(atmospheric music)
Downloaded from YTS.MX
- [Narrator] Music reaches us all, making us feel good.
Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX
It's a gender neutral religious tongue
that bridges gaps,
eliminates political divides, overcomes racial barriers.
It feeds our spirits,
bringing people from all walks of life together as one.
- I don't know how people
find their way onto the dance floor,
everyone has an individual journey,
everyone has a story to tell.
(uptempo synth music)
- Dance has no color, dance has no barriers,
it didn't matter who you were, what you were,
there was always a sense of freedom.
- And what they decide to put on stage
in front of an audience is their self expression.
This is me, I wanna tell this story,
I wanna dance this dance.
♪ I'm not defeated, empty words leave me cheated ♪
- Dance floors can unify people
in ways that governments and religions can't
and I stand by that shit 100%.
- When everyone is dripping in sweat
there's no class distinctions,
there's no economic distinctions,
you get in a room and none of it matters at all.
- When the clubs opened,
you saw the look on people's faces,
the smiles, the energy that people gave off,
you were all there to dance.
- There's no right or wrong on the dance floor,
music moves people and allows them to be free.
- People being the stars of the dance floor,
people wanting to lose themselves,
people that are on the dance floor
are what make great clubs.
♪ I'm not defeated but you can see the bruise ♪
♪ Battered not beaten, still there's so much to prove ♪
- You know, the only reason why I'm still alive
is because I found life on the dance floor,
I found friends on the dance floor,
I found support,
I found love, unconditional chosen family kind of love.
When the people who are supposed to love you
don't have the capacity to understand how to do that,
I found a lot of those folks on the dance floor.
(singing in a different language)
- We are a community of people
from all different walks of life
with all different backgrounds,
all different body shapes, sizes, genders, ethnicities,
we're a complete mismatch, but we share this common ground
of wanting to amplify
those really positive parts of what people have
and what we have.
- The performers at Glitterbox,
they stamp their personality on the night
from the moment we open the doors,
they make a huge effort in their dress and their makeup,
they look absolutely spectacular, magnificent.
You're like, wow, who is that person?
- There's more behind everyone
than just fabulous dance moves,
all of us have had to really fight
for our right to be ourselves.
- It's just creating a safe space that unifies everybody,
it's gonna be no judgment, we're safe to be who we are
and, at the end of the day,
we come together to celebrate love.
- I feel like I've always been quite quiet and shy,
I guess I have always
felt like I didn't really fit in at school,
I never really had any friends,
I never felt like I identified with people,
and I found it hard to socialize with people.
I just remember it being really lonely
and not having anyone that I could relate to,
or being told that what I was doing was wrong,
or trying to be who I thought I was, was wrong.
When I went to sixth form college,
I made friends with some of the girls there,
guess, around that time
I was figuring out my gender identity.
Those friends that I had at sixth form
were really important to process that.
When I first started going out in East London,
people were dressing up and there were loads of club kids
and everyone was kind of wild and free,
and it was the first time
that I experienced nightlife like that.
I was coming up to having my gender reassignment surgery
and I was very private about my past,
and I didn't really talk to people about it.
And so when I started going out to these places
and meeting queer people for the first time, really,
I started to feel this sense of community,
and it was only after a couple of years
of making friends with these people
that I started to open up about my past
and just tell people about my journey as a trans woman,
which I kind of kept really secret up until then.
For something that had always been viewed
in a really negative way by other people,
for these new people that I met
to see it as a positive thing,
I almost felt celebrated.
(upbeat music)
When I'm on the dance floor,
I feel this freedom to be myself
and exist in the way that I want to be.
I think that's why it's really important
that we're trying to create these spaces
where people do feel free to express themselves
on the dance floor.
- My grandmum used to tell me,
"Oh child, you've been left in the oven a bit too long",
she used to relax my hair,
'cause my head was a bit too kinky for her,
press my nose so it'd be a little thinner.
It's only now
that I'm realizing what I went through as a kid.
So this is where I grew up,
like when I was primary school,
when everything happened when I was a kid,
I was in this house.
