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Move over Lil Nas X! There’s a new gay cross-over country singer in town and his name is Nathan Ramos-Park.
Ramos-Park’s single “Gay Asian Country Love Song” is taking the country music charts by storm and will probably win a CMA… OK, maybe not quite. But we still like it!
The music video, which was actually released months before Lil Nas X’s monster hit, has accumulated roughly 50,000 views on YouTube in just under 11 months and gives off some pretty serious “Brokeback Mountain” vibes.
Ramos-Park, who is perhaps best known for his work on the Disney Channel’s Mickey Mouse Club reboot Club Mickey Mouse, tells Character Media in a new interview that the song is intended to be both an ode to and a parody of the country music genre.
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It was written for a sketch comedy show at Makers Studio and celebrates the intersectionality of his own identity as a gay, country-music loving Asian American from Ohio.
“I kept pitching this ‘Gay Asian Country Love Song,’ telling them it was going to be funny, and they were apprehensive” says Ramos-Park.
He forged ahead anyway and, he explains, “I played the song, and they immediately got it and greenlit it.”
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In addition to “Gay Asian Country Love Song” and his work on Club Mickey Mouse, Ramos-Park has starred in a number of New York stage productions. Though his career hasn’t come without struggle.
“I got a lot of really racist comments from casting directors,” he says. “They would say, ‘Oh, thank God you’re like white-Asian,’ or ‘Since you’re half-Filipino, you’re not the Asian that we’re looking for.’”
Which is another reason why he wanted to make “Gay Asian Country Love Song”: to forge a space for all types of Asian representation in entertainment.
“If we’re in power and we’re not creating opportunities for other people, we’re just creating another fruit that’s going to die off the vine. We have to speak up and fight for our space.”
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Looking back on his time as a Mouseketeer, Ramos-Park feels proud that four of the eight newest cast members on Club Mickey Mouse are Asian American.
“When I see that 30 million people watched those songs, I think, ‘That’s me,’” Ramos-Park says. “I reached out to millions of people and changed their minds about whether Asians should be in entertainment or not.”
“I want my work to create uplift,” he adds. “I want you to think, ‘I love who I am a little more.’”
Related: Comedian Joel Kim Booster on the pressures of being a gay Asian man with a “great and gorgeous” body
Notindoctrinated
Erm 50’000 views after 11 months isnt that much.
wellinmysoul
im sorry… “changed their minds about whether asians should be in entertainment or not.”? what is that mindset that needs to be changed…..? not trying to be cute…
Dymension
Oh, jeez…