Five years after coming out, pop star Wils prepares to release “one last single” before stepping away from music
WTF, released a few years earlier, had been a hit in Asia, he was busy touring, and was growing a large following all around the world.Subscribe to our newsletter for your front-row seat to all things entertainment with a sprinkle of everything else queer.But after revealing his truth, he was abruptly dropped by his record label and lost all control of his social media pages.
The label deleted his Instagram page, cutting him off from his hundreds of thousands of followers, and his music disappeared from streaming platforms.Speaking to Billboard in 2020, the singer said, “It was terrifying, because before I came out to my label, I was worried about losing my job, whether I could continue singing and all of that.”“So I finally came out to my label and said, ‘I really want to be an openly gay singer, and I think that’s going to help a lot of young lives in Asia.’ They were like, ‘No, we’re not going to be able to do that because we have our reputation at stake.'”“I think they were probably worrying about their stock dropping.
So they removed all of my social media and dropped me from their label to be protective about their clients and sponsors.”In a follow up interview with LAMag in 2022, he added, “When I was dropped, it made me feel like I was being punished for being honest, and it made me feel like I was being silenced, and so it was a very painful experience for me.”In the years since, Wils has relocated to Los Angeles and adopted a new stage name.
He’s released a handful of singles, remixes, and a full-length pop album called Don’t Leave Too Soon in 2020 about his experiences navigating the world as a freshly out gay man.“You think you come out of the closet and everything will be bright and colorful,” he said in an interview at the time. “Then you realize that you have to go through dating as a gay man.
