Calum Scott says 'If Our Love Is Wrong' is his "coming out song".
Calum Scott
The 29-year-old singer/songwriter - who shot to fame on the 2015 series of talent show 'Britain's Got Talent' - will release his first LP 'Only Human' in March and the songs on the record are deeply personal, including those about his sexuality.
He told Billboard: "'If Our Love Is Wrong' is, quite simply, my coming out song. As I was trying to wrap my head around my sexuality and was starting to learn about songwriting, and that my honesty and my authenticity came from my personal experiences and writing about stuff that genuinely bugged me or upset me. At the time I was going through a lot of anxiety, I still hadn't told my dad [I was gay] and the press was asking me about my personal life a lot. At this point I was getting quite anxious and I was panicking thinking that my dad was gonna find out in the wrong way - and I still didn't feel, at that point, that I was ready to talk about my sexuality.
"It wasn't until I was in a songwriting session where I just said to the [cowriters], 'There's something I really need to get off my chest. I'm really feeling the pressure right now, and I just have to talk to somebody about it.' Talking to those boys and telling them that I was gay, I mean, I was sweating. My heart was in my mouth. I was shaking, because it was that terrifying to me to talk about my sexuality. They didn't judge me - they were there for me, and they really did help me turn the corner with my sexuality and with my songwriting."
Calum admitted he was worried for a long time that coming out as gay would ruin his career but he has been thrilled with the public reaction and he is now confident in his sexuality.
He said: "I didn't want people to think it's a sob story. What if people didn't like it? What if people stopped listening to my music? I was so terrified for so long about what people think about my sexuality, and I didn't wanna find myself in a position where I was losing my fans and couldn't do my job.
"Because I put myself through torture for so many years, 'If Our Love Is Wrong' was kind of like me turning things around going, 'Why should I punish myself? Why should I feel so bad about the fact that I'm gay? I should be confident in the fact that I'm gay, and this is something I can't help, so I shouldn't put myself through hell for it.'
"It's such a personal message to be confident, because it hurts me to know that other kids might go through what I went through and lose all that time to fear."
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