Gay Artists

Australia’s Daily Telegraph reports: As a coach on The Voice, Boy George is encouraging his artists to find a new meaning when covering iconic pop songs and it seems the Culture Club front man has been taking his own advice. The ’80s pop icon has rerecorded the Village People classic YMCA in order to shine a light on issues important …

Via press release from GLAAD: Today MNDR and Scissor Sisters release a charity single called “SWERLK.”  Proceeds from the single will go to Contigo Fund, which emerged from the Pulse mass shooting and offers financial support to organizations working to heal, educate and empower LGBTQ and Latinx individuals, immigrants and people of color, as well as those working to end …

“Celebrating my birthday in Manchester as news of the Manchester Arena bomb broke. The anger is monumental. or what reason will this ever stop? Theresa May says such attacks ‘will not break us’, but her own life is lived in a bullet-proof bubble, and she evidently does not need to identify any young people today in Manchester morgues. Also, ‘will …

The Upcoming reports: Elton John and long time co-writer Bernie Taupin have made some of the most famous pop songs of the 20th century. Many of the pair’s biggest hits came during a highly productive period in the early 70s, with songs including Tiny Dancer, Rocket Man and Bennie and the Jets. This period of work formed the basis of …

Wildly popular YouTube comedian Randy Rainbow usually turns to Broadway classics for his scathingly funny songs, but today he employs Kermit The Frog’s 1979 classic The Rainbow Connection to riff on Trump, Spicer, Tillerson, Sessions, and Conway. I won’t give away the jokes, just watch below.

Comedian Randy Rainbow has parlayed his YouTube fame into a starring spot in the latest Orbitz commercial, which is a musical number costarring Margaret Cho, RuPaul’s Drag Race winner Bianca Del Rio, and Provincetown staple Miss Richfield 1981. Watch below.

The Daily Beast reports: When the Today show’s Matt Lauer asked Ellen DeGeneres in a new interview if she would like to have President Donald Trump appear on her daytime talk show, she barely hesitated before saying, “Um, no.” That line got laughs and applause from her own studio audience, which stuck around to see Lauer interview DeGeneres after he …

Variety reports: “Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812” jumped to the head of the pack of the 2017 Tony nominations, taking the lead with an even dozen noms, ahead of “Hello, Dolly!,” which nabbed ten, and “Dear Evan Hansen,” which scored nine. In a year packed with 13 new musicals all vying for attention, the 2016-17 season had …

People reports: Ellen DeGeneres is celebrating the 20th anniversary of her sitcom’s coming-out episode with a little help from friends like Oprah Winfrey, Laura Dern and Michelle Obama. Winfrey and Dern — both of whom guest starred in the iconic 1997 episode in which DeGeneres’ character came out as gay — stopped by The Ellen DeGeneres Show this week to …

Grammy-winning DJ Frankie Knuckles, known worldwide as “the Godfather of House,” died three years ago this month. But his personal record collection is now on display for the public to actually touch and play. MixMag reports: With the record collection of Frankie Knuckles now at Theaster Gates’s Stony Island Arts Bank in Chicago, The Frankie Knuckles Foundation has shared a …

Slate recaps: Everyone but Grammy voters is singing Beyoncé’s praises, and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is getting in on the action. A new teaser for the Netflix series’ third season shows Titus Andromedon (Titus Burgess) donning a flouncy, canary-yellow dress and taking a baseball bat to a parked car, while singing a not-quite-actionable pastiche of Bey’s “Hold Up.” The target of …

Variety reports: Kevin Spacey has signed on to host the 2017 Tony Awards — thereby answering a major outstanding question about the upcoming awards ceremony, which this year has waited until late in the game to nail down its emcee. Although Spacey is best known for work on film (“The Usual Suspects,” “American Beauty”) and TV (“House of Cards”), he’s …

The Belfast Telegraph reports: Game of Thrones star Kristian Nairn could swap the stage for the political arena after becoming frustrated with the lack of progress on equality issues such as same-sex marriage. The 6ft 10in actor, DJ and entrepreneur from Lisburn, who is gay, has been nominated for MTV’s Tearjerker award after his character Hodor’s iconic death scene in …

Robert Philpot reviews: Although there were music videos before 1975, Queen’s clip that year for its now-classic “Bohemian Rhapsody” is seen as groundbreaking. That was before MTV, way before YouTube, and certainly before any of the five members of Pentatonix was born. But the Arlington-founded a cappella group — which released its latest EP, “PTX Vol. 4 — Classics” — …

People Magazine reports: For decades Barry Manilow gave the world timeless hits, while keeping his own world a total secret. Now at 73 years old, the music legend is opening up about his life, struggles and, for the first time, his sexuality. Fiercely private, the pop icon recently welcomed PEOPLE into his Palm Springs home for an exclusive interview and …

Twitter is torn between joy and the certainty that this is an April Fools joke. From the Hollywood Reporter: Actor George Takei, best known for his role as Mr. Sulu on the original Star Trek television series, announced on Twitter Friday night that he would be running for Congress. “Well, the cat’s out of the bag it seems. Let’s do …

Deadline reports: J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot has teamed with RuPaul and reality production company World of Wonder (RuPaul’s Drag Race) for a half-hour dramedy series project, a fictionalized version of RuPaul’s rise from club kid to drag queen, gay icon, and global star. Written by Power executive producer Gary Lennon, the drama is set in New York City during the …

How about some fabulously gay show tunes to close out your week? Via press release: Equality, solidarity and warmth filled the Al Hirschfeld Theatre on March 13, 2017, when the biggest stars on Broadway proved gender doesn’t matter, but love does as they explored and embraced the great songs of musical theatre at the 12th annual Broadway Backwards. This year’s …

Playwright David Lee has incorporated my Pulse essay, Their Phones Kept Ringing, into a play selected to run at the Orlando Fringe Festival. Such an honor! Via press release: David Lee, recipient of the 2016 Orlando International Fringe Festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award has created an original theatrical event that shares stories and experiences from the days, weeks and months following …

Mediaite reports: On Fox’s Hollywood Today this afternoon, RuPaul made a big announcement in a decidedly understated way. While hosts Ross Mathews and Ali Landry asked about his nearly-quarter-century relationship with boyfriend Georges LeBar, he gamely gave answers about spending time on the other man’s massive ranch in Wyoming. As one would assume, he said he wears Western-themed outfits on …