MUSIC
Lil Nas X’s Grammy Gold
Tracy Young, Tyler the Creator win, too
Out gay rapper Lil Nas X stole the spotlight with his pink leather outfi t at the Grammys on January 26.
BY MATT TRACY
He came with pink leather and
left with gold hardware!
Out gay rapper Lil Nas
X, sporting a pink westerninspired
Versace outfit complete with a
harness, snagged two Grammy awards
on January 26 as he continued to ride
the wave of his hit debut song “Old Town
Road.”
The 20-year-old artist and his sidekick
Billy Ray Cyrus, who collaborated
with him on the famous “Old Town
Road” remix, won Best Pop Duo/Group
Performance and Best Music Video for
their work on the song that shattered
records when it sat atop Billboard’s Hot
100 chart for a whopping 19 consecutive
weeks.
Lil Nas X, who came out at the end
of June last year, went on to delight the
crowd at the Staples Center with performances
“Old Town Road” and another
one of his songs, “Rodeo.”
While the spotlight was on Lil Nas X,
other queer artists quietly made important
history. Out lesbian DJ Tracy Young
won Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical
for her remix of Madonna’s song “I
Rise,” making Young the first woman to
win in that category. Young turned to Instagram
after she received her award to
PHOTO TWITTER/ LILNASX
“thank my LGBTQ family, friends, clubgoers,
and music lovers who have supported
my career from the start.”
She added, “We have shattered the
glass ceiling together, in a male-dominated
industry.”
Plus, although out bisexual music star
Lady Gaga did not attend the Grammys,
she still made an impact — and it wasn’t
for singing. She was among four songwriters,
along with Natalie Hemby, Hillary
Lindsey and Aaron Raitiere, to receive
Best Song Written for Visual Media
for the song “I’ll Never Love Again” from
the film “A Star Is Born.” For that same
film, Gaga also landed a Grammy for
Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual
Media, giving her a total of 11 Grammy
awards for her career.
And Tyler the Creator, who as recently
as 2011 used “faggot” and other anti-gay
slurs 212 times in his debut album (according
to the Guardian), snagged the
Best Rap Album Grammy for “IGOR,” his
second album in a row to feature lyrics
suggesting he’s queer. (He recently talked
to GQ about having sex with men.)
But that wasn’t all: Out gay “Pose” star
Billy Porter managed to make a splash
without even winning any awards. He
turned heads with his sparkly blue hat
featuring motor-powered crystal curtains
that opened and closed.
GayCityNews.com | January 30 - February 12, 2020 35
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