In celebration of Pride month, Pose star and red carpet habitué Billy Porter has released a banging new dance anthem called “Love Yourself.” It’s very old school ’80s house, very Crystal Waters, very 9AM at Sound Factory…. I absolutely adore it.

Says Billy:

“I’m thrilled to be spreading the message of self-love to my community whose humanity and worth have been up for legislation for way too long. On this 50th anniversary of Stonewall I’m proud to unite with my LGBTQ brothers and sisters to remind the world that we’re here and we ain’t goin’ nowhere. Love always wins!”

Songwriter D. Smith penned the tune, and praised Porter for bringing a voice to their music.

“Billy’s talent and his platform are the perfect vessels for such an urgent message,” Smith said. “As a proud African-American transgender woman and music producer, I just knew he would be the right messenger for this song and I was right, he killed it! It was an amazing experience working with Billy in the studio and I am thrilled to have written and produced the track for him. My LGBTQIA+ friends and family need to hear this. The world needs to hear it as well.”

(via CNN; photo: Avalon)

via Billboard:

So you’ve just put out a new song, “Love Yourself.” It’s all about embracing who you are  and finding that light within yourself—very fitting for this Pride month. So what led you to want to create this song?

I have to say, as busy as I’ve been, it was truly my manager Bill Butler’s doing. He and Carmen Cacciatore are friends, and Carmen is at the forefront of the music world. D. Smith is a transgender writer and producer who created the song, and Bill and Carmen found it. They presented the song to me and I loved it and thought it was a great idea. I have a good team behind me, so it really was my manager that came up with the idea to do it!

Is this song just a one-off or is it part of an upcoming project?

Well, ultimately it’s going to be a part of a project. My goal is to sort of reenter mainstream R&B and soul music by next year. By this time next year, I hope to be releasing the album that’s connected to this song. And now I have a space to sell it, you know? Now I don’t have to just depend on radio to sell a record. I have a platform of my own where I can sell it myself.