Billy Porter Announces New Album and Drops New Single
With Justin Tranter working behind the scenes, Billy Porter’s new album Black Mona Lisa is sure to be filled to the brim with bops.
Billy Porter — who deserves to be known as much for his impressive acting abilities as for his vocal talents — is set to make a major return to music. The superstar has revealed that he will be releasing his highly anticipated album, titled Black Mona Lisa, on November 17, 2023.
The new album may be packed full of bops, as it was executive produced by the accomplished hitmaker Justin Tranter, who is known for working with some of the industry’s biggest stars, like Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, Fifth Harmony, and Fall Out Boy, to name only a few.
In anticipation of the album’s forthcoming release, Porter surprised fans with a fresh rendition of his track, “Children.” This new version, now titled “Children (WhatTime It Is),” features Lady Blackbird, a rising star in what a press release announcing the project calls “Black Acid Soul.”
Porter spoke highly of his collaborator in the statement, saying, “What I love about Lady Blackbird, is that she sounds so good, like a modern-day, blonde Grace Jones,” which is a huge compliment, of course. He goes on to call her music “aggressive,” and then explains that the two “fit perfectly together,” as “her music has message and passion and it’s about something.”
The actor and singer then shared his reasoning for re-releasing his single “Children,” this time with a new twist and some added emphasis. “Folks are trying to come for us LGBTQ people and we have news for them,” Porter started, continuing by saying, “‘Don’t come for us unless we send for you.’”
While widely recognized for his acting career, Porter has also made a mark in the music industry. He has thus far released four albums, with his most recent full-length, Billy Porter Presents the Soul of Richard Rodgers, dropping back in 2017.
In the years since, he has regularly shared one-off singles, including “Love Yourself,” which achieved the remarkable feat of topping Billboard’s Dance Club Songs chart in 2019. In July, he returned with another “bop” (in his words) titled “Broke a Sweat.”
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