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The Fabulous Year of Troye Sivan

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2018 is the year of Australian singer-actor Troye Sivan. Everything’s coming up roses for the 23-year-old singer, songwriter, actor, and YouTube personality.

Troye opened the year with a guest appearance at Saturday Night Live. His mug was on a huge billboard in Times Square announcing the release of his song. Taylor Swift announced his album — and he performed with Taylor in her sold-out concert! He collaborated with Ariana Grande. He acted in a critically-praised film AND his song for the film got nominated for Golden Globes. He got hit songs left and right, and his album is a massive success. Now he’s on a sold-out tour.

2018 is a game-changing year for this openly-gay young man. Check out the highlights of what Troye calls “the best year of my life.”

Guest Appearance on Saturday Night Live

In his tweet in his 2018 highlights series, you can hear Troy telling his boyfriend model Jacob Bixenman that he will be on the American show Saturday Night Live. Calling it “one of the greatest honors of my life,” Troye started 2018 strong with his Saturday Night Live debut on January 20, 2018. Introduced by the evening’s host Jessica Chastain, he performed his first new single of 2018 “My My My!’ as SNL’s musical guest, as well as the airy acoustic ballad “The Good Side.”

Troy performing ‘My My My!”

Troy performing ‘The Good Side’ Live on SNL

On the Gigantic Times Square Billboard

On Jan. 5, Sivan posted on Instagram a photo of a massive Spotify billboard in Times Square, New York City with his face and the words “6 days.” He captioned the photo, “❤️ YES @SPOTIFY! ?? 6 DAYS ❤️ y’all ready or what,” much to the delight and excitement of his fans.

The teaser was for his single “My My My,” which dropped on January 11, 2018.  The single reached #24 in Billboard singles chart, and was in the top 100 for 8 weeks.

Troye also released the Grant Singer-directed video for his single “My My My!” Singer has become the go-to auteur for music videos, directing videos for Taylor Swift, the Weeknd, Lorde and others. Rolling Stone described the video as

The upbeat, dance-y track gets an appropriate visual paired with it as Sivan is seen dancing mostly solo throughout a warehouse in filters of black-and-white, red and yellow. The aesthetic seems to borrow some cues from the Nineties works of Madonna and George Michael with the strobe effect making Sivan appear in quick, chaotic flashes.

Face of Valentino Menswear

On January 7, 2018, it was officially announced that Troye is the new face of Valentino Menswear, debuting a new campaign photographed by Inez and Vinoodh. The collection is “a wardrobe of archetypes, made individual by diversions.”

Valentino released a teaser video of the campaign describing the collection as

Streetwear meets high fashion in the ultimate men’s Valentino Spring/Summer 2018 Adv Campaign video starring singer, actor and YouTube star Troye Sivan moving to the music of Paranoimia by Art of Noise with Max Headroom.

His “First Escandalo”

In end-January 2018, a fan posted about giving Troye a bouquet of flowers. Troye accepted, and even posed for photos with the fan.

A photo later surfaced showing Troye throwing in the bin seemingly the same bouquet of flowers, though slightly wilted.

Social media was then quick to label Sivan “rude”, “ungrateful” and “disrespectful”. One even said “we don’t need this kind of toxic and ungrateful people in our lives in 2018.”

However, some fans pointed out that the photos where Troye was shown accepting the flowers and throwing flowers in the bin seemed to be two different events as Troye was wearing different outfits.

His Magazine Features

Troye was featured in the Spring issue of Dazed magazine where he talked of the successful trajectory of his career. From the age of 12, the 22 year old singer-actor has been posting cover songs on Youtube and achieved international fame as a YouTuber until he signed with a recording company on his 18th birthday. He also landed the role of the young Wolverine in 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine and was in the recently shown Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe film “Boy Erased.” Kidman described him in the article as:

“Troye is so talented. It was great to watch him get so lost in the character. Keith (Urban) and I are big fans of his – I didn’t want to tell him that on set.”

In May 2018, Troye was featured in GQ Australia magazine

His Dream Collaboration with Ariana Grande

On February 23, 2018, Troye confirmed that he had an upcoming collaboration with his “pop queen” Ariana Grande. He tweeted that “The rumours are trumours!! @arianagrande is my pop queen and I can’t wait for you guys to hear our song.”

The song of Troye and Ariana “Dance to This” was released on June 13, 2018, and was the fourth single from his sophomore album ‘Bloom.’

