I posted a short snippet of this on socials (when you get to 3:08 in you’ll see my captions for dat) but wanted to share the full here :3
This was my first season with Vancouver’s Universal Gospel Choir (led by Lonnie Delisle), and singing this solo definitely stretched my vocal range. I wanted to document this stage in my vocal transition here - I’m now about 4 years on testosterone. You can tell the first verse is at the low end of my access, and the high notes I play with in the run are the high end. So much fun getting to flow and explore my new instrument. I love being a man, and getting to show up as a male vocalist in this context was a first for me. Feeling super grateful for this queer-led faith-based music community :)
Almost all Western music has roots in Spirituals, with Gospel being one of the earliest descendants. This genre embodies the transmutation of struggle into faith, and pain into joy. The way the sound resonates in my body is unlike any other form of music, and I’m so grateful to our Black community for gifting these genres to us, enabling access to these feelings of empowerment and celebration. <333
filmed by Warren Dean Flandez, Sat. Dec. 14th, 2024.
My mom was in the audience :3
This came after a szn of a lot of loneliness for me, so being invited to perform this song felt very serendipitous and healing xx