Porter, who is performing his The Black Mona Lisa Tour: Volume One at the Winspear Opera House on May 10, had the initial career goal of becoming the male Whitney Houston. But when he released his first album in 1997 — a straight-up delivery of smooth R&B — it failed to set the charts on fire.
“I had the luxury of failing as someone else early,” he says of that effort. “My first album was somebody else. I did everything that everybody said I was supposed to do, and it failed. So at 30, I realized I don’t want to do that anymore. If it never happens for me — whatever it is — I don’t want to be somebody else trying. That is such a gift to me because I was able to change the trajectory of my life.”
Porter began singing in a Pentecostal church at the age of 5. Growing up in Pittsburgh, he endured a traumatic and challenging upbringing, a story he tells at length in his 2021 autobiography Unprotected. Fortunately, music always provided a haven and salvation. Porter was lucky to discover a live broadcast of the Tony Awards at age 11, which set him on the path of musical theater. Attending the Pittsburgh Creative and Performing Arts School arts academy and singing at local amusement parks in the summer, he honed his musical chops throughout his teenage years. By the time he was in his last semester as a college student at Carnegie Mellon University, he had already been cast in the Broadway company of Miss Saigon.
Moving from Broadway show to Broadway show, Porter still longed for pop stardom. He won $100,000 on Star Search and garnered that first record deal, but even in the comfortable environs of Broadway, he often found he was just too much for casting directors — too Black, too queer, too something. Attempting to break into film and television was equally challenging.
“I had a hard time with film and television because they weren’t coming for me for decades,” Porter says. “I was so pigeonholed — if the description for the character didn’t say ‘flamboyant’ in it, I wouldn’t even be considered for it. Then I’d go in and audition and not even get a callback. This went on for decades; then they’d hire a straight white person.”
He was still garnering plum Broadway roles (he won a Tony and a Grammy for his 2013 portrayal of Lola in Kinky Boots), yet Porter couldn't break the barrier to becoming a household name. Then came Pose.
The 2018 Ryan Murphy show, which centered on the Black and Latino New York ballroom scene, was a matter of the right opportunity aligning with the right cultural moment. Porter's role as the iconic ballroom MC Pray Tell was not in the original script. But Murphy was so bowled over by the performer's presence that he created a character for him, a role that got him closer to an EGOT with a 2019 Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series.
For the actor, portraying Pray meant much more than a little gold statue. In the show's third season, a pivotal episode draws heavily from his upbringing, and the character's status as an HIV-positive advocate also aligns with his background.
“I spent so much time thinking, ‘Why was I spared? Why did I survive?" he says. “I have a lot of survivor’s guilt from the AIDS crisis. I said, OK, I lived to tell the story so I can be there to tell it with the greatest of authenticity and class and craft and presence, and that’s what Pray Tell is for me. It’s me, and it’s not me at the same time. When the show came around, there was a healing in art imitating life, imitating art for me. I knew Pray Tell was going to act in proxy for Billy, and sure enough, I’m set free.”
“I had a hard time with film and television because they weren’t coming for me for decades,” Porter says. “I was so pigeonholed — if the description for the character didn’t say ‘flamboyant’ in it, I wouldn’t even be considered for it." – Billy Porter
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The character also had the inadvertent effect of turning Porter into a style icon. Suddenly invited to all kinds of red carpets, he decided to bring it. He dazzled at the Oscars in a Christian Siriano tuxedo ballgown, and broke the internet with what Vogue called “the most fabulous entrance in Met Gala History” when he showed up dressed in gold on a litter carried by six shirtless men, in case you don’t recall.
All this attention has helped Porter come full circle to what he always wanted, to be a successful singer on his terms. Having self-released several albums of standards and soul tunes, he was signed by Republic Records/Island UK to create a record that represents, finally, who he is inside.
“Interestingly enough, this project started out being what Beyonce’s Renaissance album is,” he says. “When I got in the studio and started working with people and started writing, when you sort of crack yourself open and let the spirit move, it turned into something else. It morphed organically into something that isn’t just about the dance, the disco and the house.
"The club was church for us, the club was community, the club was healing, and that’s the spirit I’m trying to bring into it, but it's so eclectic. Having been influenced by all different types of music, there’s something in there for everybody.”
Black Mona Lisa won’t be out until late summer or early fall, but Porter is already sharing his songs with “a retrospective of my life and career” in a 25-date tour. He says he will mix up the album’s 10 tracks with "‘90s R&B section, a Broadway section, a political section, a gospel section; then we end with a dance party!”
“I’m about to be a 53-year-old pop star,” he says with a laugh. “That’s unusual. I know that’s unusual. That’s never happened before, and history proves with Billy Porter that all bets are off for traditional shit. I’ve broken all the barriers; I’ve done all the things I was told I’d never be able to do. The Black Mona Lisa is the magnum opus project of my life: the music is everything I ever wanted it to be, the authenticity is everything. This time the journey is on my terms, and I could not be more thrilled.”
Billy Porter’s Black Mona Lisa Tour: Volume One stops in Dallas at 7:30 p.m. May 10 at the Winspear Opera House, 2403 Flora St.
