As France prepares for the inaugural edition of Le Fier Gala, a new cultural event on June 12, dedicated to celebrating LGBTQIA+ visibility, pride, and artistic excellence, one of its most prominent supporters is stepping into the spotlight. Musician, composer, and creative visionary Woodkid joins the event as honorary patron alongside model, activist, and actress Raya Martigny, helping to shape an evening that aims to unite music, culture, and community around a shared message of inclusion.
Woodkid shot by Collier Schorr
More than a gala, Le Fier Gala represents a moment of affirmation for LGBTQIA+ voices in France. Bringing together an impressive lineup of artists, associations, and public figures, the event seeks to celebrate queer creativity while supporting organizations working on the ground for equality and representation. For Woodkid, whose career has unfolded alongside significant shifts in LGBTQIA+ visibility within the music industry, the gala arrives at a particularly meaningful time.
In this exclusive interview, Woodkid reflects on his personal journey as an openly gay artist, the evolution of queer representation in music, the challenges that remain, and why gatherings such as Le Fier Gala are more necessary than ever.
What does it mean to you to take part in the very first edition of Le Fier Gala, alongside inspiring figures such as model, activist, and actress Raya Martigny?
It’s obviously an absolute honor. We never have enough occasions to celebrate our culture and our diversity, so I am also very excited to share this moment with the audience and all these amazing artists. It means a lot, especially in this context.
I have known Raya for a couple of years now. She is such a powerful voice and, at the same time, an extremely tender person. I am so humbled to be by her side for this Gala.
Was it a natural decision for you to support this event as honorary patron and to celebrate the LGBTQIA+ community and the values of visibility, pride, and inclusion that it represents?
When I started my career 15 years ago as an out gay musician in France, I felt a bit isolated and lonely in the music industry.
I don’t think I have always been the model or the voice I dreamed of being, mainly because, throughout my whole career, I have been trying to exist as a gay artist, both in my songs and publicly, while also having to deal with the constant passive-aggressive, systemic homophobic remarks coming from the whole system around me. That shut me down on many levels.
But this somehow feels like revenge. When Maximilien, the father of this Gala, came to me, I knew I could help a little. The French music scene has changed so much since I started, and there are now so many incredible out LGBTQIA+ artists in the scene. Le Fier Gala is the perfect occasion to use my network and my experience to help create something beautiful out of all these years in the music business, and maybe celebrate the end of this loneliness.
And as I’m a bit of a drama queen, I feel especially at home with a symphonic orchestra!
The last time we spoke was in 2020, around the release of your latest album S16. Since then, have you seen meaningful changes in the music industry when it comes to the visibility, acceptance, and support of queer artists?
I would say the changes started even before that. It’s evolving every year, in both great and strange ways. There are so many incredible artists on the scene now. It fills me with joy. Some of us have become part of a cultural and economic powerhouse that is no longer perceived as indie or underground. You can see that with drag culture over the past 10 years.
Not that many queer artists are not still struggling financially, and that is another problem that has to be addressed, but there is now a possibility, a hope, to be both queer and mainstream. Well, at least for men. I think of Lil Nas X, Sam Smith, Troye Sivan, and many more.
This changes the paradigm at the higher levels of the industry, which still largely remains dominated by straight cis rich white men. I wish the cultural industry could highlight us solely based on moral and ethical convictions, but unfortunately it also has to go through a very rational capitalist shift.
In your view, what progress has been made, and what still needs to happen to ensure that LGBTQIA+ artists can express themselves freely and authentically?
Well, as I just said, I think we can now be seen by structures of power not only as a margin or as tokens, but also as proper influential and commercial voices. We do not owe this to the labels, but to the incredible artists who have pushed boundaries over the years, and to the public who supported them. If it were not for them, we would still be pushed aside.
Not that the economic battle is the most important one, but I think this is already a battle won that can help us move forward more easily, at least for now. To keep moving forward in the times we live in, I think we all need to keep addressing the issue of the extreme right, and never let it infiltrate our communities and identities. It is a Trojan horse, and we will pay a very violent price if we let it happen.
This is why it is important to gather and show the world that we are a solid bloc, that we are facing common threats, and that this, probably, is what makes us a community, whether we agree with that term or not. Some of us might feel different, uncomfortable with the idea of community, queerness, or activism, but at the end of the day, in the eyes of reactionary politics or religious radicalism, we are all seen as one group.
What message would you like to share with young queer people who look to artists like you for inspiration and representation?
Well, I would say thank you first. It is always nice to be considered an inspiration.
I would then say that the most important thing to seek in art is singularity, at all costs. As much as I could, I have always run away from the familiar, from anything that sounded like something I already knew. Not that I am that unique, but I have personally always tried to venture into uncontrolled and uncharted territories. Isn’t that the actual definition of queerness?
This is what might get you rejected at first, but loved in the long term.
More information about Le Fier Gala HERE