My family was a lot under the spotlight
because my sister is an athlete,
she's Olympic winner, she's worldly famous,
she's known in the fencing world and in the sports world,
she was on TV all the time,
so our family was under the spotlight for good reason,
everyone was proud.
So people were expecting me to be doing fencing as well
and this is when I discovered fashion,
but I was getting so much negativity from my surrounding,
from the people around me,
that I started harming myself, doing bad stuff.
I've been arrested, I was stealing, I was fighting,
I was literally going the wrong way.
(subdued music)
I just remember a lot of things that I've done
that I'm still struggling to say out loud,
me trying to end my life as well
and the best thing for me was to just escape Paris.
At the time I left Paris, I was 24 years old.
If you ask me, I don't even remember how I moved there,
all I know is I packed some clothes and I moved to England.
Luke was the first person,
when I came to London, I spoke to.
I messaged him, we started talking, we became friends
and literally just helped me with makeup a lot.
I wasn't really doing any drag or anything like this,
I remember I was just so impressed
by everything Luke was doing
and I've learned so much with Luke
and, literally, we became friends since.
You can check on the fridge,
so that was the first night out with Luke
when we went to Cirque,
my first time, pretty much, trying to do drag.
(rhythmic percussion)
When you start doing drag, you question everything.
Often men have this idea,
men should act and a woman should act,
but when you put yourself in the shoes of a woman
and when you look in the mirror
and see someone that is not who you used to be,
everything just goes so fast in your head.
(uptempo techno music)
Because you don't recognize yourself in the mirror,
you allow yourself to feel things
that you don't think you are allowed to feel,
because you're a either man or a woman,
because society tells you
that you should act this way or act that way.
When you're in drag, you don't fit in any of those boxes,
you have the freedom to do and think
and feel whatever you want.
♪ If I go out every night * ♪
♪ And I feel that it's all right ♪
♪ Nobody's business if I do ♪
♪ Nobody, nobody, nobody's business ♪
♪ No no no no nobody's business ♪
- In the beginning of my sort of drag career,
I released so many anxieties
and there was times where I cried on stage and I broke down,
and I was silly and I was funny, and I was honest and raw.
And it was like taking away all those things
that society had placed upon me
and chipping away at the past,
to just become the best version of me.
Come inside, I'll take you through to my drag den.
Here you go, welcome to my little world.
I'm a very visual person
and so I want to create more things that bring people joy
and bring me joy,
I like to be surrounded by colorful, happy things.
This is kind of like drag,
it's things I collected, it's things that make me happy,
it's things I use day to day, but also in nightlife.
I live in, basically, like a Barbie dreamland of a bedroom
and that's not what most people's bedrooms look like,
but I've made a conscious choice
to surround myself with colorful things that make me happy
and make me feel fabulous.
Storage is very difficult when you have a lot of costumes
that don't really make any sense.
This is all Glitterbox stuff,
an outfit I wore on "Lorraine Kelly".
I'd say it's like 80% made by me.
This is seven years of drag,
this is seven years of holding onto memories.
So when I was a young child,
I was constantly encouraged to express myself
but we moved around quite a lot when I was a kid,
we moved around the country.
That meant that,
quite often, I was put into a different community
where I had to adapt
and you slowly realize
that being too visible or too loud
can sometimes be a hindrance.
And so I kind of learnt, in my early adolescence,
to keep a lot of my feelings inside
because people's reaction to them
wasn't always positive.
I came out when I was 15 and I felt liberated in some ways
but you're basically fighting one battle to come out
and then when you come out,
you've gotta fight this other battle to accept yourself.
I started to reach out to the gay community
that existed in Cumbria, which is very small,
and a lot of the lesbians there
all looked a very specific way,
and I didn't really connect with that at all
and so I felt like I didn't belong in that box.
And it was like saying,
okay, you've come out and you're gay,
but then the gay community
also doesn't really want you here.
And yeah, it just felt like I was drowning
and it got to the point
where I tried to take my own life several times,
and my mom just said, "What will make you happy?",
and I just said, "I need to get out of here."
