Twelve years ago, a then 13-year-old Rebecca Black became an Internet sensation for releasing one of the world’s most hated anthems, “Friday.”
Black’s music video for “Friday” was posted to YouTube and went viral for all the wrong reasons. Despite being only a child, she endured vicious hate, harassment, and even death threats. And now, she is thanking the queer community for being there for her through it all.
“The only people I would see fight for me or even just empathize with me were people who were queer and who really understood my experience,” a now 25-year-old Black said in a recent interview with Them. “That was really helpful for me as a kid, to be like, ‘Okay, this isn’t that bad. I can figure this out. I’m not alone.’”
Black, herself, came out as queer in 2020.
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During a podcast appearance, she and the hosts were talking about dating during quarantine, and Black said that she just went through a break-up and referred to her ex with “she” pronouns.
“I definitely see sexuality as being a spectrum,” Black explained. “You can definitely be very on one end of the spectrum or the other. You can be very gay or very straight, which- that is super-cool.”
“But, of course, with there being a spectrum, there’s this huge middle ground that everybody else falls in. And I definitely see myself as being on that spectrum.”
She added, “I made a conscious decision to not, like, ‘come out,’ but just to- people started asking and I stopped not responding.”
Black told Them that she understands the immense responsibility she has to LGBTQ+ people as a public figure.
“Not only am I a queer musician, I’m now a spokesperson whether or not I want to be. And that carries responsibilities. I just try to not speak for the entire community, I speak from my own experience.”
Black also spoke about her current partner, Veronika Wyman.
“I think what we have in common is that she’s deeply emotional and really sensitive, but not in a way that’s chaotic,” Black said. “We’re just really here to listen to each other.”
Black explores her queerness in her debut album, Let Her Burn, which was released on Thursday and which Them called “unbridled and confident.”
“I’m not just here to redeem myself,” Black emphasized when talking about the release.
“No matter what happened to me before this, I am here to make music that is just as good and exciting as everybody else out here. And if you don’t see it and don’t want to take it, that’s fine, but just know that that’s why I’m here.”
She also said “Friday” seems to have made a comeback, with fans at performances going crazy when she plays it.
“People die for that song,” she said. “It was so exciting and healing for me to have this song be a moment I know people are going to gag for. That’s super sick.”
