It’s Pride! Throughout June, HollywoodLife is running The Sound Of Pride, a month-long feature where members of the LGBTQ+ community pick songs that should be on your Pride 2022 playlist. Today, Our Flag Means Death star Vico Ortiz shared their picks for this season’s soundtrack.
At the end of Vico’s interview about OFMD getting a second season — and what they would like to explore in the next chapter of the fan-favorite pirate-themed comedy – we asked if they had a message they’d like to share with the world in honor of Pride 2022.
“I would love to share that no matter where you are in the world, no matter whether you are or are not able to express yourself in the way that you want, I want you to know that you exist. Therefore, you are valid,” they say, with love in their heart and a warm smile on their face. “Therefore, you are beautiful. Therefore, you are gorgeous and handsome, and your existence is of the utmost importance. And that when you see yourself in the mirror, you’re seeing yourself, even if other people don’t register that. And we see you. And we are here for you, and we’re so proud of you.”
The world is blessed to have people like Vico Ortiz in it and all those celebrating Pride this month. To help make this Pride the best, Vico contributed to HL’s The Sound of Pride playlist.
Ana Macho, “Cuerpa”
Vico: One of [my picks] would be “Cuerpa” by Ana Macho. They are a trans fem non-binary Puerto Rican artist. Also, a rapper, in a way. I mean, the song is very much like a Reggaeton, like perreo, like that kind of vibe. It’s very Puerto Rican. It’s very Caribbean. It’s very queer.
I love listening to music in Spanish, and even more so to songs that resonate with my queerness and how I’m reclaiming my body and being like, ‘F the rest of the people if they can’t handle the expansion of who I am.’ So “Cuerpa” is definitely [like that]. And it’s a good song to dance, to really get on the grind of it.
So something, a word in Puerto Rico that we use is herrera, which means like – it will be the equivalent of ‘feeling yourself.’ You’re’ just like, “damn, I’m feeling myself with the song.” So you’re like at the hiando. That’s kind of like the vibe.
Thalia, “A Quién Le Importa (¿A quién le importa?)”
The other song I’ve been debating, because I’m like, there’s two that I’m kind of like, which route do I go? I have the more pop side with Thalia‘s “A Quién Le Importa,” which is like a Y2K pop song, which wasn’t intended to be queer, but then became a queer anthem.
Similarly, which is like, “¿A quién le importa?”, it just means like, ‘who cares?’ You know? It’s like, ‘who cares what I do? Who cares what I say? If they’re envious of me, then let them be envious. I am going to be who I am. It doesn’t matter what.’ And it wasn’t intended to be queer, but then it was like, ‘this is ours. Thank you very much.’
Rita Indiana, “Miedo”
Thalia, to my knowledge, is not a queer artist. So that’s why I’m kind of like – “whoa, we claimed it. It’s ours.” But this other one is queer artist Rita Indiana. They’re Dominican, and their song, “Miedo.” It’s not necessarily about being queer, but they’re an incredible queer artist. And that song is very sexy.
It’s like, ‘I’m scared of your love, but I’m also here for it.’ So it’s very nice, very sexy, very slow, very indie with some vibes of reggaeton as well in there. So I’m debating those two. I’m like, ‘should I go for the queer artist who maybe the song is not specifically about pride, but they are in the community,’ or the other one who’s like not queer, but the song definitely resonates with the, ‘you know what, I’m fabulous. And if you can’t handle it, that’s on you!’
HollywoodLife: Insert ‘why not both’.gif
[laughs] Perfect. Thank you.
I’m trying to think of an English equivalent of an anthem that has been incorporated into Pride that wasn’t written explicitly for the LGBTQ community.
I feel like there are a lot of like songs that we use for Pride that were not intentionally made for Pride, but then we were like, ‘yeah, that’s going to go with us. We’re taking that. Thank you very much.’