Olly Alexander announces new album Polari along with single ‘Cupid’s Bow’
It's a banger!
By Alim Kheraj
Olly Alexander has announced his upcoming new album Polari and shared its lead single, the pounding banger ‘Cupid’s Bow’.
Taking it’s name from the coded language previously used by gay men – which itself originated from the Romani community in the 1600s – the record is Alexander’s first album to be released under his own name. He previously put out music with the band Years & Years.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Alexander said he first came across the word Polari when he was 15, shortly after coming out.
“I’ve always loved songs that play with hidden meanings, symbols and subtext” – Olly Alexander
“I knew it was some kind of ‘lost gay language’ but I didn’t take too much interest in gay history back then,” he wrote. “Looking at the past felt difficult.”
The 34-year-old said that playing Ritchie in Russell T. Davies‘s Channel 4 HIV/AIDS drama, It’s a Sin, shifted things for him.
“I loved learning about queer history so much, it gave me a new way to understand myself,” said the star, who represented the UK at Eurovision this year. (Eurovision winner Nemo meanwhile appears on the cover of the new issue of Attitude, below).
For his first album released under his own name, Alexander said he wanted to “distill the purest essence of whatever it is inside of me”. Together with producer Danny L Harle (Carly Rae Jepsen, Caroline Polachek, Dua Lipa), he took inspiration from queer artists that have come before him.
“I’ve always loved songs that play with hidden meanings, symbols and subtext,” he wrote. “Many queer people will understand a penchant for secrets and codes, having had a backlog of thousands of years where we were unable to live openly.”
In the language of Polari, Alexander said he found a guiding light: “Here was a story that spans centuries, filled with hidden meanings and forbidden love.”
Accompanying the announcement of the album is the release of the lead single ‘Cupid’s Bow’, which was produced by Harle.
According to a press release, the record will also arrive “alongside audio-visual world-building in which Olly is in complete control, from its anarchic Derek Jarman-inspired aesthetic to Olly even writing a short play accompanying its release, full of cowboys, gods, and the occasional music industry exec”.
To support the album, Alexander will head out on an intimate European and UK tour in 2025. See the UK and Irish dates below:
Tues 1 April – Dublin 3Olympia Theatre
Weds 2 April – Birmingham Town Hall
Thurs 3 April – Glasgow Barrowland Ballroom
Fri 4 April – Manchester Factory International, Aviva Studios
Sun 6 April – Briston Beacon
Mon 7 April – London Palladium
Tickets for the Up Close and Polari tour go on sale 18 October. Polari releases on 7 February 2025 and is available to pre-order now.
The Attitude Awards issue 2024. To read the full interview, order your copy now or check out the Attitude app.
