Lil Nas X’s intent with this new single was made clear the day before the song and its trolling video arrived, when he posted a soul-baring, deeply moving letter to his younger, more fearful, deeply closeted self on Instagram.Ī post shared by Lil Nas X is therefore arguable that “Montero (Call Me by Your Name)” is the most openly gay song ever to top the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and it’s certainly the first such song to debut on top. This comes less than two years after his momentous coming out on the last day of Pride Month 2019. And while he is definitely leaning into the LOLz, Montero also seriously sees “Montero,” his purposefully self-titled single-paired with a parenthetical allusion to Call Me by Your Name, the gay coming-of-age novel turned award-winning film-as an emblem of his uncloseted freedom. (You can play it in your browser now!) As cheeky-literally-as twerking is as a metonym for Lil Nas X’s current hit, it has also emerged as a symbol of gay pride and even protest. Lil Nas X is leaning hard into this symbolism, upping the ante with the release this week of, I kid you not, a “Twerk Hero” video game. Lil Nas X’s climactic twerk-cum–lap dance for the Prince of Darkness himself in the song’s music video has drawn the lion’s share of media coverage since it dropped two weeks ago.
