Frankie Grande to perform at the 2025 PEUGEOT Attitude PRIDE Awards Europe, supported by British Airways (EXCLUSIVE)

Broadway performer, TV personality and now-pop star Frankie Grande is to perform at the PEUGEOT Attitude PRIDE Awards Europe 2025, supported by British Airways.

The ‘Rhythm of Love’ singer will be just one of a number of star names in attendance at our annual event this Friday (4 July 2025) at the Peninsula London, which honours the great and good of the LGBTQ community. Erasure legend Andy Bell will also be performing.

Here, to celebrate, we chat to the star about his colourful and personal new album, Hotel Rock Bottom — a project that dives into sobriety, family (yes, including his sister Wicked star, Ariana Grande!) and… sex shops!

What does Hotel Rock Bottom mean to you? 

Wow, okay. So, I guess if you watch the music video, it’s like, I really just wanted to take something that people associate with negativity, which is your rock bottom, and just put what was my personal spin on my experience of rock bottom. When I hit there, I was literally given the choice between life or death, and I chose life. And so I look back on my rock bottom as a springboard to where I’m at right now, and I look at it with gratitude. I’m so grateful that I hit rock bottom, and I’m so grateful that I live to tell the tale. So, to me, rock bottom is something that’s actually beautiful.

What is the overriding theme of the album?

I think it should say that you can overcome adversity. I think it should say that you can do it with a smile. I’m hoping that it inspires people to face their own inner demons and push through them and keep going and be unapologetically themselves. You know, whether it’s about sobriety or queerness or queer identity, especially in with the political climate we’re currently facing right now. I hope it just helps people get through whatever they’re fighting and facing and to do it with a dance beat, you know? That’s how I got through life. I was like, fuck, this sucks. I’m putting on Madonna. 

What’s your favourite song from the album? 

It changes every four seconds. Today it’s ‘Cognitive Dissonance’. I would say probably just because sonically, it’s like a big hug. It’s a big warm hug. And I’m really inspired by bands and artists who do that, you know, I just remember being in the mixing room wanting to stand in the middle of the room, and I wanted to feel like the song was spinning around me like a hurricane and giving me the biggest hug in the world. It’s a very emotional track for me and I actually needed the hug. So I think it’s the words, it’s the meaning, but it’s also the sonics that makes me going back to ‘Cognitive Dissonance’. I had such a fun time mixing with Curtis on that one, I wanted it to feel like we’re at Disney World and about to get on a ride. It was really fun. 

Is there a certain line in that song that you really enjoyed writing and that really speaks to you? 

Yeah, it’s “if I could go back one last time and not ruin my life, I’d go back tonight.” That I think is the beauty and the heartbreak of that song, which is like, if it’s a relationship, for me, it was drugs and alcohol, my relationship with drugs and alcohol, sometimes you can’t go back to those toxic places, but your brain doesn’t understand that. So, sometimes you sit back and you’re like, oh, but it was fun. Oh, but I had a good time, but like, oh, um, maybe just one last time and it’ll be okay, but I know, personally, that I couldn’t do that. I can never go back to that. That’s the ‘Cognitive Dissonance’ where, I know this is bad for me, but maybe it’s not, you know? 

‘Hotel Rock Bottom’ – there’s dialogue between you and your mum. How did it feel to have her feature on the album? 

We watched the music video together yesterday and she broke down about it. It was a very difficult time for my family when I was in that place. I can’t help looking back on it, and I’m like, “Wow, how did I go there?” because it really was like that for years for me. So she didn’t really understand how necessary rock bottom was, and the fact that I have her speaking on the track, saying how grateful she is that I hit there and came back, is so beautiful to me and so full circle, because she and my sister really were the ones taking the brunt of how destructive my life had become, and both were so worried about me. 

The fact that I’ve been sober eight years now, and my mum is the one that is, talking about her gratitude, about how far I’ve come and how deep I had to dive to get here, it just means a lot. 

You mentioned Ariana. Did she offer you any advice on the album? 

