Years & Years’ Olly Alexander and Bloc Party’s Kele Okereke have released a "romantic duet".
Both frontmen are openly gay and decided to release ‘Grounds For Resentment’ in a bid to break the taboo surrounding musicians in the pop industry who feel they have to use "codes" to talk about their sexuality in songs rather than being straight-talking about same sex relationships.
‘This Modern Love’ hitmaker Kele, 35, says the single – which is featured on his solo LP ‘Fatherland’ – is just the starting point for breaking the barrier down, as he says there is "a long way to go" with regards to homosexual pop stars feeling confident enough to "describe love and desire authentically".
He told The Guardian newspaper: "I remember reading something that [Olly] wrote about the use of pronouns in pop music for gay artists that I thought that was very perceptive and intelligent – that the use of pronouns was the last frontier for gay artists.
"There are lots of gay acts that avoid using the term he when singing about same sex desire.
"It will just be a neutral term, whereas Olly understands from what I read that there is a long way to go for gay musicians in being able to describe love and desire authentically.
"So I was very happy to sing a romantic duet with him on my album, because I couldn’t think of a precedent of any out gay musicians singing a love song to one another without having to hide behind codes."
Kele was referring to an interview Olly did previously where he said he’d like to see more mainstream gay stars be more open about their sexuality, and praised pop megastar Miley Cyrus for promoting a "non-binary gender"
He said: "I’d like to hear a gay artist express their sexuality in a really open way. That’s something I’ve sort of tried to do a little bit on this album, but to be able to talk about sex is possibly new for gay artists, so I’d like to see that in the mainstream. I think you’re right – music does feel like it’s in a much more accepted, tolerant place; even with Miley Cyrus, when she doesn’t identify with either gender, and we’re getting used to these ideas of about non-binary gender, which is a good thing."
‘Grounds For Resentment’ is out now and ‘Fatherland’ is released on October 6.
Olly Alexander and Kelly Okereke’s proud love duet
