Hear our full conversation on my podcast “Beyond the Fame.”
He’s already earned the “E,” the “G,” and the “T” with an Emmy, Grammy and two Tonys, but performer Billy Porter humbly downplays the fact that he’s just one Oscar “O” away from the rarefied air of “EGOT” status.
“Everybody else wants it more than me!” Porter told WTOP. “I’m working on it. Listen, it’s all about the work. I’m doing good work and the universe will make it happen when it’s supposed to.”
Until then, you can check out his “Black Mona Lisa: Vol. 1 Tour” live at Warner Theatre in D.C. on June 2.
“That title just dropped out of the sky,” Porter said. “What I love about it is that it speaks to the classic nature of who I am and where I come from and what my work is rooted in and as a 53-year-old it also speaks to the fact that I’m the future as well.”
“Mona Lisa has been around for a long time and she’s still relevant, more than relevant, beyond relevant,” he continued. “She’s the past, present and future, so that’s where that title came from.”
The tour is your chance to see Porter perform his new single “Baby Was a Dancer,” which just dropped last month featuring the lyrics, “She was born in September of ’69, and the summer of lovers ended that night, oh, so since Day One she was in overdrive, always looking for loving she couldn’t find.”
“It’s a bop, as the children say,” Porter said. “You can’t be where I am unless you’re in overdrive. The song speaks to my history and it addresses the haters. I was told that my queerness would be my liability and it was for decades until it wasn’t, and now my queerness is my superpower. That song speaks to overcoming those haters, the ones that don’t believe in you, and figuring out how to believe in yourself and dance anyway.”
Born in Pittsburgh in 1969, Porter’s first big performance prize was winning $100,000 on the TV singing competition “Star Search” in 1992, appearing the same year that a young Britney Spears competed on the show.
“Britney Spears was 12 years old,” Porter said. “I was in the adult category, she was in the child’s category, but I did win for Best Male Vocalist of 1992. … Daddy’s been around for a long time! Baby’s been around for a long time!”
He soon made it to the Broadway stage to perform in the original cast of “Miss Saigon,” followed by “Five Guys Named Moe” and of course playing Teen Angel in the 1994 Broadway revival of “Grease.”
“I was in the show with Rosie O’Donnell and a then-unknown Megan Mullally, pre-‘Will & Grace,’ and we had a ball,” Porter said.
In 1997, Porter released his self-titled debut album with the song “Show Me,” as well as the song “Love is on the Way,” on the movie soundtrack of “First Wives Club” (1996).
In 2013, he originated the iconic LGBTQ+ role of Lola in “Kinky Boots” (2013), dancing in high heels on conveyor belts to win the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical, as well as a Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album.
“I’ve been doing eight shows a week for 30 years and there’s a stamina and discipline that goes with that craft,” Porter said. “It’s exhausting, but it’s also invigorating and inspiring at the same time. It’s like an Olympic athlete, you learn how to take care of yourself. … Lola would never have happened if I hadn’t chosen myself and my queerness. If had forsaken my own self, Lola would never have happened and I wouldn’t be sitting here right now.”
On television, Porter made more history by playing Pray Tell in the FX series “Pose” (2018-2021), becoming the first openly gay Black man to be nominated or win the Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor.
“I look forward to the day when these glass ceilings don’t need to be busted because there is equality,” Porter said. “I’m grateful to have been the first, but I’m definitely not going to be the last. … Pray Tell is a three-dimensional human being. You can’t receive the fun and the fabulous without leaning into the serious. … I lived through the AIDS crisis, so I always had survivor’s guilt about why did I live? Getting that role is the reason.”
The past few years have shown his versatility as Porter landed his first No. 1 hit on the Billboard U.S. Dance Club chart with “Love Yourself” (2019), won his second Tony for coproducing Broadway’s Best Musical champ “A Strange Loop” (2020), published a memoir “Unprotected” (2021), directed the Amazon feature film “Anything’s Possible” (2022) and directed Episode 5 of the FOX series “Accused” (2023).
“For me it’s about being in a unique position to take the reins and tell the stories authentically that historically (a) have not been told, or (b) have not been told properly,” Porter said. “I started a production company Incognegro Productions last June and our focus is on Black excellence and queer joy. It’s a celebration of those things and I’m excited to be able to be at the helm of guiding that because … I am the change that I need to seek.”
“My hope is that I have set some other people free in the process,” Porter said. “We were here, we’ve always been here and we’re not ever going anywhere. … What it’s all about is to try to continue be a leader in all of these spaces and really make a difference and create representation for my communities that I never saw when I was young.”
Hear our full conversation on my podcast “Beyond the Fame.”