Of course, of course. She is my little sister. I ask her about pretty much everything that I do in my life. So, obviously, when it came to recording an album, which is something that I have never done, and she has done so flawlessly, so, so, so many times, she was unbelievably helpful. And she continues to be, you know. I ask her questions about live performance. ‘How do in-ears work?’ I’m a Broadway artist, but I don’t know what the hell this is. ‘Can you please help this?’ and she’s, like, ‘I’m coming, I’m on my way.’ Like, flying to Fallon, she’s been the most supportive, most incredible sister, and in that respect I do have a huge asset, because she is so good at what she does. It’s hard to train from Broadway to pop, but she’s done it.

Is there one bit of advice she gave you that really stuck with you, and that’s helped you through this album? 

I think it was more of a reaction and less advice. When I played her my very first song, she just started crying and said, ‘I’m so excited for the world to get to see this version of Frankie.’ She’s known this version of Frankie her whole life, but the world hasn’t. I cherish that moment, if I’m down on myself, it’s like, ‘No, I’m sharing a side of myself with the world, that I never have before, and my family thinks that it’s beautiful.’ So I’m going to continue to keep pushing and doing it. 

How has your husband helped you through this album? Has he been a big support?

His support has been everything to me. You know, it’s been a whole year since I started this process. It’s been rigorous and gruelling and late nights in the studio, and early mornings in the gym, and just like, ‘H, honey, bye, honey, see you later, honey.’ And he’s been there through it all, and he’s been so proud of me these past two days with Jimmy Fallon and The Today Show. His favourite song is ‘Oasis’, he is starting his own campaign for ‘Oasis’ to be the next single! Which is so cute. It is about him, and my puppy Appa. It’s just been a lot of unbelievable support from him, and I couldn’t have done it without him. I understand now why people at the Oscars say, ‘I couldn’t have done it without my husband and my dog.’ I mean, it’s true, I couldn’t. 

What is ‘Sex Shop’ about? 

Oh my God. So my best friend, Salina EsTitties, and I went to a sex shop, and we were just running around like idiots, playing with dildos and ball gags and jock straps and cock rings, just having a silly old gay time. I was in the studio and [singer-songwriter] Ferras came out of the bathroom. “We have to write a song called ‘Sex Shop’,” they said. … Salina EsTitties wrote a list of 80 different things, we sat down and we wrote the song. It was so fun. It’s very Madonna-coded, it’s giving Erotica. I love Madonna. Maybe she wants to feature on it one day.

Your song ‘Boys’ is very sex-positive. Do you feel like you’ve always been sex-positive? 

You know what? I don’t. I think that’s probably why I wrote ‘Boys’. I was very closeted. I didn’t come out till I was 21, and I was raised to be terrified of AIDs. I was so young when I came out, so having a song like ‘Boys’ out there, and partnering with a company that provides free PrEP, it was such a huge goal of mine. I didn’t have that as a kid, growing up, I was so scared. I like to be sex-positive. So now that I’m in a place in my life where I think sex is so beautiful, and it is so positive, I wanted to share that with the world. I know that a lot of people are sex-positive today, and I think that’s fabulous. But it took me a long time to get there. 

Tell us about the song Hotel Rock Bottom…

It’s the heart and soul of the album and I owe everything to that. Without that hotel, there would be no album. The tracks are in the order of the events that happened in my life. And so, having ‘Hotel Rock Bottom’ smack dab in the middle to me, it was just so cool, because I was like, ‘Oh, wow, half of this album is about when I was shit faced, and the other half of this album is about when I was sober, and there’s darkness and light on both sides.’ It is the anchor, the key of the album.

Can you give us a bit of light background to the actual single ‘Hotel Rock Bottom’? 

I wrote this with some extremely talented people. I told the whole story about where I was in London, after the Manchester bombing, and it was a hotel that I just didn’t think I’d ever get out of. I kept pushing my flight back, and I kept extending my stay, and I was just such a disaster of drunken insanity inside that hotel. I remember thinking I’m going to die here, unless something gets me out of this hotel… and nothing was. Eventually, my best friend called, Something about her tone of voice just woke me up to get on a plane and get to the States and get into rehab. I wanted to depict that in the video and like, the panic of how I got out of that hotel, like my life depended on it, because it did.

Do you think the Manchester bombing increased the addiction? 

