Big Freedia’s voice has always been a force — loud, joyful, defiant — but on her new album, “Pressing Onward,” it becomes something even more powerful: a vessel for healing.
The Queen of Bounce returns to her gospel origins on a deeply personal new project that fuses the church music of her youth with the high-energy New Orleans sound she helped bring to the mainstream. Inspired by her roots in New Orleans’ Pressing Onward Missionary Baptist Church, the record wasn’t born from grief, but now reflects it — alongside resilience, celebration, resistance and self-affirmation — following the loss of her partner of 20 years, Devon Hurst, in May, and at a time when the world feels especially hostile to trans and queer communities.
We talked about all of that: finding sanctuary in music, redefining what worship can look like and why this album might be the most Big Freedia thing she’s ever done.
What is it about this era of political backlash against trans and queer people that made it the right time to finally blend your gospel roots with bounce music?
It’s just perfect timing given the state of the world that we’re in. But this album is also definitely a big part of my healing process right now. I just recently lost my partner of 20 years, and so this album has been definitely a help in that process, with being able to continue to give God the praise and glory even in my most toughest moments.
I’m very sorry to hear about Devon. I hope that you’re taking good care of yourself.
Thank you. One day at a time.
- Advertisement -
What was happening in your world when you recorded these songs?
I was in a very happy space, going back to my childhood and my young adult days of being in a choir. Just really stepping back into those moments — they were kind of the best days of my life, just growing up in church, being young and full of energy, and finding out all about God, and who God is. It was a fun time in my life, and I’m just so happy to be able to finally be able to bring these moments forward and share them with the world.
Every queer person’s journey with faith is different. I was raised Catholic and often felt like I had to choose between my identity and my relationship with God. This album feels like something I wish I had as a kid — it might’ve helped me feel like there was space for me in the church.
Well, everybody’s welcome here at the Big Freedia gospel, no matter who you are, no matter what walk of life — Black, white, gay, straight. This is a church that don’t judge you. This is a church that you could come and be who you are and love who you want to love and also connect back with God, connect to your higher power and bring joy into people’s lives. Every gay person definitely was not accepted in their church spaces, and I’m grateful to be able to have a church that accepted me and opened their arms really wide for me and allowed me to still continue to be myself.
Did your faith help you become closer to who you actually are?
Oh, most definitely. My church was my safe haven. It was a way for me to stay out of the hood and be protected from the things that I grew up around in my neighborhood — because I saw it all, from poverty, to drugs, to killings. And the church saved my life. My mom would always push us out to church on Saturday. Choir rehearsal on Sunday. We would be in Sunday school and church service sometimes on Friday night. My life was all about church. I stayed in church 24/7.
Bounce music and gospel might seem like unlikely siblings to some, but you blend them so seamlessly on this album. What was your approach to honoring both traditions without compromising either?
Just going in and being myself and bringing Big Freedia to gospel. It allowed me to bring myself to those moments because bounce and gospel have similar feelings of spirit. When you come to a Big Freedia bounce show, it’s like a revival, so they’re very much connected with the spirits, especially culturally. Black Baptist churches, when we catch the Holy Ghost, or even when we do bounce dancing, they’re very similar to what we do here in New Orleans.
This album carries a strong thread of healing, joy and perseverance. Which track was the most emotional or cathartic for you to record?
One of the tracks that really sticks out to me and and really touches my soul is “Let It Rain” — wanting God’s blessings to continue to rain down over me like a tornado. It’s one of those songs that is really touching my spirit and my soul. There’s so many great songs on there, like “Highway to Heaven,” “All I Need” and “Holy Shuffle,” just all different things that really touch me.
And I’m grateful for every song on this album. You know, it was so hard to get to the 14 songs that I did pick out of 40 songs. I have about 40 songs written and all of them were recorded demos. And so we had to narrow it down to 14. So, hopefully, there’s a second Big Freedia album, or a deluxe version, that will be coming out where you’ll get the ones that didn’t make it.
How do you personally define worship now? Is it still tied to a church building, or has it become something bigger?
