On November 25^th, Montreal’s Tedy released the album Scandalous. Featuring 9 songs the Queer Haitian-born singer describes the album as a diary.

"It's very therapeutic sometimes to be able to move on from the situation, I need to release it in some way. And for me, a lot of the time that's music. Butal so, sometimes until everything is out and it's released into the world, it feels like I'm still holding onto something. I have to detach myself sometimes. I know sometimes even though these are very intense emotions, I'm going to end up singing them for the rest of my life because I wrote a song about it and I'm releasing it. I just have to look at myself as another person and be like, Hey, you're this little character having an experience and you're putting that on music and you disconnect."

When you look kind of at the history of queer artists, a lot of the songs were very generic in their lyrics. Melissa Ethridge’s Come to My Window was Gender Neutral. When Adam Lambert released his first album, there was blowback because it included lyrics about same sex love. Now there's songs like Sam Smith’s Unholy,and Teddy can release a song like Boys, Boys, Boys.

"It’s who I am. It's my lived experience. Why should I not be able to do that? It makes you uncomfortable, so be it. If you don't like it, you don't like it, and if you love it, you love it, period. Just be your authentic self, that's the key thing here. I think it's just such a cool era to be in."

Authenticity is found throughout the album including Talk About Me a great song about body positivity.

"This project is me running at all the things that I thought or sometimes to this day still think are what's holding me back. Am I going to become the thing that I want to become, or am I going to live in this world where I assume everyone has something negative to say and you end up being the person blocking yourself? No one can really stop you if you want todo anything.  I feel like my whole life, especially when I was growing up and doing social media videos, people would belike, oh, if only he looked if only he looked like Justin Bieber or One Direction he'd be so famous, I didn't think I internalized it until way later when I was like, I could be doing more, but I feel like if I do that I'm going to look stupid because I'm bigger. I had to get to a point where here I am plus 50 pounds and I am making it, being able to sing, being able to go after my dreams and being able to do the things that I want to do and not caring what you have to say. The funny thing is, I literally lost weight when I was making this song, so I thought that it was funny. You can be big, small, no matter who you are and what you look like, just go for what you want."

Tedy’s songs are about universal experiences, such as Knee Deep about trust and relationships and loss. Listening to the album the lyrics are relatable to anyone. It’s not songs about the LGBTQ+ experience, it’s the human experience.

"It is funny listening to you use the word relatable. I think that's my number one fear. When I'm writing for myself or for other people. I always feel like I'm the most unrelatable person and almost feel robotic sometimes. And when I write music, I feel human. With this project, I really felt like I was exposing myself more than anything. I wasn't really chasing vulnerability. I was chasing purposefully exposing all those little deep, dark secret sides of me where I was not the good person at that moment. I was the villain in that moment and allowing myself to say that out loud because sometimes you're the one who messes up, you're the one who has an insecurity and you have something really amazing and you don't see that in the moment and you're like, no, no, no, you must hate me. You're in your head and you ruin something and you have to live with the consequences on that and be like, Hey, you messed up. Take accountability and then realize that you can grow from this moment."

Success has different definitions for different people. While the first track on the album Rich is about chasing money, that is not the key factor to what Tedy sees as success.

"Success is connection. Through writing the songs Fame and Rich I'm saying, Hey, I don't want to just work just to work.. I want to follow my dreams and do something that's interesting for me and I can dedicate my entire being to that. The main goal at the end of the day is to create some form of a connection with somebody and they see themselves in you and they want to decide to support you. Being able to tour people allowed me in their personal space and their vulnerable times, that to me is winning."

Tedy’s entertainment career started at 18 with YouTube reaction videos on a channel that grew to over a million followers. That connection with an audience and charisma is part of the appeal of his songs.

"I feel like I'm always the person telling people you can literally do anything. You should just never be scared to just expose yourself in certain ways. If I get to a point where I don't care how much money I'm making, if I get unhappy about something I’m just going to move on. I felt like it was a moment where it was just time to let go. I felt like I was screaming in a room with millions of people in it and no one was seeing me. I felt therehas to be a way for my voice to mean something, for me to actually impact people's lives, which I feel like I was helping because to this day people are like, oh, this video brought me joy. But it was almost like they only liked the very specific side of me. Then I went to do TikTok and they were the same thing. I needed to find this side of me where I feel like I'm being genuine and I feel like I can evolve. The transition wasn't hard at all. It always just feels like what I'm seeking is just to find my voice."

Tedy is signed to Sony Music Canada. As a PoC and Queer artist there can be many roadblocks.

"At some point you just kind of have to realize that the world is set up the way it's set up, but no one is stopping you from being able to do what you want. You can sit here and be like, ah, they're going to look, they're going to say, I'm not this enough. I'm not that enough. I'm not blah, blah, blah, blah. And every single time I've done that is when I've reached a standstill. Whereas every single time where I'm just like, I'm just going to tell the world that I don't want to contribute nothing to society, people have united around me and supported me and I've seen a reaction  Don't bend certain things about yourself. Be willing to understand, sometimes be malleable enough that if you're still in your growing phase, people are like, oh no, this could be better. Listen to them and be like, oh, is this still me? Is there room to grow? Assess the situation, look at yourself as a third person, and see what different ways you can always give yourself options."

Tedy has released singles and EPs, but Scandakous is his first full length album. The music industry, especially for Canadians, can be tough but Tedy wants people to think Canadian Music is "Cool as hell."

"There are people out here that are really interesting and want to do interesting things. As somebody that wants to go to concerts, concerts here are so overpriced, insane now. It's like if I see a $500 concert ticket, I'm like, oh my God, that's so cheap. Which is insane, and I feel like I don't want to contribute to that. But at the same time, I also want to get to a point where it is normal for me to tour, and it's normal to meet these people and be in a room of the people that appreciate what I do. That’s a goal of mine to go out there and do the thing. But if I'm doing it, I want to do it right. I want them to be like, wow, this guy's really doing it and it's really killing it."

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Contributor Jason Clevett |

Person Tedy |

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