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Troye Sivan Soars To The Top Of The Billboard Charts, Heads To ‘Tonight Show’ Again, While His Mom Champions LGBTQIA+ School Campaign

By Stacey Cole
Published on: 19:08 PST, Jul 23, 2016

Troye Sivan, the Australian singer and songwriter who has made it big in the U.S., will be teaming up with tennis champions like Novak Djokovic and Rafel Nadal on the occasion of Arthur Ashe Kids’ Day at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. The tennis and entertainment event that is set for August 27 aims to commemorate the tennis legend Arthur Ashe through music, tennis, and various kid-friendly activities.

According to Billboard, Troye Sivan will be joined by Flo Rida in the festival that will be hosted by Joey Bragg, Jordan Fisher, and Laura Marano.

Audiences at the event can expect Troye Sivan to entertain them with his latest chart-topper “Wild,” Troye’s first No. 1 hit on the Billboard’s Twitter Top Tracks. The chart lists tracks that have gained popularity on the social media platform by being the most shared. The song had earlier featured in the Billboard list in January, but it has again climbed to the top position after a reworked version with Alessia Cara was released. According to Billboard, the single has also surpassed Troye’s previous singles like “Fools” and “Youth” that had previously climbed up to the No. 3 position on the Billboard list.

The collaboration between Troye and Alessia has excited the fans who have made the video popular on the social network. In fact, Troye’s Twitter mentions increased by 270 percent to 492,000 because of the popularity of his number. This jump has made the Australian singer scale up to the 8th position on the Social 50 chart. Additionally, the hit single has earned Troye an invitation to perform on The Tonight Show hosted by Jimmy Fallon.

According to Rolling Stone, this is the second time that Troye Sivan will be performing on the show, as the 21-year-old indie pop star had previously performed on the show seven months ago, marking his U.S. television debut. The Perth-raised pop superstar sang and danced to the beats of his hit song “Wild,” which had already become a synth-pop anthem.

Troye Sivan will soon embark on his second major North American tour, known as the “Suburbia Tour,” that is set to run for a month, with the “Happy Little Pill” singer performing at much larger venues and to much bigger crowds than ever before.

Troye Sivan has served as an inspiration to many young people, including those who belong to the LGBTQIA+ community. Despite the advancements that have been made in social acceptance for people who identify at LGBTQIA+, many young people around the world still have inhibitions about revealing their sexual orientation. Troye Sivan declared himself to be gay a few years ago, and since then, the “Happy Little Pill” singer has openly discussed his romances in interviews for various publications.

Although Troye’s family were accepting of his sexuality, his mother was perturbed by the growing incidences of homophobic bullying occurring in schools. Laurelle Mellet, Troye’s mother, admits to being nervous when Troye came out as gay to his parents at the age of 14. Concerned about homophobic bullying, Laurelle noted that she had heard stories of gay teenagers resorting to suicide when they could no longer take the bullying. According to Yahoo!, Laurelle posted her concerns on change.org, an online platform that aims to give a voice to the powerless.

“Gay teens are 14 times more likely to kill themselves in Australia. Despite this, most schools won’t opt in to the program unless it’s made compulsory — it’s frightening.”

When she refers to “the program,” the concerned mother of Troye Sivan is talking about her alliance with the Safe Schools Coalition, which has started an anti-bullying program in schools for the safety and well-being of LGTBQIA+ students in schools across Australia. The $8 million taxpayer-funded program is under scrutiny, even though dozens of Western Australian schools have signed up to promote its cause.

Laurelle has written a petition to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Education Minister Simon Birmingham, calling the government to abstain from pulling the plug on anti-LGBTQIA+ bullying programs in Australian schools.

[Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP]

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