Absolutely! I had absolutely no tools to handle what happened that night. The Manchester bombing was around year nine of me using, close to the beginning of year 10. At that point, I had exhausted my ability to process trauma, when the biggest trauma my family’s ever faced happened. That’s where you’re put to the test, and I failed that test. I failed the test, miserably. I had no tools, except for pills and booze, I was double fisting them. That’s when I asked for help from my sister, and she was there for me, and my mother was there for me, and then I was eventually able to get out of the house and go to rehab. 

What is your advice to an addict is who is taking their first steps into sobriety and healing? 

Don’t be afraid to ask for help. It is the hardest thing you’ll ever have to do, but it is going to be the easiest thing once you do it. Everyone’s going to be like, ‘Obviously, you need help. Like, hello, queen, we’ve been staring at you crash and burn for years.’ And that’s what ‘Rhythm of Love’ is for me, because I had a sober community, but I wasn’t ready to ask them for help, and I wasn’t ready to do what they were doing. But the minute I was ready to get sober, they surrounded me in their love and helped get me clean, and keep me clean. It has been a beautiful journey of sobriety, and I’m really grateful to everyone that swooped in to save the day, the minute I was ready to ask. 

Were there any other musical artists that inspired you for this album?

Oh, my god, yes. Hopefully you can hear some Bowie. Hopefully, you can hear some George Michael. Yeah. Hopefully you hear some Michael Jackson, Captain Eo, especially. That was my entire childhood. Hopefully, you can hear Epcot in there, because that was also a massive inspiration. Madonna is my ultimate, ultimate inspiration. She always has been for me, and I really hope she listens to ‘Sex Shop’ or ‘Glitter Jesus’, and is, like, ‘fuck yeah, Frankie!’ I have such a long list of people that have influenced me, so I just went into the studio and wanted to go places that made me happy. 

Were there any gay icons that helped you when you were coming out when you were 21? 

Adam Lambert. Absolutely Adam Lambert. He was an out proud gay man. He was the first for me, to see a successful out gay man, who was gender non-conforming in the way that he decided to present himself to the world, and we’re friends now, and I’ve thanked him in person many times! I just look up to him and the way that he handled coming out in a time where it was really scary. People are still shocked in 2025. When I came out in 2000 or whatever, I would have thought in 20 years, we would have made some progress. And I do think we’ve made some, but sometimes you scroll through some of these comments, and you’re like, ‘Are we in the same decade? Are we in the same century? Like, who are these people that are still behaving like it’s 1945?’ It’s really crazy.

How have you responded to backlash so far?

Oh, I love it. I love it more than anything in the entire world. Madonna said, ‘You’re not a star unless you’re equally loved and hated,’ and I have held that close to my heart. I didn’t want to come out with an album that’s safe, pristine and shiny. I came to tell my story. My story is very dirty. It’s very messy, it’s very queer and I know that by being that for the world, I can inspire others who are having a difficult time right now, to just be themselves. Fuck the haters. I don’t give a fuck. I am surprised that in 2025, we’re still dealing with the same shit that we were dealing with 40 years ago. 

So the album cover, can you talk us through your inspiration, the mood of the cover art?

We were shooting the ‘Rhythm of Love’ music video and my amazing photographer, Devin, got on stage with me and took some pictures, and I literally went, [he poses] I heard, the click and that was it. I said heart, heart it, heart it, heart it, give it seven stars on your little app. This is the photo. It has got the rainbow, I’m like, looking right down the barrel, it looks just so beautiful, unapologetic, but slightly troubled, which is what I love about it. It’s a little darkness meets the light. The rainbow flares are very Captain Eo, very ’80s pop rock. It’s black holographic rainbow – that’s the theme.

You’ve recently turned 42, how does it feel being in your 40s? 

It’s a gift, because I have so much life to draw from. I’m telling a story from so many different aspects of my life and popping into the character of Frankie, depending on where I was when I was writing from. I’m probably more tired than people who would drop albums at 22. I’m a Broadway actor, so I’m used to it. But, I’m just unbelievably grateful that I waited, because had I tried to do this at any earlier point in my life, I would have crashed and burned. I have my family, and my sobriety to stand on, and it’s been a really fucking cool experience. 

So I’m assuming there’s going to be a second?

