Kelly Clarkson, who's been showing up as a vocal ally to the LGBTQ+ community for many years, celebrated Trans Day of Visibility on The Kelly Clarkson Show by interviewing multihyphenate Marissa Bell in an episode.
Sign up for the Out Newsletter to keep up with what's new in LGBTQ+ culture and entertainment — delivered three times a week straight (well…) to your inbox!
The singer, OG winner of American Idol winner, and now also daytime talk show host, is using her platform on The Kelly Clarkson Show for good — which includes interviewing trans artists and their work on Transgender Day of Visibility.
"We want to tell you about a new album that celebrates the beauty of the trans community and all of the artists in it," Clarkson said, introducing model, artist, and activist Massima Bell. In the interview, Bell spoke about the project, Transa, released through the non-profit organization known as Red Hot.
When asked how she came up with the idea for Transa, Bell revealed she and her friend Dust Reid had been developing the project for four years. When it was time to release the album, Bell and Reid chose to team up with Red Hot — a non-profit organization that's been releasing "groundbreaking benefit records that have featured the era's highest profile musicians, and have really changed the game in terms of the existence of LGBT people in pop culture, and really raising awareness for AIDS relief."
"And we really wanted to build on the model that Red Hot developed," Bell explained, "but with an album that focused on all the beauty and gifts that trans people bring to the world," Bell said.
Bell also underscored that the project brought together "over 100 of the most talented artists of our generation and really some of the most imaginative and daring trans and nonbinary artists that are making work today."
"So there's eight chapters. It covers a wide range of genres and feelings," Bell said. "It charts this kind of spiritual journey, so you can listen to it if you have three and a half hours. You can listen to it one go, but you can listen to each chapter, some of them are more upbeat and dancey, like the Liberation chapter. And some are more moody and meditative, but there's kind of something for everyone in the project."
The Transa album was released last November and features over 100 artists, both trans and cis, including Adrianne Lenker, Perfume Genius, Anohni, Jeff Tweedy, Julien Baker, Moses Sumney, Teddy Geiger, Yaya Bey, Allison Russell, Laura Jane Grace, Sam Smith, Hunter Schafer, Sade, and André 3000.
The project also features Sade's first new song since 2018, — a track titled "Young Lion" that was written in honor of her trans son.
Overall, Transa was put together by producer Dust Reid and artist and activist Massima Bell, who started working on the project in 2021, galvanized by the passing of legendary trans musician Sophie.
"We started talking about all the gifts that trans artists have been giving to the world, and wanted to create a Red Hot project that centered and celebrated those gifts," says Reid in a statement on the project's website. "We hoped to create a narrative that positions trans and non-binary people as leaders in our society insofar as the deep inner work they do to affirm who they are in our current climate. We felt this is something everybody should do. Whether you identify as trans or non-binary or otherwise, if you took the time to explore your gender, get in touch with the feeling side of yourself, maybe we would have a future oriented around values of community, collaboration, care, and healing."
You can listen digitally on Spotify and Apple Music, and pre-order the 6 LP Box Set, as well as merch from the collection's website.