(hairdryer whirring)
I'd no idea what I was getting myself into,
all I knew was that if I moved to London
there would be nightlife there
and there would be this scene that you could find
and you could belong to,
because I hadn't felt like I belonged to any community,
I didn't feel like I was from anywhere,
I didn't feel like I fitted in any way in particular
and so I just knew that there were alternatives in London.
♪ I'm tired of coming to a house party ♪
♪ And people just standing around ♪
♪ Like it's a fucking fashion show ♪
♪ This is not rap music, children we do not beat ♪
♪ House music is about love, freedom, and expression ♪
♪ To be what and who we are ♪
♪ So if you're here to spread love, unity, and devotion ♪
♪ Get up, get up! ♪
♪ Get up! ♪
- I understand now why people are out and proud,
because they've been victimized
and being told that they're misfits of society,
and it wasn't acceptable.
It's made much easier by meeting people
and getting on with people, and talking to people
and understanding what people have to go through,
and you shouldn't be stigmatized 'cause you are different.
♪ Get up ♪
- [Narrator] There are costs and duties
associated with liberation,
it begins in our minds,
a distinct release from ties that bind
by thinking positive thoughts, ignoring the haters,
turning the other cheek, but don't be no fool.
Come on, we've got to open our hearts to give love
so that we can receive it.
Freedom ain't free.
(uptempo music)
♪ Deep inside I feel warm ♪
♪ Close my eyes and take the waves of joy ♪
♪ I'm on a fancy ride, move sometimes ♪
♪ Listen to the notes of my own destiny ♪
- The biggest success that I have,
for me, is the fact that I fucking survived
as a trans person of color.
So imagine being marginalized within the marginalized,
as I transitioned while I was building a DJ career,
I transitioned in the city of New York
when there wasn't a word for trans people
and you had all these people from the outer boroughs
that, if you were visibly presenting as trans,
it was life or death.
I never found my place
because, as a person of trans experience,
I had to create my own tribe
and I had to create my own world.
And, for me, it wasn't so much about what color you were
or who you slept with,
it was, do we vibe musically?
Do we vibe artistically?
- Queerness is a gift, it's a way to see the world
through a lens that enriches the world
that is so needed in the world,
but cannot be repressed and cannot be extinguished.
- It's about the music, it's about coming together,
I am in a space where I feel completely free to be myself.
(speaking French)
It was just everything that's part of me
the thing that I've been telling you about,
like fashion, dance, music, gay, black,
I was like, that's me and we get to dance together,
sometimes there's a competition.
But when the competition's over,
we all go and dance together.
- Queer people are coming into the mainstream in a big way
and we're influencing culture
and we're influencing media, and change,
and we're influencing music and television, and film,
and the mainstream society's idea of gender
is changing,
and my generation are encouraging that.
And so I hope that the next generation
won't even be asking these questions,
they'll just accept you for who you are.
(upbeat music)
Hiya girls.
- Looking nice and subtle,
very pastel. - Thank you!
As I've got older,
I've learnt to express myself with my body more
and because of that, I feel like I can dance freely.
♪ Put your hands together for the love I never knew before ♪
♪ And if the world stops turning ♪
♪ Then our love keeps burning evermore ♪
- I think what I want people to see
is somebody being authentically themselves
and somebody being free.
When you see other people celebrating
and being encouraged by your freedom,
that is the feeling
when you're like this is really, really special.
- Clubs are about great music,
but they're also about exhibitionism and voyeurism.
I've just always been obsessed
with strong theatrical personas,
people with exaggerated imagery, anyone who's performing,
so that chimes with the club thing
because, as I said,
clubs really are an arena for people to perform.
I quite like the idea of bringing the glitter into it
'cause it ties in, obviously, with the name
and it's an extra texture.
Growing up in the early '70s, realizing I was gay,
I couldn't tell anyone
and so it forced you to become an actor
because you had to pretend that you were like everyone else,
but the club world in London's enabled me
to actually live my life more truthfully,
in a way, for myself.
This is the newest one of Lucy,
which I was really pleased with,
everyone seems to like that one.
Some of the performers they have,
they have a certain charisma
and it's transmitting that through the artwork
to give people an idea of what the club is about.
