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Lil Nas X stirred up a lot of reaction following his steamy BET Awards performance of “MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name)” Sunday night, during which he shared a passionate kiss with one of his male dancers. But now the chart-topping singer admits it took a lot for him to do that onstage.
After shooting down homophobic comments on social media Monday, Nas thanked those who supported the performance and revealed that it wasn’t easy to get on stage and express his sexuality.
“it took me a lot of time to mentally prepare for this performance,” he tweeted. “while on stage i was trembling knowing that i was performing something like that in front of my straight peers. even during the performance i was having a hard time calming my nerves. thank you guys for the love.”
When a fan asked why he would put himself through the stress, he responded, “if you don’t push yourself outside of your comfort zone you will never grow.”
Earlier in the day, he hit back at those criticizing the performance.
“we are 4 months in and people are still acting surprised that i am being gay and sexual in performances of a song about gay and sexual sh**,” he wrote, adding, “like the song is literally about gay sex what y’all want me to do play the piano while baking a cake?”
And when someone accused him of overcompensating because he’s insecure about his sexuality, Lil Nas replied, “you’re right i am insecure about my sexuality. i still have a long way to go. i’ve never denied that. when you’re conditioned by society to hate yourself your entire life it takes a lot of unlearning. which is exactly why i do what i do.”
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