In one of the latest episodes of Get Gig Ready, 2ser’s Felix Shannon spoke to home grown pop prince JËVA about self-expression, gaining visibility via social media, authenticity, and the queer community within the music industry.

Article by: Lauren Langston

As LGBTQ+ matters have come to the forefront of political and legal considerations as well as reforms, so has its portrayal in music. Queer representation in music takes many forms, including music that reveals queer challenges and issues, music that promotes queer pride, music as a response to prejudice, and music made by queer musicians.

It is essential to emphasise that in the 21st century what has changed for openly queer artists is visibility rather than acceptance. With the advancement of technology, fans no longer must wait for their favourite celebrity to be in an interview or make a radio and/or televised appearance to hear what they had to say and to see them physically; instead, they now have immediate, ongoing access to them through social media applications such as TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and many more.

With major changes over the last decade with regards to how we consume music, music promotion, how we connect online and the massive cultural shift toward authenticity and queer visibility, things seem to be better than ever for queer musicians. When posting on platforms such as TikTok “I’m very much being myself, I never thought of presenting myself as a polished version” and it’s through this that the most authentic videos gain the most attraction JËVA states.

Reflecting on the importance of being a part of the queer space, JËVA emphasises “if I saw someone like myself doing this when I was really struggling accepting my sexuality when I was a teenager, that would’ve helped me so much. I know things are already changing such as Sam smith and Troye Sivan exist but when I was growing up, they didn’t, they only came into the spotlight when I was entering adulthood”.

In this current day and age, the queer community creatively inspires many up-and-coming artists, and it is to be reinforced that authenticity is what listeners and fans value as well as appreciate the most.

“If you try and write something where you think that’s what other people want to hear, and then if it doesn’t receive well, you can get bitter and you didn’t even want to say it in the first place, I was just writing it because I thought people wanted to hear it.”

“I think what I have come to the conclusion is, if I am able to tell something that I can stand behind, and because this is so authentically my story, even if it doesn’t get the reception that I was hoping for I can stand behind it because this is creatively what I envisioned in my head,” JËVA explains.

The question to be considered for the end of the next decade is where should we plan to be? What needs to continue to change in the music industry to give more opportunities to queer artists in order to gain more representation. This can be in regards to genres such as hip hop whereby the queer community lack representation?

For more, check out the Get Gig Ready podcast.