in a press release. “It’s been a long while since I’ve put any music out and I feel that this first single sets the tone of what is to come.”
Variety reviews the track:
For the first minute of the song, Smith’s voice is joined only by the sparsest and most basic piano chords, along with some finger-snapping. Eventually a light beat kicks in, then a gospel choir, as if to almost mock Smith’s romantic lamentation by raising it to the level of spiritual battle. Those extra production elements drop out as easily as they drop in, though, until it’s finally just piano and fingers again, then a sobby, a cappella closing line.
Maybe you’d also like a majestic bridge that never arrives; that may be the missing element that leaves “Goodbyes” shy of being a pop classic. But Smith’s magical, tragical voice is its own kind of classicism, melting you with its vulnerability even as he tries some swagger on for size as part of his exit strategy.
4.5 million views in one day.
Listen below. Let me know in the comments what you think 🙂
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| (via Instagram) |
Some news items you might have missed:
• Roberto Caccamo gets a jump start on the weekend. #ThisBeMeIn321
• Four-time Grammy Award winner/out singer-songwriter Sam Smith announces new music due out next week.
• L’Oréal fires transgender model Munroe Bergdorf for speaking out against racism.
• Hollywood is singing the blues as summer comes to an end and the LA Times reports the lowest number of movie tickets sold in the U.S. since 1992.
• Green Bay Packers QB Aaron Rodgers says society is getting better about accepting gays in the locker room, but players still have “a fear of job security” if they might come out.
• September is National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, a time to connect with those affected by suicide and to share resources to better support individuals to prevent suicide. According to a 2016 study by the Center for Disease Control, 43% of lesbian, gay and bisexual high school students seriously considered suicide in the previous 12 months, compared to 15 percent of their heterosexual peers. Find more info at the Human Rights Campaign.
• Dance into the weekend with these new remixes of “Carefully Taught” by Tony/Grammy Award winner Billy Porter and India.Arie. The first is by Quentin Harris, the second by John J-C Carr.