BILLY PORTER
I’m just trying to figure out how to make sure that my music can connect”
Billy Porter tells SoundExchange.
You know Billy Porter and that’s because Billy Porter is a lot of things. He is a multi -talented, -faceted, -media entity: an accomplished singer, actor, voice actor, dancer, fashionista, activist, author, producer, director, and writer, as well as an LGBTQ+ icon.
While he is all these things – including an Emmy, Grammy and Tony Award winner – Porter is most associated with the Broadway stage for his roles in such shows as Kinky Boots, Dreamgirls, Grease, and Smoky Joe’s Café, and on-screen roles in Pose, American Horror Story, The Broken Hearts Club, and Cinderella. While he’s always been a singer (he released his first R&B album, Untitled, in 1997), his stage and screen successes are something he thinks has tempered fortunes in his recording career.
“I’m just going to tell the honest truth, and it’s not always pleasant,” he tells SoundExchange about his latest single release, “Leap,” which reached streaming services in June 2024. “I’m 54 years old, and I made a pop record, and the gatekeepers of the pop industry have had those doors shut. Not only in an ageist way, but also in a crossover from theater way.”
“We still live in a world where Broadway is corny, until you want to EGOT,” he says, referencing the common parlance for a creator who has won Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony awards, “and the theater community welcomes everybody from that side with open arms. And yet the doors are still bolted shut for people like me and Cynthia Erivo and Leslie Odom, Jr. and Shoshana Bean and all of the new contemporary singers of the theater who deserve a space on the pop chart.”
“Leap” is expected to be featured on the forthcoming EP Black Mona Lisa Vol 2: The Cookout Sessions. When released, the set will be the follow-up to his 2023 album, Black Mona Lisa, on which Porter collaborated with the late Andrea Martin, American singer-songwriter Justin Tranter, and English singer-songwriter MNEK, among others.
“We made a record that I feel is my greatest piece of personal art in terms of my recording,” he says. “This is the first time that I’ve been able to write and produce and put out a record that’s completely me and exactly what I want to be doing. And yet, what we’ve heard is, well, it’s not black enough. Because once again, here we are, and if you’re a black person in the music industry, you’re supposed to sound a certain way.
“’Leap’ was on the album, but it didn’t make it to the album and there are a couple of other pieces that are coming on what I’m calling The Cookout Sessions,” Porter explains. “And just like a mixtape, [it’s] like five or six songs where nobody will ever be able to claim that I’m not black enough again. Nobody. ‘Leap’ is the answer to that coming from the industry. You don’t get blacker than that and you don’t get blacker than The Cookout Sessions.”
Armed with music he believes can break through the barriers he has faced as a recording artist, Porter says he has also realized that because of his acting success, he’s not perceived as a singer by many.
“It took me the first 25 years of my career to get the gatekeepers of the acting industry to take me seriously,” he explains. “And since many people have gotten on the Billy Porter train at different times, a lot of people don’t know that I sing. I don’t understand it, but a lot of people don’t … The initial instinct is to be enraged, and so I allow myself to do that, and now, ‘How do I fix it?’”
One way, Porter says, is to force some change in the perception of him as a music performer, approaching audiences as a different persona.
“I am in the process of shifting. I’m in the process of creating my recording alter ego,” he explains. “This just came to me in London a couple of months ago. I was like, oh my God. We were on set for the film, and we had Donald Glover’s choreographer for ‘This Is America’ and we were talking about Donald. And I thought, “Oh, shit.” He was as hyphenated as me and when he records, he’s Childish Gambino. Beyoncé on her [third] album was I Am Sasha Fierce. Stephani Germanotta is Lady Gaga. Billy Porter is Black Mona Lisa. And so right now I’m in the process of like, shifting that perception so that when people come to see my thing, my music, my pop music, they’re coming to see Black Mona Lisa. I’m doing a U.K. tour in the fall. It’s “Billy Porter is ‘Black Mona Lisa.’” I’m slowly shifting so that audiences can wrap their mind around this latest incarnation of me.”
