Olly Alexander: 'It's sad gay popstars don't use male pronouns'

Olly Alexander has said he finds it “sad” that gay male pop stars still rarely use male pronouns in their lyrics.

In an interview with DigitalSpy, the 24-year-old Years & Years frontman – who is in a relationship with Clean Bandit’s Neil Amin-Smith – admitted there was “still a way to go” when it came to gay artists in the music industry.

Discussing the references to boys on the band’s upcoming debut album Communion – which is released in the UK on July 10 – Olly said: “It was important for me to get some male pronouns in some of the songs, so I did it for Real and Memo, and then one song on the deluxe.

“It is kind of sad to me that we don’t have gay popstars singing about men using a male pronoun, but that could change hopefully.”

He continued: “There are loads of reasons why an artist is successful and I think what people loved about Sam [Smith] was that it felt like it was coming from an authentic place.

“But I think, yeah, there’s still a way to go. I’d like to hear a gay artist express their sexuality in a really open way.”

On being one of the few openly gay pop stars in the business, he added that to change the industry, people had to be honest about themselves.

“I get asked, ‘How do you feel being a spokesperson for gay issues?’, and what I’ve come to think is I can’t speak for all gay people, because there are so many different issues, and experiences, and different shapes and sizes,” he said.

“But I can speak for myself, and that is what I’m doing if I’m going to be writing songs and giving interviews, I want to be able to speak about something I care about.

“I also believe if you want the world to change, or you want to see social change, you have to be an embodiment of it, so I am 100% for pushing equality and equal rights always.

“I guess that is as much part of the agenda as the music is really, because it’s just who I am.”

Meanwhile, Years & Years are currently on course to top the UK Singles Chart this weekend with their new single Shine, which was inspired by Olly’s relationship with Neil – click here to watch the video.

We recently sat down ourselves with Olly for an in-depth chat about life, love, and music, and discussed the topic of his sexuality – read what he had to say here.

Olly Alexander: ‘It’s sad gay popstars don’t use male pronouns’

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