Well, it’s not exactly tied to a church building, because a lot of times I’m on the road. But we have gospel Sundays in the van. We pray before everything that we do, especially a show. This team is built on prayer and faith; we all come from church, we’re all church babies. For gospel Sundays, everybody’s picking their favorite gospel songs. It’s about your connection with God. The church is the people, the place where we go. The building is just the building. The church is made up by the people.
Some of these songs are so big and vibrant — I can imagine what they must feel like performed in a church setting. What did it feel like for you in a recording studio?
Oh, I had a great time. In those moments, I was just giving God the glory and the praise, sitting back thinking about when I was a child and growing up in the Baptist church. It just brought back so many great memories and I was able to be in there in my true element.
I grew up with the belief that God wasn’t for me. As I’ve gotten older, we obviously have people — far-right Evangelicals — who might look at a record like this and think that since you’re gender nonconforming, you can’t have a relationship with God. What do you say to those people?
God loves everybody, no matter who we are. God loves us all. He knows everything about us and who we are before we even know who we are. So don’t let nobody tell you that you can’t love God because you’re gay.
Right now, we’re seeing trans and gender-nonconforming people fight just to exist. Did you feel a kind of responsibility, or or even a righteous anger, while making this album?
No. I did it for me more than anything, and when I do music for me, I give it my all. I put my best foot forward, and I know that if I love it, my fans are going to love it, and that’s where I was at with it. I just went in a studio and gave my absolute best with this album, and I think it’s my best album yet.
You’ve got some iconic collaborators on it, including Billy Porter, Tamar Braxton and K. Michelle. What did each of them bring into the room creatively and spiritually?
Everybody also has a church background. So everybody was able to bring their flavor to the Big Freedia gospel. I gave them free range to be able to do whatever they felt and to bring their vibe and their spirit to the record, and so they did exactly that. And I’m so grateful for all of my collaborators. I also have Dawn Richard on there, and it’s just an amazing project. I hope that the world gets to enjoy it like I’m enjoying it.
Have the people who went to the church you grew up in heard any of the album, and what do they think?
I know for sure my godmother, Georgia, the head choir director at Pressing Onward; she was there with me while I did the recordings. She was a full part of the process of making this album and so I dedicated a part of this album to her. Part of the album is also dedicated to Devon, who got to hear and listen to the album before his passing. So this is a very special record for me, and I have to continue to press on, even in the midst of my times of grief and loss and hardships right now.
I admire that you’ve been so open about the loss of Devon. I can’t imagine what that must feel like for you.
It’s been the hardest, toughest two months of my life losing Devon, you know. It’s something that I never expected, especially not that soon. I’m just taking it one step at a time, and I continue to ask God to give me strength.
Does it change the way that these songs resonate with you?
Oh yeah, most definitely. These songs are my healing process. It’s helping me to be able to get through these moments. These are some really, really tough moments, some tough days, some tough nights. Being with somebody for 20 years and not being able to come home to them any longer… the music is what’s helping to feed the soul and feed the spirit.
I’m thinking about all the things that you’ve accomplished in your long career, and it’s a long list. A hotel opening in 2026, a cannabis brand, this gospel album. What’s still on the list of things that you’d like to accomplish?
There’s so many things that I want to do. Some here locally in New Orleans, like opening a homeless shelter. There are many things that I want to continue to do to help to elevate the community and those in the music industry. I want to keep on breaking barriers and opening more doors for other people to walk through and bring their music to the world. Give advice. Just the whole nine yards of opening the pathway, making it even bigger, and elevating bounce to the next level and continuing to push New Orleans artists and other artists around the world to be able to be themselves. If I did it, they could do it as well.
You reached a career pinnacle when you guested on Beyoncé’s “Break My Soul” in 2023. What goes through your mind now knowing your voice is such a powerful part of a Beyoncé song that had such a global impact?
I’m just forever grateful to Beyoncé and to the Beyhive for being able to collaborate with great artists like Beyoncé and to cross-collaborate with different genres of music and represent New Orleans and put New Orleans culture on the map. It’s a big thing for me, and I’m forever grateful.
