Troye Sivan, an openly (and unapologetically) gay pop star, is living proof to the entire music industry that, yes, the world is finally ready.
“From before I knew I was gay, I knew I wanted to be a singer, so I didn’t ever want to let [my sexuality] change that trajectory,” said Troye Sivan. “I’m just doing what all the other pop stars are doing: writing love songs, singing love songs and putting love interests in my music videos. I think there’s power in living openly and truthfully, while also being gay.”
Troye first came out to his father when he was 14 years old, and did it through a conversation about Judaism. As he told The Sydney Morning Herald, he asked his father one night what, if anything, he would change about Judaism; his father said that he would change the way the Orthodox tenets of the religion approach homosexuality. Sivan agreed, and used this as an opening to share his sexuality with his own father — a revelation that his dad, and the rest of his family, accepted with open arms.
In 2013, when Sivan was 18, he publicly came out in a straightforward, heartfelt video on his YouTube channel. In fact, he came out even earlier than that within the industry, right before he signed the record deal for “Blue Neighbourhood” — which, Sivan says, “allowed me from day one to write music that was completely honest.”
Troye released a trilogy of videos for “Blue Neighbourhood,” which ends in a suicide by a queer teen. “At the end of the day I wanted to show young, queer love in the same light that hetero love is shown,” Sivan says of the trilogy. “And just how violently that can be torn apart by a non-accepting environment.”
His first American hit was the song “YOUTH” and the neon purple-hued music video for that song — complete with teenagers partying and same sex couples canoodling — now has 94 million views on YouTube. The song landed on the No. 1 spot on Billboard’s Hot Club Play chart and has been certified Platinum in the U.S.
Portrayals of LGBT people have been a priority for Sivan in all of his music videos, because, “being a gay guy myself, I have such vivid memories of the few times I saw any type of LGBT relationship on TV or in music videos.” “HEAVEN,” his single with Betty Who, is something of a gay video anthem, with black-and-white montages of gay activists and same-sex couples throughout history.
In addition to singing, Troye has found the acting bug. His first-ever acting role was playing a young Hugh Jackman in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. He’s done theatre in Australia and will star in Joel Edgerton’s upcoming coming-of-age and coming-out film, Boy Erased, based on a memoir about gay conversion therapy, with Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe, and Lucas Hedges. Troye’s song “Strawberries & Cigarettes” is also featured on the Love, Simon soundtrack, the first major studio film to focus on an LGBT teenage romance. The soundtrack debuted in the top 40 of the Billboard 200 albums chart.
His new single, “My My My!” ushers in a new era of Sivan’s career and cements his status as a queer pop icon. The song is a mature departure from youthful innocence of “Blue Neighbourhood,” with lyrics like “I’ve got your tongue between my teeth” that make it an unambiguous “celebration of sexual desire.” The video features Sivan dancing coquettishly in an empty warehouse, surrounded by shirtless men. As NPR Music puts it: “It’s not every day you see a young, skinny queer kid get to be completely himself in a music video, and Sivan makes us want to dance along with him.”
The album’s second single “The Good Side,” is an open letter to an ex-boyfriend about their breakup. His new album, to be released this spring, will feature a collaboration with long-time friend Ariana Grande.
