Superstar Billy Porter is known for making a splash at every red carpet event, party and (we assume) grocery store outing with his colourful and show-stopping fashion choices. But with award shows and red carpets hitting the pause button during the pandemic lockdown, Billy's hung up the bottom-half of his couture closet, whipped out far-more-comfortable swim trunks, and recorded a new song to celebrate Pride month. Or as he put it, “virtual Pride"—because PRIDE'S NOT CANCELLED, it's just online.Porter has collaborated with The Shapeshifters (AKA house producer Simon Marlin) from the U.K. for the dance track "Finally Ready." As Billy told James Corden on
The Late Late Show, “I just wanted to inject something really positive into the world at this time, and dance music is so joyful and sort of healing. It’s a song that’s from the perspective of being a Black gay man of a certain age–50–having lived long enough to see something like gay marriage happen, but not understanding what love was really about. What real intimacy was about.”
“You know, this whole marriage equality thing has really changed the landscape for us,” the
Pose star continued via video-chat from his home. “And our love matters. It matters. And this song is about figuring out that I am finally ready to experience fully what real love is, and it’s just very exciting.” To keep the Pride celebration going, Billy will also be appearing in the three-hour digital "
She's a Riot" rally June 25 to mark the 50th anniversary of the first LGBT Pride Parade which was one year after the 1969 Stonewall Riots led by Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera.While he's clearly quite busy, Billy, who is on lockdown with his husband Adam Smith (“We’ve spent more time with each other in three months than we have in six years! It’s been great, it’s been amazing!”), also spoke about using extra free time to write a letter to his younger self for
Soho House Magazine. In that letter, he wrote to 12-year-old Billy: “You will hear many well-meaning people tell you they see a leading man in you, ‘if only you could butch it up’. But ‘if only’ will never have to come, because there is a stage being prepared for you as you speak: one that is yours to claim if you continue to bring all of yourself wherever you go.”[video_embed id='1977596']RELATED: What will a virtual Pride month look like? [/video_embed]“I just wish that I could have seen images of myself reflected back,” he explained to James. “Recently, within the last 20 years or so, we really have started to have the conversation about representation in the mainstream and how powerful that is for people who are on the margin to see themselves reflected back so they can simply understand that it’s going to be all right. There are other like us in the world."Continuing to pump up his past self, Billy wrote: “Perseverance is in your DNA. I don’t know whatever that thing is inside of you that keeps you going. I don’t know why you have it, but you do. And you’re never going to stop. Don’t EVER give up. Don’t ever stop wanting what you want. Don’t ever give up dreaming.”Explaining that mantra to James, he said, “There was no Plan B. The only thing I had was my art […] and the joy that that gave me, even inside of there not being work for me […]. The art was always the thing that kept me focused and kept me moving forward. That’s all I can attribute it to.”Watch
The Late Late Show with James Corden weekdays at 12:37ET on CTV.[video_embed id='1982939']BEFORE YOU GO: Canada’s first comedy album by a LGBTQ+ comedian of colour is here! [/video_embed]
