Between bringing the curtain down on his role as heartbreaker with a heart of gold Ricky on the landmark drama Pose (which concluded three much talked about seasons this past summer) and starring on Broadway in the landmark production Thoughts Of A Colored Man, releasing the breathtaking single ‘Heaven’ earlier this summer was a welcome treat for Dyllón Burnside’s burgeoning fan base. Now, the video for ‘Heaven’ has been released & showcases both Burnside and British crooner Daley trading bars (and seemingly more) in the double-entendre laden and outstandingly staged production (see the full video, directed by Director Vaughn here).
From Burnside’s perspective, the message threaded throughout ‘Heaven’, he told WWD earlier this year is multifaceted. “The Christian faith teaches that God is love. And if God is the path to heaven, then love is the path to heaven, and all love is the path to heaven.”. While faith might be a tentpole of the single, Burnside was quick to clarify plainly on Instagram that “Yes! ‘Heaven’ is talking about fucking! I wanted to make this song because my fucking feels like heaven”, and ended by saying “But my sexuality, as in the sexual expression of my humanity, is that it’s pure, sacred, and holy, and that is tantamount to heaven.”
Heaven is here… Do you wanna go? Tap the link to ascend. https://t.co/kfAmIgO9Kt pic.twitter.com/39S0s734PD
— Dyllón Burnside (@dyllonburnside) October 29, 2021
While ‘Heaven’ showcases Burnside’s musical range, his role as in Thoughts Of A Colored Man is both thoughtful culturally significant, especially in today’s climate. The Broadway production follows seven black men over the course of a single day in Brooklyn, with each character being named for a particular emotion (these are listed in the playbill, although not expressed onstage until the conclusion of the play). In his portrayal of the emotion Love, Burnside is on his own journey to discover what his namesake represents. Burnside spoke to WWD about the gravity of playing a role like this, saying “For me, this piece has been about honoring my own inner life and about honoring the inner life of so many Black men who experience love, or want to experience love and are looking for ways to express it and don’t really know how.”
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Thank you for some new gay songs to listen to, always appreciated