- There've been loads of people who've nudged me
into becoming a dancer and performer,
Glyn's been one of the key figures
in encouraging me to perform.
- Go away. - Hello!
- Lucy Fizz!
- [Lucy] Hi, hello, hi!
- I'd always wanted Lucy to be involved
and I'm just gonna talk frankly here,
I think Lucy might have been a bit wild
for Glitterbox at the beginning.
- I think I was wild for Glitterbox
up until last year.
- Yeah. - I think.
- But I also think that Lucy is the most punk ass performer
I've ever met
and I've always said that,
Lucy has got pop star energy where, it doesn't matter,
you can be in a 5,000 capacity space or a room of 10
and Fizz will get it pumping,
and that is a gift,
that's like something that you do,
it's like watching a conductor, you know what I mean?
She's a disco conductor, put that on a business card.
(laughing)
(upbeat funky music)
- We don't want to forget, in any way,
the music that has led people to the current scene,
the DJs that created the scene, the pioneers,
the music that they used to play,
that's really, really important.
- It's amazing when I think back
at the history of dance music,
that I was fortunate enough
to have grown up in New York City
and was able to see, what I consider,
some of the greatest DJs of all time
in the residency that they were most famous for
and that was just, you know, pure luck, if anything.
We're standing on Mercer and Prince
and in this building is where The Loft was at 99 Prince.
(vehicles whooshing)
I grew up in South Bronx,
so there were a lot of drugs around me,
people getting killed,
lots of my friends becoming junkies,
so I just knew that I had to do something
to get out of the world that I was in.
It got to a point
where my mom was telling me you need to have a job
and then I had explained to her
that I wanted to be a DJ in a nightclub
and she was like,
someone's gonna pay you to play records all night?
I was like, yeah, it's a job.
I'm just gonna say,
we're on the corner of Mercer and Houston
and behind me is the entrance to The Gallery,
where Nicky Siano reigned for many years.
And, as a teenager, I would come here
and bother him and ask him for the names of songs,
I'd come with pen and paper in hand
'cause I knew I was always gonna hear something
I never heard before.
(upbeat funky music)
So basically that's.
- This is the entrance, this is the line before we opened,
here was the entrance right off the corner.
I mean, these two clubs were the basis for everything
and still to today.
That's what happened with The Gallery and The Loft,
people understood it.
I remember the first week we opened at this place,
it was 120 people
and the second week was 700 people,
that's how quick the word spread.
A lot of people stopped by,
David Bowie, Mick Jagger stopped by, Patti LaBelle.
- It was a mixed crowd straight and gay,
black, white, Asian, Hispanic, young and old.
- Different race,
you're a different sexual preference and it didn't matter
'cause you were all there to groove on the music, to dance,
you were all there to dance.
(upbeat disco music)
- What I felt performing in these clubs at that young age,
I really felt a sense of individualism,
be who you are and feel okay with it.
At 14/15, I was 16 when I sang, "We Are Family",
I was always working in clubs
so I think that's what I felt, a sense of expression
that had no barriers.
I was understanding how it brought people together,
the music did,
it was a sense of,
the first word that comes to mind, freedom of expression
and freedom of enjoying yourself and not caring
who's looking, you're having a good time
and socially too, it broke down barriers.
- You have to remember what was happening socially,
Civil Rights, the Vietnam War,
people got out and protested every day and ended the war,
and then they got rid of the president!
All that stuff happened
and people were feeling very powerful,
people felt like they were bonded together
and when the clubs opened,
it was a place where people could gather
and share their power,
they would share their power
and they would unify it and make it stronger.
And when you spent a night at The Gallery
you felt like you went to a protest,
like you went to church, you were uplifted.
(upbeat disco music)
- Coming up, there was always a separatism of music,
there was R&B, there was pop, black, white,
dance totally created a bridge with that.
Being African-American women
and especially in that time,
there was a sense of responsibility with what you sing,
owning up to the lyrics that you put your heart into.
- All the songs represented a kind of let's get together
and take them over or spread love, or change the world.
- Songs definitely had messages in the lyrics
and I think they were definitely relative
to whoever felt them and what they were going through.
