Singer, actor, and social advocate, Olly Alexander, is performing alongside a group of Trans creatives in a new inclusive project called ‘The Absolut Choir’.
Olly is best known for his music performance as Years & Years and for his leading role in the record-breaking Channel 4 series, It’s a Sin. In addition to the trailblazing pop star, the choir includes a number of brilliant singers and queer activists who have come together to advocate for Trans equality, disability rights, and better body representation across the UK.
With 90% of the choir made up of Trans musicians from the Trans Creative Collective (TCC) and Trans Voices UK, Olly Alexander described The Absolut Choir as one of the most diverse and ground-breaking projects he’s worked on to date. He said, “When ABSOLUT came to me with this project I instantly had so many ideas, from working with the TCC and Trans Voices to re-recording Shine, I wanted The ABSOLUT Choir to be entirely inclusive.”
One of the choir members, model and Trans rights advocate Kenny Ethan Jones, was the first Trans man to participate in a period campaign. His activism centres around fighting the stigma surrounding menstruation, body politics, and mental health. When sharing about his participation in The Absolut Choir project, Kenny said, “Your boy can’t sing but I gave it my best shot! We got loud about Trans rights, body positivity and disability awareness.”
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With a goal of elevating queer voices, the choir is releasing a new version of the hit single, Shine, by Years & Years. The new version has a sound that feels even more powerful and progressive than the original.
To celebrate the release of this new music, Olly created a limited-edition Absolut bottle featuring his original design.
its my pleasure to introduce you to The Absolut Choir ? This choir is made up of some really brilliant changemakers who are doing some amazing things! We created this very cute version of Shine that I love so much pic.twitter.com/IMJedPMU8a
— olly alexander (@alexander_olly) November 8, 2022
Absolut is hosting a three-week media campaign to introduce the voices behind the choir. To raise awareness about the range of important causes and organisations that The Absolut Choir strives to highlight in the music, there will be billboards posted all over London this November. Fans are encouraged to share photos of the billboards across social media to help spread awareness of The Absolut Choir and their activism.
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