JoJo Siwa wants “gay pop” to be an official music genre.
The 20-year-old singer previously sparked confusion by declaring she told her record label she wanted to invent the genre of “gay pop” herself, but she has now clarified her comments by insisting she understands other artists have paved the way and she just wants the style of music to receive official recognition.
During an appearance on SiriusXM’s ‘Hits 1 Miami with Mack and Jen’, she explained: “So, here’s the thing. Gay pop, right, is a thing that people have done, but it is not an official genre of music.
“You know what I mean? It is a style, but it is how there’s rap, there’s rock, there’s R and B, there’s pop. Gay pop is not an official genre of music. If you look on the iTunes charts, there is no, there’s a pop chart.
“[I want it to be a] literal [category]. Not just like, ‘Oh, I’m a gay pop artist.’ Yes, there’s so many gay pop artists. Oh my God. There’s so many, but I think that those gay pop artists do deserve a bigger home than what they have right now.”
When asked about the backlash over her previous comments, she said: “I could say I want world peace, and everyone would be like: ‘How dare you want peace for the world’. It’s kind of crazy. People ask me all the time, they’re like: ‘Do you feel like you have to be very careful about what you say?’ I’m like: ‘No, because no matter what I say, it’s going down anyways’.”
Her previous comments about gay pop came in an interview with Billboard, in which she declared: “When I first signed with Columbia [Records], I said I wanted to start a new genre of music.
“They said: ‘What do you mean?’ and I said: ‘It’s called gay pop. It’s like K-Pop, but it’s gay pop’. Theres a style of dance called jazz funk. It’s jazz, it’s hip-hop, they have a baby, it’s called jazz-funk.
“”You can wear sneakers or you can wear jazz shoes. It’s kind of in between. I feel like that is this world of music.”
Among the stars who responded to her comments were pop duo Tegan and Sara who filmed a TikTok video in which they were seen looking confused.