Ryan Dolan releases anti-gay bullying song ‘Start Again’
By Nick Levine
Ryan Dolan has released a new single with an anti-gay bullying message.
Dolan, who represented Ireland at last year’s Eurovision Song Contest, came out as gay last month (February).
“In school I was confused about who I was,” he said at the time, “and it was really hard for me growing up because of that. It was hard to deal with because I knew that I was gay, but I couldn’t get the courage to talk to someone about it.”
Now Dolan, 28, has reached out to teenagers in a similar position with his new single Start Again and its hard-hitting video, which shows a teenage boy struggling to get to grips with his sexuality and being taunted by his fellow pupils.
He writes on his official site: “There is a very strong message in this song and video, and I really want to raise awareness among young teenagers about the affects of bullying and in particular in relation to LGBT teenagers.”
Start Again was released in Ireland yesterday (March 7) and is also available to download on British iTunes. Watch the video below.
[youtube height=”HEIGHT” width=”WIDTH”]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShBSKnzts70[/youtube]