- You went to dance and you danced to whatever David played,
whatever I played, and you got into it
because you trusted me, you trusted David,
we weren't gonna put on shit,
we played from midnight till nine in the morning
and that was a journey.
- I'm really sad that Gallery's ending
but everything has a beginning and a end,
and I hope that there will be another beginning.
- [Interviewee] Unfortunately it's closing,
but we'll leave here and go to the Garage,
there's always one other place to go to.
- We're standing between Barrick and Hudson,
just where the Paradise Garage was
and I haven't been here, wow, in over a decade,
and I haven't passed by here.
I still can't believe it, it's just not there anymore.
(upbeat disco music)
I'd come here
and the line would be down the block,
and inside it would be packed,
it was dark, tight, space and all gay, all black
and it was an amazing energy in that room.
And it's strange, you know,
I spent a lot of nights in there,
there was a room full of love and magic
and people dancing, and forgetting all their troubles
and coming together as one,
I don't know, it makes me feel sad and happy
to know what was there, but sad to see what's there now.
- Hello!
We're in New York and we're on the way to House of Yes,
this is my first time in New York,
really excited to be here,
I can't wait to perform tonight.
I've had the call sheet
and it looks like there's huge production
and loads of teams of different dancers and performers,
so I need to figure out where I fit into all of that
and what they want from me.
Oh my God, it's sick!
- We're not the first people to be dressing up
and dancing to disco music,
I feel like we are a part of a legacy and a history,
and we are carrying forth
a certain sort of ethos and belief into the present
and obviously into the future.
House of Yes is a space dedicated to entertainment
and self expression,
so we do that through having theater shows and dance parties
but it really is a magnet that attracts people
who are like-minded, believe in positivity,
believe in self-expression,
and diversity, inclusivity, and good dance music.
- (laughing) No one told me about this.
It's amazing, I can't wait,
I'm terrified about going in the spinning cage of death
and climbing up that wall
in my six inch platform heels is gonna be interesting
but I'm so excited.
It's like a dream come true.
(upbeat disco music)
- Club culture was more than just entertainment
and the music reflected that,
these were safe spaces for people of color,
for gender non-conforming people,
for trans people, for black people, for Latin people,
and so it's not surprising to me
that queer people of color which were marginalized people,
weren't allowed in these sort of artistic creative spaces,
created their own.
And so then when you go to these places
where you find your tribe,
it's celebrated and it's freeing and it's enriching,
and it gives purpose and meaning to your life.
- Can I get a fuck yes?
- [Group] Fuck yes.
- We also love consent, it's 100% mandatory
and, just like me, super sexy,
so yes means yes and no means?
- [Group] No.
- House of Yes in its peak moment
feels like your costume closet and your art studio
made this crazy art baby
and then threw it up in the air,
and everything's just covered in glitter and confetti,
and just a big sea of people
dressed in whatever the hell they wanna dress in,
just flying and dancing.
♪ When I think about all you give to me ♪
♪ I get full inside from your light, you see ♪
♪ There ain't no way, I'll never let you down ♪
♪ My world is yours, you make it all go around ♪
- House of Yes can stand for this place
where it's okay to be yourself
and it's okay to do your thing and that we will accept you,
and it's a positive message.
♪ I found the strength ♪
- There's no right or wrong on the dance floor,
music moves people and allows them to be free
and that, for me, is so rewarding.
- Our motivation right now and our intention
is to help, is to be in service to a community.
Whether it's sharing actual information
that can save people's lives,
whether it's about mental health or sexual health,
there's a lot of that, there's even social health
and opening people's perspectives
into how they can be their best selves.
♪ Joy deep down inside of me ♪
♪ I believe you know that I can see ♪
♪ Peace, that's what you bring to me ♪
(train rattling)
- I came to New York City on December 27th, 1990.
I have a real affinity for the dance floor,
it was a healing space for us,
it was like a family reunion for us every week,
for those of us who were living through the AIDS crisis
it was a place to fellowship, to heal, to recharge,
so that we could go back out and face the world
that was not so pleasant at the time.
(emotive music)
It was a plague and people were dropping dead on the streets
and nobody cared.
