Olly Alexander says he won’t shut up about being gay or stop being sexy
Years & Years singer Olly Alexander. (Burak Cingi/Redferns)
Years & Years’ Olly Alexander has promised that he won’t “shut up” about being gay or stop flaunting his sexiness just to appease trolls.
Alexander has been criticised for allegedly “over sexualised” performances, notably his BBC One New Year’s Eve concert, which led to 179 complaints to the BBC.
Alexander told the i the complaints were “typical” comments that many LGBTQ+ people receive regularly, and said he has no plans to suppress his identity or sexiness on stage.
“They see me saying something about non-binary people on TV, and to them, that’s offensive,” he explained. “I don’t make explicit political statements in my music, but by being who I am, I’m trying to do my own Trojan Horse-style subversion.”
He added: “I’m not going to shut up about being gay, or being sexy either.”
Alexander said his provocative New Year’s Eve performance was “just a practice run” for his Night Call tour.
Olly Alexander said that his Night Call show is “definitely” “very sexual” and has “elements that will really shock people”. (Getty/Jim Dyson)
He described the tour as “definitely a very sexual show”, and said there’ll be “elements that will really shock people” without being “explicit”.
“Night Call is a very liberated, good-time album about a good night out,” Alexander explained. “I felt lost and not very confident when I wrote it.”
He continued: “I was having very little sex and very little intimacy, so it was almost like I was playing a character.
“It was all about fantasy.”
Olly Alexander also briefly touched on the rumours that swirled around last year that he would be replacing Jodie Whittaker on Doctor Who and become the first openly gay actor to play the iconic Time Lord.
Alexander “categorically” denied the casting claims, which he said were quite “glamorous and exciting” at the time.
He told the i that playing the Fourteenth Doctor was “just never going to happen” and gushed about o ver Ncuti Gatwa – who has been cast as the lead, taking over from Whittaker – saying he’s “the perfect Doctor”.
Olly Alexander then joked that he “could be a baddie” on the show, before realising that he may have started a brand new Doctor Who rumour.
“That would be fun,” he said. “We’re going to start another rumour…”