Oh, I hope so. Fingers crossed, maybe another year or so. I want to make sure Hotel Rock Bottom has its time, to reach the four corners of the Earth. 

Have you got any plans for a tour?

My plans are that I want to do it. I don’t know if anyone else is on board, but I’m ready. 

Would you ever want to star in a movie like Wicked? 

I wanted to be in Wicked. I was like, ‘come on, make me the monkey.’ I would have been so fun, you know, like, a little CGI monkey. I actually always wanted to be a CGI actor ever since Lord of the Rings and Andy Serkis played Gollum, that’s what I wanted to do for the rest of my life!

How do you think we can reunite the LGBTQ+ community this Pride month and beyond, given the current political climate?

I think that we just all need to stick together as a community. I think that everyone needs to understand, if it’s happening to one aspect of a community, it’s happening to all aspects of our community. We need to stand side by side this Pride more than ever. I’ve come to truly understand how necessary it is, how it’s not, not happening. Our ‘T’ siblings would be a lot safer if we stood together. So that’s hopefully the message that the community is receiving this Pride. 

How do you think Pride in London compares to Pride in America?

Well, I think, first of all, music in the UK is so much gayer. You have, like, Olly Alexander, I love him so much. You guys embraced Troye [Sivan] before the US did, and all the divas! 

One of my colleagues interviewed you in 2016, and in that interview, you recalled the moment you met Madonna at the Grammys. Have you ever run into her since?

I’ve had a few more interactions with the queen since, and she has never disappointed. She is phenomenal. The last time, at a party [at which she was performing and] came to the foot of the stage mid-performance, leaned over and reached out to give me a huge kiss in front of 30,000 people in the arena. She is ‘Glitter Jesus’. 

Would you ever like to perform on the West End in the UK? 

Absolutely! I have a show out there that’s running called Titanique and that’s my baby, and I hope to make my West End debut in it someday. Literally anything else. I mean, I love so many. Hercules is one I’m excited about. You guys have Rocky Horror, I want to play Dr. Frank-N-Furter more than anything in the entire world. 

Any other exciting plans you’ve got while in London? 

Oh, yes, what else do I want to do? There’s something important. Yes, go shopping. 

Could you share a bit about your coming out story? 

Absolutely, I was 21 years old and I was in college and I did the whole ‘I’m bisexual’ thing for a few years – hooking up with guys and girls. Then I met a guy who I thought to myself, I love this person, and once I was in love with a man, that’s when I was like, ‘Frankie, it’s time. Just tell fucking everyone you’re gay.’

So I started with my fraternity brothers at college. I was in Sigma Phi Epsilon, which was the very, very straight popular guy jock fraternity, and I came out to them, on a night during pledging, and they were like, ‘yeah, we know.’ It was so powerful to me, to have that support. And once I had support from my brothers, I went to my family, started with my sister. She was like, ‘Yes and… do you have a boyfriend? What’s his name?’ It was so easy. Then it came around to coming out to my parents. My mom first. That was harder. It was difficult, because being in the ‘80s and having lost so many of her best friends to HIV-AIDS, it was a very different conversation with my mum. It was very educational for both of us. She has been the most supportive mum in the entire world. But it was sometimes a little bumpy to begin with, so anyone out there who’s coming out to their parents, and it is a little tough. It doesn’t have to stay there. Maybe give them some time and educate, educate with love – I say that to everybody in our community. Educating with love is going to be the easiest way to change hearts and minds. 

Is there a particular song on the album that was kind of inspired by your coming out story or like a particular moment in your coming journey? 

I think ‘Let Me Live’ is probably my biggest kind of ‘let me fucking live’ moment. It is about my queer identity, and it’s more of a song about where I currently am in my life and how other people want to have an opinion, about who I love and how I love them. But, it applies to all aspects of my coming out story. 

Your song ‘My Guy’, features Salina EsTitties. How did it feel to have her on the album? 

Oh, the best. I mean, she is the one that gave me the advice that you hear on the album that’s actually something she said to me when I was breaking up with my throuple. So having almost two break-ups simultaneously, which was the most heart-wrenching thing, and just one year after my sobriety. She was there for me, and that’s the advice that she gave me, so it means a lot having her be on the album.