Years and Years just released one of the most important gay music videos in years

Years and Years have unveiled the video for their brand new remix of ‘Desire’, featuring Swedish songtress Tove Lo, and it’s a sexy, uplifting celebration of gay love and queer culture (that, and an orgy of glitter and body parts).

Lead singer Olly Alexander has continued to cement his status as Britain’s most exciting gay pop star with a powerful statement accompanying the video’s release, in which he reiterates how important it is to see the LGBTQI community represented onscreen in its many various guises.

“I’ve been wanting to make a video with some of my queer family for a long time and ‘Desire’ felt like the right time to do it,” the 25-year-old says, adding: “I LOVE POP (obviously) so, why is it that in 2016, a Pop video featuring people expressing their sexuality who aren’t cis-gendered or heterosexual, feel at all unusual or progressive?

“Well for a lot of people, it doesn’t- they live and think outside of the societal binary most of us are used to, but for a lot of other people, myself included, it does. It shouldn’t, but it does.”

The former Attitude cover star – who recently described older members of the gay community as his ‘heroes’ – continues: “I am an openly gay male singer, in a band called Years & Years, we make pop music. We’re not the only queer-frontman-led acts nor am I the only openly gay male singer but all that being said there aren’t that many of us and at times I’ve felt real pressure to hide or to limit my sexuality.

“Some of that pressure has come from myself and my own internal struggles and some of it has come from the wider world.

“Most often I see the following kind of attitude – ‘we don’t mind if you’re gay, just don’t be too gay or that’s a bit much; a bit camp; a bit weird; don’t shove it in our faces etc. Well, if “shoving it in your face” essentially refers to the way that lots of straight pop stars get to assert their sexuality then I’ll be damned if I’m not gonna shove it in your face if I want to.

“So yeah, gay people have sex, and it’s not just gay people, it’s all kinds of people! All these non-straight people, they’re out there, having sex!”

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He concludes: “What do we expect from pop music? From our pop stars? What do we expect from the ones that are gay? I don’t know the answers to these questions but I for one don’t want to see a narrow representation of gender and identity on our screens or in our music. I want diversity.

“We shouldn’t have to feel scared about putting our sexualities and identities on display in all their beautiful, interlocking, multi-layered multi-coloured glory.

“I want to be proud. Proud to shove it in people’s faces if I want to.”

Olly, quite simply, we love you.

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