In the summer of 2015, Troye Sivan, a twenty-year-old actor, singer, songwriter and Youtuber surprised millions of fans by announcing his new EP WILD, shortly followed by the announcement of his debut album Blue Neighbourhood. Troye kicked off his Youtube career back in 2007 when he uploaded covers until he started making vlogs. Whilst he stopped sharing covers, his vlogs quickly made him rise to Internet fame. In 2013, Troye uploaded an original song inspired by the novel The Fault in our Stars by author John Green. Only a week after sharing the song Troye was approached by EMI Music Australia who enabled him to publish and launch his debut album Blue Neighbourhood.
Troye describes Blue Neighbourhood as his own personal journey. It is an album about identity, acceptance, coming out, love and growing up. The album received great reactions from other artists in the industry. Sam Smith congratulated him and said that his album is very “brave and inspiring.”
Subsequently, Troye published a three-part music video series for the songs WILD, Fools and Talk Me Down, in which he tackles the difficulties of coming out. The series starts off with the beginning of a romantic relationship between Troye and his male childhood friend whose dad is homophobic. The lyrics “Leave this blue neighbourhood / Never knew loving could hurt this good, oh / And it drives me wild” touch on falling in love for the first time, while “leave this blue neighbourhood” could be interpreted as the need to leave this place where homophobia is present.
The first video ends where we pick up in part 2, Fools, with a passionate kiss between Troye and his boyfriend. During their make-out session, the boyfriend’s father comes in, kicks Troye out of the house and starts hitting his son. The lyrics “I am tired of this place, I hope people change / I need time to replace what I gave away” suggest that Troye is unhappy with the struggles and obstacles in his gay relationship and his hope may be that the father stops disapproving their sexual orientation.
The final video starts with the funeral of the father. The son is now dating a girl and he appears to be very upset. Troye ends up alone with him and comforts him but the girlfriend sees them. Troye’s ex-boyfriend ends up taking his own life and it becomes clear that Troye is very aware of the reality that many queer people face. The lyrics of this song are deeply touching. “I wanna sleep next to you / But that’s all I wanna do right now / So come over now and talk me down.”
Although these three videos are not autobiographical, the struggle of coming out is a very personal topic for the singer. Just a little bit over two years ago Troye uploaded his own coming out video on his Youtube channel: “I am terrified. I know that some people are going to have a problem with this. This could kind of change everything for me but it shouldn’t have to.” Like Troye, I was terrified when I came out. But coming out is only a tiny, tiny part of the long and scary struggle in a world where being queer is still far from being accepted.
However, Troye is bringing about positive change. With his coming out video, Troye set up an email account where people can email him with any question they have and in the following years, he has made several videos in which he deals with questions such as, Is it easier to get aids if you’re gay? But it is mainly his music that’s having a very positive impact on people in the queer community. Many of his fans have spoken out and said that Troye’s music helped them with their own coming-outs. Even though I came to terms with my own sexuality three years prior, I feel like Blue Neighbourhood helped me to recognise and connect to the feelings attached to my queer related struggles that I wasn’t able to convey in words before.
One of the first songs I heard on the album is BITE. For me, this song felt immediately special due to the compelling atmosphere created by its sound. It almost makes one feel as if we are only inches away from that one attractive person and all that’s going through our mind is “kiss me on the mouth and set me free”. BITE seems to represent some sense of a sexual awakening. Before my coming out I always felt like I was standing on the sideline watching my friends connect with genders from the opposite sex. Only after coming out did I open up to my own desire. When I did I finally felt the desire to kiss someone because it didn’t have to be a man anymore. “Kiss me on the mouth and set me free,” therefore, for me, symbolises a desire that is finally within reach.
Heaven is another song that particularly hit home for me, which may seem odd at first. Being non-religious a song about accepting one’s sexuality in relation to religion doesn’t seem that big of a deal. However, the meaning of the song can be placed in a wider context. “If I’m losing a piece of me, maybe I don’t want heaven” is one such lyric. To me, this lyric says: If I have to give up a part of who I am, maybe I don’t want to live where others don’t accept me for who I am. Heaven brought me to a standstill and made me realise again that it is okay to be gay and that I do not have to lose a piece of me; I made the right decision and I can choose to not want ‘heaven’ because I am who I am.
BITE and Heaven are only two examples of the deep and meaningful lyrics that all of Troye’s lyrics seem to carry. Each individual song tells us a different story. Youth is about the joy in naivety while Suburbia represents the desire of making the people dear to you proud. In a way, Troye’s songs put my soul at ease. His songs accomplish what any other great songs are supposed to; they reconcile with me and let me know that I am not the only one with these feelings. It feels as if Troye is speaking to me- to all of us as he voices our struggles and puts it out for the entire world to hear.
With Blue Neighbourhood, Troye has made a statement. Going back to the music video of WILD, Troye explained, in an interview with Advocate, that he feels “like gay relationships are sexualized in the media,” and in his video, he aims to show “a romantic, adorable, puppy love situation between two little boys.” WILD, therefore, makes a statement to discard societies’ stereotypes surrounding gay men.
The songs on his album show and tell everyone that at the end of the day, love is love no matter what. Lesbians, gays or bisexuals experience the same romantic feelings as people who are straight. A minor point of critique could be that most of his songs are about heartbreaks but this is not at all surprising as love is a big part of life when growing up. More importantly, anyone that has been young and in love will be able to relate to the songs on this album and that is why everyone should give Blue Neighbourhood a try.
His album can be bought here.
Click here to have a look at Troye Sivan’s site.