We were dying, gay men first,
were dying of a plague and nobody cared.
The government didn't talk about it for eight years.
We marched on streets,
we fought for medication, we fought to live,
and the dance floor was the place that we went
to be with each other, to heal, to recharge,
to find a space where we could have the energy
to go back out into the world and fight some more.
There was a whole group of religious people
from their pulpits, spouting hateful rhetoric
that AIDS was God's punishment,
you deserve it you faggot,
that's what we lived through.
How are you?
Didn't tell me you was coming,
I said, this is crazy!
This is crazy. - I know.
- I mean, just the years,
this is like, for real,
we went through it together.
- Together.
- We went through hell together
and came out on the other side.
I want all of my work to reflect
what I've really gone through, who I really am,
that's what this song means to me.
♪ When it comes to my heart ♪
♪ I think I deserve to be choosy ♪
As a gay man coming out in 1985 in the middle of a plague,
love was not an option,
love was transient, love was what other people had,
because if you allowed yourself
to be vulnerable enough to be in love,
that person could be dead in a matter of weeks.
So we cut ourselves off unconsciously,
we blocked ourselves from that.
That's why I'm ready to finally fall in love,
it feels safe now, I'm ready to finally do it,
I don't even know how to do it.
♪ Lately there's a little something I'm needing ♪
♪ Something found deep in a kiss ♪
♪ That's the kind of drug I've been missing ♪
♪ True love can be more than just a daydream ♪
♪ Daydream ♪
- Yeah!
- I'm ready,
I'm finally ready to experience what real love is.
- That's fine, you can take as much time as you need
and also as many takes as you feel you need,
it's all good.
♪ I don't need eyes to see it ♪
♪ I know my heart believes it ♪
♪ I wanna know if you're the one who needs my love ♪
♪ Tell me could you be the one for me? ♪
♪ I'm ready, finally ready to fall in love ♪
♪ Baby I'm ready, ready to fall ♪
♪ If you answer when I call, I will give it all to you ♪
- Awesome. - I have been a part
of the generation that kicked the door down
and now I'm receiving the benefits from that.
I'm just so grateful
that I lived long enough to see this transformative day,
that's not lost on me.
(upbeat funky music)
♪ I ain't got no problem, that's for real ♪
♪ Ain't got no drama, she know the deal ♪
♪ Making that money for the fancy clothes ♪
♪ But she got her own, you know the drill ♪
- Fabulous means glamorous and camp and fun,
and sparkly and happy, and full of energy
and the best possible feeling you can feel about yourself,
that's what fabulous means.
- I mean, to me fabulous is believing in oneself enough,
loving oneself enough,
to know that you are enough to then be whatever you want.
♪ Na na na ♪
- I don't know, I don't know why I'm like this.
I think what makes me fabulous is my outlook on life,
I think if you have a fabulous outlook
and you want fabulousness from people, you'll find it,
yeah, I think it's an energy more than anything.
- They're like superstars,
they're like the superheroes of the night,
they elevate the energy, they keep everything going
and some people even go to the Glitterbox shows
just to watch the performances,
'cause these dancers are just next level.
So we figured we wanted to create a campaign
that reflects that spectacle
and the weight of the power these guys have
to bring positivity to a room.
- We want people to stand out and look individual
and be themselves, without any fear or prejudice,
and if they can do it on the dance floor,
if they can do it in life, it's an amazing thing.
- Glitterbox have definitely helped me find my own aesthetic
and shape the person that I am now.
I'm comfortable enough or at least strong enough
to go back to Paris, face my old demon,
but also mostly reconnect with my sister
who is taking a big place in my life
and who is really important to me,
so I think it's the right time for me to do it.
The more I get,
at the minute, I'm really scared
because I feel like 'cause we didn't leave things
in the best way last time we spoke to each other,
but that was five years ago now
so I'm hoping things are better now.
But Paris was really tough for me toward the end
and I felt like I was being a danger for myself mostly,
and I didn't wanna be here anymore.
And it's just hard to face all those things again,
but I think I need to see through all of that
and find some positive things.