Not unlike creators half his age, Porter says he is also exploring avenues beyond the mainstream gatekeepers to expose audiences to his music.
“I know exactly who I am and exactly what I’ve accomplished, and I don’t have mainstream hits. I just don’t. It’s okay,” he says matter-of-factly. “Do I need them in this market? I don’t think so. I do feel like the tools that we have in social media and all the different ways to put music out has cracked open a space for me to not have to rely on the old traditions. I believe that, and I’m just trying to figure out what those are.”
Porter spent a lot of time this summer on the road, hosting, grand marshalling, and performing his music at Pride events around the U.S., including Miami, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Dallas, Atlanta, and Nashville.
“It’s been amazing to go out and be with my people,” he says. “My music is my ministry, and that’s what I try to do every time I show up and it’s working. You know, I’m there, I’m with the people and it’s working, and it’s amazing. I’m having an amazing time.”
He also hosted iHeartMedia’s annual streaming Can’t Cancel Pride event, during which he was honored with the Elton John Impact Award for his advocacy of marginalized communities, LGBTQ+ rights, HIV care, racial justice, and gender equity. The award was presented to Porter by Elton John himself.
“Billy embodies authenticity, tirelessly using his platform to dismantle harmful stigmas,” John said when bestowing the award upon Porter during the event. “Whether it’s on TV screens or radio airwaves, Billy infuses every project with powerful LGBTQ+ representation, making a profound and lasting impact on audiences around the world. For these reasons and more, he is truly deserving of this honor. Thank you for being your authentic, trailblazing self, Billy!”
Porter tells SoundExchange that the honor was very personal for him. “Elton was the first queer artist that I experienced, and he wasn’t out, but he was always queer,” he says. “And I remember Elton was also a crossover too. This was a time when music, good music was just good music, and it wasn’t so siloed as it was. And so, black people love Elton John. He’s been such an inspiration to me, coming out in 1985 at 16 years old and going straight to the front lines to fight for our lives during the AIDS crisis. He and Elizabeth Taylor were two of the mainstream stars that stepped up for us, and it made a difference.”
While the award recognizes all that Porter has done, it also places him firmly in a leadership position. It’s not something he’s entirely comfortable with, preferring in the past to show up wherever he was needed to do the work others were organizing. But he sees how his role as an activist is changing and he’s coming to terms with it.
“In this moment, the universe, God, or whatever is saying, ‘You’re a leader now, Billy. You have to step up,’” he continues. “It’s taken me some time to be able to honor that. I’m in a space of expansion right now. And I’m just trying to receive it and own it and continue to build upon that part of my legacy.”
Building on his legacy of advocacy, Porter is also using his music to be a voice in the political arena, including the song “Not Today,” written with The Shapeshifters, on the forthcoming Cookout Sessions EP. “I wrote that for the election,” he says. “I’m a surrogate for the election, so I’m so excited to get out and be able to get people to the polls, baby. Democracy is at stake honey, for real!”
While some in the entertainment sphere shy away from speaking out around politics, Porter is not concerned.
“I remind people of that when sometimes they ask me to not be political, and I say, “Well, you called the wrong person,” he says emphatically. “I will always be political. If you want somebody to not be political, there are plenty of people who are. But not being political is what got us in this mess in the first place. So, no. The answer is no. I am political in every breath I take. Everything is political. Particularly in this moment, and so I love being able to have the history of that and have a ministry inside of that with my art.”
“Toni Morrison talks about it, [she] said this is precisely the time when artists go to work,” he adds. “There’s no room for fear, there’s no time for shame, this is how civilizations heal. We write, we do language, this is how civilizations heal. I need to commit that to memory. I feel like we’re healers. Artists are healers, and it’s time for us to get to work, y’all.”