Steve Grand's 'Home for Christmas' Vid Shows Holiday Love in Lockdown

As we are really in the thick of the holiday season, for many of us, the realities of celebrating while in lockdown are becoming painfully clear. Even though we may complain about arguing over the Thanksgiving table and bickering under the Christmas tree, some may be currently missing that time spent with family, or those fleeting moments underneath the mistletoe. Now, Steve Grand has put a bit of that energy into a music video.

His latest clip sees him covering "I'll Be Home for Christmas" by Walter Kent and Kim Gannon. It poses as a follow up to his 2015 cover of Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas is You." In that original video, Grand is enjoying the holidays with his onscreen boyfriend actor Trevor LaPaglia. In this updated version, the two are separated but reminiscing on better times.

"It's my solemn rendition of the timeless holiday classic 'I'll Be Home for Christmas,'" Grand tells Out. "For the song and video, I set out to capture the feelings of isolation and longing that I think a lot of people all over the globe are feeling right now with the lockdowns." The lockdowns not only are impacting people's moods but also the filming itself.

"We filmed it last week," Grand says. "[We] all respected social distancing guidelines and remained thousands of miles apart during the entire project." Grand was in Chicago where he recorded the piano and his own vocals in his apartment, LaPaglia was in Los Angeles, and director John Lavin was in Miami.

Grand had his mainstream breakthrough in 2013 with his viral song "All-American Boy." The self-released track got a groundswell of support, so much so that he was named to our Out100 that year. He went on to raise $118,000 in 17 hours on Kickstarter to make his debut album. Since, he very publicly accepted an invitation to attend a 2015 Marine Corps Ball after being asked via YouTube and also batted away criticisms of wearing swimwear that was too "stereotypically gay." In fact, on that latter point he's leaned into things launching his own underwear and swimwear line with Grand Axis.

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