“To have the opportunity to share my live performance during Pride has always been a dream.”
Janelle Monaé has been announced as the headliner for New York City Pride 2020 (!).
In a statement, the Grammy Award-winning performer said Pride events “means so much to so many of us, and to have the opportunity to share my live performance during Pride has always been a dream.”
Janelle, who joins previously announced stars Betty Who, Pussy Riot, and Luísa Sonza, continued to say that Pride in NYC is a “rite of passage for a queer person” and is “grateful for the community it creates and I can’t wait to party with everyone.”
It will mark the star’s first ever Pride performance since coming out as queer in 2018.
“Being a queer black woman in America, someone who has been in relationships with both men and women – I consider myself to be a free-ass motherfucker,” she revealed in an interview with Rolling Stone.
“I read about pansexuality and was like, ‘Oh, these are things that I identify with too.'”
Janelle attended her first Pride Parade last year in New Orleans.
“It was so incredible, people were so happy. The thing that made me really teary-eyed was seeing young Black kids with their moms there,” she told People at the time. “Their moms brought them and were standing by their sides.”
She also said that, despite having full support from her mother, “Growing up, though, I could not have imagined…there are also so many kids who don’t have that, young and old, who don’t have that community.”
Last year, Janelle dedicated her Grammy nominations for Dirty Computer to the trans community, telling Variety: “My trans brother and sisters, they do it every day. And they are shunned from these sorts of events. So this one is for them.”
In January, she also expressed support for the non-binary community by tweeting, “#IAmNonbinary.”
“It resonated with me, especially as someone who has pushed boundaries of gender since the beginning of my career,” she later told The Cut. “I feel my feminine energy, my masculine energy, and energy I can’t even explain.”
As well as receiving acclaim for her music, Janelle has been praised for her performances in Academy Award-winning films such as Hidden Figures, Moonlight (both 2016) and Harriet (2019).
She can next be seen in the upcoming horror drama, Antebellum – watch the trailer below.
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