OUTmusic Awards 2015 Preview: Celebrating 25 Years of LGBT Artists

The LGBT Academy of Recording Artists celebrates its 25th anniversary in New York City, with Sir Ari Gold and ‘Orange is the New Black’ star Lea DeLaria hosting the festivities

By Mike Ciriaco

January 9, 2015 :: 10:04 AM

Music and gay culture have always enjoyed a symbiotic relationship. In Greek mythology, this concept was personified by the golden god Apollo, who not only served as the Olympian patron of music but who indulged in a dalliance with a tasty little twink named Hyacinth. More contemporarily, the intersection of music and gays is epitomized by the OUTmusic Awards, which will rock out New York’s Town Hall Theater later this month. Hosted by pop musician Sir Ari Gold and Orange is the New Black’s Lea DeLaria, the award show is presented by the LGBT Academy of Recording Artists to honor excellence in the music industry by out performers.

“It is important to have an organization like the LGBT Academy of Recording Arts presenting the OUTmusic Awards to celebrate and document the achievements and contributions of LGBT music, entertainment and creative industry professionals,” says Diedra Meredith, CEO of OUTMUSIC Inc. “Our mission is to ensure that these contributions will be recognized, celebrated and archived in media and entertainment history equivalently. We have a viable and thriving music culture and heritage, just like the Latin Grammys, the Country Music Awards and the Black Entertainment Music Awards. The OUTmusic Awards should indeed be celebrated and included equally. Every powerful social change movement has a soundtrack, and the OUTmusic Awards amplifies the soundtrack of the triumphant LGBT equality movement.”

No one knows more about the power of a potent soundtrack than Gold, who echoes Meredith’s sentiments. “There is still such a dearth of LGBT voices in music, whereas we can be seen with greater visibility and diversity in most other mediums,” he says. “It’s so important to have a place to celebrate our contribution to music and give people a place to hear our stories and see how much talent there is going unseen by the mainstream. It’s up to us to keep our history alive, and LGBT Academy of Recording Artists is doing that.”

Gold is no stranger to the OUTmusic Awards himself, having earned “Best Debut” for his initial self-titled album, as well as “Album of the Year” for its follow up, Space Under Sun. This is also the New York gay nightlife icon’s second time hosting the event, “the first being when it was at the Knitting Factory, which is a pretty legendary NYC music spot,” he says. “But the fact that it’s at Town Hall this year is quite a milestone for the movement.”