Boyzone: One for the Boys

Ever wonder what it would've been like if Lance Bass had come out while still with *NSync? Me neither, but I know it wouldn't have been anything like what the Irish band Boyzone has done.

The reunited group (which really should be Manzone at this point) has made a music video for their ballad, "Better", and it features each band member with a love interest. The catch? The love interest for openly gay band member Stephen Gately is a guy.

For something so simple, it is in its own way mindblowing. Think about it: when was the last time a "straight" group not only had a gay member, but embraced his sexuality and treated it on an equal footing as their own (Boy George, George Michael, the guy from Judas Priest)? Oh yah, that's right, never (although the Pet Shop Boys featured two men kissing in their video for "Being Boring" - 18 years ago). Elton John even pretended to be straight in videos.

But Gately is pretty blase about it; he told BBC's Newsbeat "For me, it's just me being me and I don't think there should be a real big issue about the whole thing anyway. I just think it's just a beautiful video and I think it works superbly for the song. I'm hoping this video will have a good, positive, all-round reaction."

The "Better" video is a beautiful video, and in fact was originally going to feature each member's real partners, but they all reportedly backed out. But no one from the band ever wavered on casting a male love interest for Gately. He goes on to say, "The lads were saying, 'You've got to do this'. They were pushing saying, 'This would be fantastic'. It's the first of its kind. That's why I went for it."

So a big thank you to Boyzone: the resulting product is hot and inspiring.

(Image courtesy of Getty)

Comments

[GayUK]

Love the video and Gately...

...about time somebody made a video showing a gay couple in a 'normal' way with no darama inducing angle to it.

[Tetsujin28]

Wow! Really classy and a fine song!

[Tony]

WOW....beautiful song and very well done video.

BRAVO to Boyzone for making this move and being very supportive of their band-mate.

[eagles]

i loved the song it made me cry cause i want that better. nice video about time a guy isnt scared to say he is gay and he is in a band about time. i get tired of them saying they are gay after they are not with the group anymore. this is the best song i ever heard. two thumbs up

[V_Collier]

my favorite band