Ariana posted on Instagram the single’s artwork

Here’s the video of Troye and Ariana’s song “Dance to This”

Acting in the Film “Boy Erased”

While his music career continue to heat up in 2018, Troye starred in the film “Boy Erased” with Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe. The film is about Jared (Lucas Hedges) who is outed as gay and sent to a conversion therapy camp. Troye is one of the young men in the camp with Jared who is trying to pray the gay away. He also sang the song “Revelation” in the film.

The film premiered in September 2018 at the Toronto International Film Festival, prior to its November 2 theatrical release.

And if acting in a critically acclaimed film is not enough, the song that Troye wrote and sang for the film has just been nominated for a Golden Globe. The track “Revelation,” a collaboration with Jónsi of Sigur Ros, got nominated for best original song in a motion picture.

Troye can’t contain his excitement on Twitter:

On Performing at Taylor Swift’s Concert

On May 19, 2018, Troye made a surprise appearance in the Pasadena stop of Taylor Swift’s “Reputation” tour.

Rocking a shirt from Taylor’s merchandise collection, Troye performed his hit single “My My My! together with Taylor to the delight of the crowd at the Rose Bowl Stadium. As Taylor Swift posted on her Instagram account,

“Troye absolutely owned the Rose Bowl ????? @troyesivan thank you so much for coming!!!”

Along with the surprise performance came a surprise announcement about the Australian singer’s forthcoming album, BLOOM. Taylor took it upon herself to break the big news, “I want to tell you something! Troye’s album ‘BLOOM’ comes out on August 31st, Los Angeles. Just so everybody remembers, on the count of three, say it back to me.” Is there anything more iconic than having Taylor Swift announce the release date of Troye’s album “Bloom”?

When His Song “Bloom” Was Released

Troye tweeted that he is “so so proud of this one” referring to the visual of his song “Bloom,” the third release from his album of the same name. Released on May 3, Troye transformed into a 3D version of himself, strutting amongst colorful plants and shots of nature. The video was directed by Bardia Zeinali. Them describes the video as

We find Troye’s garden to be a mixture of elements — part Annie Leibovitz photo set, part campy Garden of Eden, part Annie Lennox 80’s throwback — but in all, it’s a couture-clad display (concocted by stylist Kyle Luu) that paints Sivan as an important queer figure in pop culture.

On the Release of His Album Bloom

Troye released his second studio album “Bloom” on August 31, 2018. It debuted at number three in his home country of Australia, and opened at number 4 on the US Billboard 200 chart, making it his highest charting release. His first studio album “Blue Neighborhood” was released in 2015.

The album “Bloom” was preceded by the release of the singles “My My My!”, “The Good Side”, “Bloom”, the Ariana Grande collab “Dance to This” and “Animal”.

The album Bloom received “universal acclaim.” USA Today calls ‘Bloom” as “may be the best pop album of 2018”

And yet as Sivan so brilliantly proves on “Bloom,” he’s more than just a narrative, and his stories of sexual liberation aren’t just noteworthy because they feature same-sex pronouns. With all respect to Grande, whose “Sweetener” release had some critics naming it the best pop album of 2018 just a few weeks back, “Bloom” rightfully claims that title – a 10-song coming-of-age story of such cinematic scale that it deserves its own accompanying movie.

The Independent calls Troye’s sophomore album

On his second record Bloom, the gay 23-year-old singer switches the LGBTQ+ community’s creative narrative from one of sociopolitical turmoil into a harmonious and vital pop record, capturing the A to Z’s of modern queer love with pinpoint precision.

Making perfect pop isn’t easy, but Troye Sivan is a star who’s done his homework. With one foot in pop’s past and another in its present, Bloom is a record that could turn its considerate maker into one of mainstream music’s most revered and fascinating talents. Sivan should be proud that it will touch hearts and win him fans – both gay and straight – on the way.

The Bloom Tour

2018 also marked Troye’s highly successful Bloom The Tour, in support of his album of the same name. The tour started on September 21 in Irving, Texas for the US/Canada leg, with mostly sold-out venues such as the Radio City Music Hall in New York City and The Greek Theatre in Los Angeles.

In 2019, the Bloom Tour will be in Europe where Troye will perform in four venues in the United Kingdom in February. Other countries in the European leg of the tour include Belgium, Netherlands, France, Austria, Italy, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway.

The Bloom Tour then moves to South America in March 2019, before Troye will perform in six Asian countries.

His Fabulous Personal Life

Troye included sweet moments with his boyfriend as part of his highlight for the year, such as this one with grapes in their mouths:

Thankful and Hopeful

After a highly successful year, Troye is ending 2018 chilling on a beach with his family. As he tweeted: