Hayley Kiyoko, born on April 3, 1991, has built her career as an actress and singer-songwriter. Her first appearances in the entertainment industry were in the Disney Channel show, Wizards of Waverly Place, and in movies like Lemonade Mouth and Scooby Doo: The Mystery Begins. Afterwards, she played an important role in the movie, Insidious: Chapter 3.
In 2015, Hayley Kiyoko released an EP titled This Side of Paradise. This EP contains the song “Girls Like Girls”, which was later on accompanied by a music video that generated over 40 million views on YouTube within a year. The video was written and co-directed by Kiyoko and with it, she tells the story about a girl falling in love with another girl who is in a toxic relationship with a male. The heart-warming story shows how their casual affections began and developed, leading to the moment where the girl confronts the other girl’s abusive boyfriend and ultimately ends up being with the girl she loves.
This unusual and raw subject is what Hayley Kiyoko circles her music around. She has used her outlet as a singer, songwriter, and producer to speak about the LGBTQA+ community and their struggles, some of which she shares as an openly gay woman. Kiyoko expresses, as she began working in creating her image and sounds, that her essence is about “speaking the truth and writing music that tells stories as well as covers extraordinary, sometimes taboo concepts and themes in pop music”.
Hayley Kiyoko is set out to release a new album, Expectations, on March 30 of this year. She has already released three tracks, the latest being “Curious” which was also accompanied by an amazing music video. The video reached more than 3 million views on YouTube within the first three weeks of its release.
Thanks to artists like Hayley Kiyoko, a lot of young and teen girls will feel identified growing up as they watch people who like and do the same things they do. They won’t feel completely alienated. And what a relief it is to know that there are other people just like you, especially when society is always painting you as “other”. Kiyoko is normalizing the fact that some women do like, love or feel attracted to other women. She presents these stories portraying situations and characters that queer girls can relate to.
Hayley Kiyoko manages to represent the body language used in situations that involve a girl interacting with another girl that she might love or be attracted to; it is pretty spot on. Which is why her following has been growing immensely and her fans have been calling her the “lesbian messiah”. Someone finally spoke about this and is making pop music about it, and they are doing it right (without the ever-present male gaze in mind). It was about time!