WWW.PRIDE.COM
Fletcher 'understands' how some fans feel about 'Boy' but has to live authentically
Fletcher has just dropped her third studio album, Would You Still Love Me If You Really Knew Me? But instead of the normal full-throated excitement that comes when a beloved artist releases a new album, fans' feelings are a little more complex this time around and it sounds as if Fletcher's are, too.The "Undrunk" singer spoke with Out about the album itself, as well as the response to the album's first single. "Boy" came out at the start of Pride month, and confirmed something fans had long suspected: Fletcher, whose music has mostly been about her love for women, had fallen in love with a man.While some fans felt betrayed, others felt represented by her in a new way, thrilled to have her singing music about the bisexual experience."I think it is so interesting because I have received thousands and thousands of comments and messages of people being like, 'I feel really seen,'" she told Out.At the same time, she acknowledged that "everybody is so deeply entitled to their response, to the feeling that it evokes, to their perception, to the way that it landed for them. It's so valid, and I think this is such a complex and nuanced conversation."She's not wrong about that. And it's one that's been on the sapphic community's minds lately, what with JoJo Siwa (who previously identified as a lesbian) also announcing her relationship with fellow Big Brother UK contestant Chris Hughes shortly before "Boy" was released.For Fletcher, this is all understandably about making sure she's living her most authentic life. For marginalized fans, no longer finding something recognizable or relatable in a queer artist's music can open up larger questions of representation and belonging. Neither is wrong, and that's something Fletcher seems aware of herself."I do not take lightly that I have been such important representation for so many people," she said, "and to anybody who felt anger or frustration or confusion or abandoned in some way, or the rug was pulled out from underneath them, I understand all of that and I see you and I love you."Although Fletcher says it's "totally fucking OK" if her music doesn't resonate with everyone the same way it once did, she says she's "stoked to see how much [queer] music there is" now, and "how much has evolved over the last 10 years."I'm not sure just how much lesbian pop music fans would agree with that. There may be far more out queer female performers than there once were, but the majority of the music they make is still about men, just like the majority of the relationships they publicize are still with men. But hopefully one thing we can all agree on is that it's not up to Fletcher, or any other artist, to singularly carry the weight of that and certainly not at the expense of her own truth."That is the lens that I view my life through. So no matter who I'm in a relationship with, no matter what body parts they have, no matter how they identify, no matter what gender they are, someone is in a relationship with a queer woman and that is the perspective that I bring, the curiosity and the open-mindedness and the open-heartedness to everything that I look at in my life is through that lens," she said. "And that is why being queer is the greatest fucking gift of all time. I wouldn't trade that for anything."
0 Commentarii 0 Distribuiri 73 Views 0 previzualizare