(train announcement sound)
(speaking in French)
(laughing)
I was happy to see that she was open to rebond
and to start fresh, have a new start
and I feel much lighter now,
but it's still a lot to process,
my head is just about to explode,
but I feel really happy about the way it went.
- Breaking down the rules
of people's preconceptions and prejudice
and unifying people on the dance floor,
and everybody being equal on the dance floor,
they're huge statements for us.
- [Radio Presenter] Welcome guys,
right now you're tuned into to the Glitterbox radio show,
we are super excited
to announce a huge show lined up for you guys
at Printworks in London.
♪ Much better ♪
♪ I think I feel much better ♪
- [Tete Bang] I think London, for a lot of the dancers,
is a really important place, you know, physically as well.
- When we do Glitterbox in London
it always feels like the family's all back together.
- This is my mum, Suzie!
I think when you get to a level
where you've got nothing to hide,
you can bring your mum to a rave
and being at Printworks
is a way of connecting all those little dots of who you are
and bringing them all together.
This is a physical representation
of everybody coming together in this huge space
where we've all got air to breathe
and we've got space to express ourselves.
♪ I think I feel much better ♪
- It's very rare
that any of us will get to that place in life
where we are celebrated on such a large scale
and so, Printworks is like our gold
at the end of the rainbow.
♪ I think I feel much better ♪
- For a very long time I've been bullied,
I've been told that I was too skinny,
I was too this, I was too black, or I was too feminine
and if you would have told me when I was a teenager
that I will be in a thong and heels
dancing in front of thousands of people,
I would have probably shit my pants and be like no.
- I still don't really understand what it is
that lets me get up on stage in front of 5,000 people
and then still I'll be so shy
that I won't dare go and speak to someone.
- There's one thing feeling free in yourself,
but there is another thing
when people are celebrating your freedom.
♪ Seems I can't deny ♪
♪ Some days just don't feel right ♪
♪ You know I feel, I think I feel much better ♪
- Whatever we are doing,
it's beyond being on the stage and it's beyond the music,
it's just about embracing whatever you are
and whatever you've been given.
- It is that feeling
of people telling you that you're perfect as you are,
you don't have to change,
what you're doing right now is good enough.
- Do not look for validation on the outside,
be your own validation, speak life into yourself.
Find your tribe, find the tribe, find your family,
find your chosen family
who understands how to love you unconditionally,
the end.
- Woo you know this?
We wanna hear you, sing to the heavens out there!
(upbeat disco music)
Here we go.
♪ We are family ♪
♪ I got all my sisters with me ♪
- You're beautiful!
♪ We are family ♪
♪ Get up everybody and sing ♪
♪ We are family, hey, hey ♪
♪ I got all my sisters with me, hey, yeah ♪
♪ We are family ♪
♪ Get up everybody and sing ♪
- Here we go!
♪ Everyone can see we're together ♪
♪ As we walk on by ♪
♪ Hey, in front just like birds of a say what? ♪
♪ I won't tell ♪
♪ All of the people around us they say ♪
♪ Can they be that close? ♪
♪ Just let me state for the record, we're giving love y'all! ♪
♪ We're giving, yeah, you sing ♪
♪ We are family, hey ♪
♪ I got all my sisters with me, hey, yeah ♪
♪ We are family, get up y'all ♪
♪ Get up everybody and sing ♪
♪ We are family, I got my sisters with me ♪
Put your hands in the air one more time and sing!
♪ We are family, hey, yeah ♪
One, two, drop it down, let me hear you sing!
♪ We are family ♪
We love you, get up everybody and sing, yeah woo!
♪ Rise and shine ♪
♪ Guess it's time to face the rain ♪
♪ No relief inside ♪
♪ So I got to numb the pain, it's an uphill climb ♪
♪ When I'm so close to the edge ♪
♪ I can't see the light but know it's on the other side ♪
♪ One hand is tied and one's been worked to death ♪
♪ I can't see the light so have to find it deep inside ♪
♪ Every time this life knocked me down ♪
♪ I had no more fight ♪
♪ I would hear a voice that changed my mind ♪
♪ Music saved my life ♪
♪ Saved my life ♪