- 2022-08-19
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MUSIC
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Donate to support families affected by the crisis in Ukraine ➔ Darren Hayes Announces New Album “Homosexual”, Shares New Song “All You Pretty Things”
Australian singer-songwriter Darren Hayes announced his fifth studio album “Homosexual” would be released on October 9, 2022.
It is his first album in 11 years since the 2011 album “Secret Codes and Battleships”.
From the album, he released a new song “All You Pretty Things” on August 18, 2022.
The track was written and produced by by Darren Hayes.
Darren Hayes said of the song, “I decided to write a song about their happiness frozen in time in a way they deserved to be remembered. I connected that joyful moment to the LGBTQI musical pioneers who have inspired me, now long passed, and those political activists responsible for the freedoms I enjoy today.”
He continued, “I came up with my own way to say thank you with a simple phrase: 'We’ve Got To Dance to Remember Them.' Ultimately, that’s where my own freedom began. I really came out and into myself on the dance floor and that’s where my tribute continues.”
Also, the song is dedicated to the victims of the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting.
He said in a statement, “The Pulse tragedy felt particularly personal to me because it was one of the first mass shootings that had occurred since my husband and I moved back to live permanently in the United States. It broke my heart that this violence was unleashed upon an already marginalized group of people in a space that was supposed to be a place of celebration and refuge.”- The new album comprises 14-track. “I named my album ‘Homosexual’ for a variety of reasons. The most obvious, is that I’m a gay man who grew up in an era when that word was used to shame and vilify people like me, so I wanted to reclaim it, Darren Hayes said of the album. “I’m also a recording artist who came up in an era where being openly gay was frowned upon and I experienced first hand, the attempted erasure of my true identity from the marketing department of a major record label. But perhaps the most important reason I chose this title is that in 2022, I’m living in a time and in a country where the freedoms of LGBTQI+ people are more at risk than they’ve ever been. Moments like the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill in Florida, or the constant attacks on trans people, have made it clear to me that now is the time to be as loud as possible about who I am.”
He continued, “So on the front cover of my album, I’m proudly lounging upon my version of a stairway to heaven. Emblazoned across me, in the brightest hot pink neon, is a word the 11-year-old me used to be terrified of. I lounge proudly underneath the electric buzz of this symbol, this term that used to be used to denigrate people like me. Now it’s my word. Now it means whatever I want it to mean. If you haven’t worked it out yet, I think it means something magical, amazing, unique and essential. My name is Darren Hayes. And I’m a proud Homosexual.” -
Photo by James Reese
Background photo by Lindsay Adler - source : Apple Music
