Three years after Troye Sivan set a new standard for queer representation in pop music, he’s back ― and more outspoken than ever.
Gearing up for the release of his second album, “Bloom,” the Australian singer-songwriter opened up about music, sexuality and being an LGBTQ icon for the millennial set in a candid, wide-ranging interview with Entertainment Weekly.
Though the 23-year-old has several hits to his name (including the new single “Dance to This,” featuring Ariana Grande), he is still identified in many outlets as “gay artist Troye Sivan.” He doesn’t take issue with that ― for now, anyway.
“There’s hunger for that conversation. So I’ve always been totally fine to talk about and embrace that,” he told EW. “Am I excited for the day where [a headline is] just, ‘Troye Sivan puts out a song’? Sure, yeah, that’s exciting. As I’m excited for the day when a trans woman of color can walk down the street and not fear for her life, you know what I mean? We’ve got so much work to do as a community, and the only way is forward.”
A number of music critics have already noted that the lyrics on Sivan’s sophomore effort, due out Friday, are more frank. The singer confirmed in July that the album’s title track was “about sex” ― a point that had not gone unnoticed by fans and critics when it first hit the airwaves in May.
Sivan acknowledged that progression in the EW interview. He said he “felt pressure to keep things more mild and palatable” on his first album, 2015’s “Blue Neighbourhood,” but was willing to delve deeper and get “a little more real” this time around.
“This time, I was like, no — I want to make music for queer people,” he said while praising other openly queer artists such as Kehlani, Kevin Abstract and Perfume Genius. “I want to make music for people like me, and make something real about what’s actually going on in my life, which … it is what it is.”
Whether Sivan’s parents approve of his interest in pushing the envelope through his songs and performances, however, is another story.
“I don’t think my parents know the lyrics to any of my songs, so I just kind of put faith in that and hope for the best,” he said, then joked: “Well, now they do because everyone and their mum has talked about it. But whatever!”
Read the full Entertainment Weekly interview with Troye Sivan here.
