PANAMA CITY BEACH BOUTIQUES
MUSIC STORE
FEATURED ARTIST: BILLY GILMAN
Music Store Featured Artist Billy Gilman
Lyndsey Parker Reality Rocks : "The Voice has always been a show about second chances. From Season 1’s Javier Colon and Dia Frampton (both former major-label signees), to one time Michael Jackson background singer Judith Hill
, to the series’ most recent winner, ex-Curly Sue child star Alisan Porter
, many industry veterans have turned to the show for a career reboot. But perhaps no professional contestant has a story as interesting as that of Billy Gilman
, the openly gay former country music preteen prodigy, who auditioned for The Voice Season 11 this Tuesday.
Billy, now 28, made history in 2000, when at age 11 he became the youngest artist to have a Top 40 hit on the country charts with his first single, the gold-certified “One Voice.” He earned a double-platinum album for his full-length debut (which went to #2 on Billboard’s Country Chart), as well as two subsequent gold albums. But a rocky road lay ahead for Billy, who had to relearn how to sing after his post-puberty voice changed. Nashville lost eventually interest in him, and he even took a five-year hiatus from music, returning in 2014 with the independent “Say You Will.”
But more importantly, that same year, Billy came out as gay — a rare act in the conservative country music world — via a personal YouTube video, after being inspired by a similar announcement by gay country singer Ty Herndon. In his post, Billy implied that gossip about his sexuality may have been the real reason for his career slump, saying: “In recent years when I did come back to Nashville, there were rumors and whispers — is he or isn’t he? For many that know Nashville and how much I love the industry… being a gay male country artist is not the best thing. You know, if people don’t like your music, that’s one thing. But after having sold over 5 million records and having a wonderful life in the music industry, I knew something was wrong when no major label wanted to sit down and have a meeting and listen to the new stuff. I’d do a showcase in Nashville and no major label showed.”
Billy then added, “It’s difficult for me to make this video. Not because I’m ashamed of being a gay male artist, or a gay artist, or a gay person. But it’s pretty silly to know that I’m ashamed of doing this knowing that because I’m in a genre, and in an industry, that is ashamed of me for being me.”
So now Billy is back, on The Voice, a GLAAD Media Award-winning show that has a long and admirable history of welcoming openly LGBT contestants — ever since its first season, when four of the top eight finalists (and two of the top four) were gay or bisexual. And Billy is, interestingly, also leaving the country world behind and going pop.
“Within the quiet moments, I found who I was as a person,” he told Voice host Carson Daly backstage Tuesday, as he reflected on his time away from the spotlight. “I had to come to grips with being gay… I took a long time to rebuild vocally, but it was coming back, and then coming to grips with who I was personally, I also came to grips with who I was as a singer. You know, I love my country music roots, but deep down, I really always wanted to be a pop singer.
“It’s actually nerve-racking to stand here and just be 100 percent me. There’s only one shot to reinvent myself.”
Check back in with us regularly for new and upcoming Artist at Panama City Beach Shopping Club .
