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Dove Cameron has entered the building! The 26-year-old singer and actress wowed the crowd at the 2022 American Music Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday night, Nov. 20 in an edgy black and white outfit consisting of a white corset-style crop top paired with a long, black puffer coat that she transformed into a maxi skirt. She looked chic with her long, brown hair pulled back into a ponytail and a braid framing her face on each side. She wore graphic black eyeliner to highlight her stunning green eyes. Hoop earrings and a silver necklace with a clear charm added some sparkle to her unique fashion choice.
Although the Disney alum has been around for quite some time, her singing career gained momentum this year with the release of her smash hit “Boyfriend”. The song peaked at No. 16 on the Hot 100 chart in June, per Billboard, earning the rising star her first top 20 hit of her career. While the song is not nominated at the 2022 AMAs, Dove is nominated in the Best New Artist category and she is performing “Boyfriend” later in the night.
“Boyfriend” was certified platinum by the RIAA this fall, and Dove was presented with the plaque by Kelly Clarkson on Nov. 17 while Dove was a guest on The Kelly Clarkson Show. The song is about Dove’s bisexuality, and the lyrics have her trying to convince a girl that she could be a better boyfriend to her than any guy will be. “[‘Boyfriend’] was such a huge part of me finding my own identity and embracing my queerness,” the Descendants star told the 40-year-old American Idol alum. “And it makes me emotional every time I talk about it but, it was such a key to gate for me into stepping into myself wholly, in a way that I never knew if I was gonna be privileged enough to find those pieces of myself. And exist as that person, right?”
“The fear is that you exist as yourself wholly and the world cracks open and everything ends, and all the lights go out,” she continued. “And when the song came out and I saw that people were emotionally connecting to it, I think I was really panicked for some reason, just ’cause I wasn’t expecting it. And then over time, it was like it melded into this gorgeous, like … something meaningful for me being something meaningful for others.”
Dove first opened up about being bisexual in a 2020 Instagram Live after she was accused of queerbaiting in her Sept. 2020 lyric video for “We Belong”. Opening up about that time in her life to the Gay Times in May 2021, she said, “I’ve hinted about my sexuality for years while being afraid to spell it out for everybody.” She continued, “I went on Instagram Live and said ‘Guys, I really needed to explain something to you. Maybe I haven’t said it, but I’m super queer. This is something I want to represent through my music because it’s who I am.’”
“It felt like something that I could never talk about,” she added, talking about the struggles she faced before finally telling her fans that she’s also attracted to women. “I feel like the industry has changed a lot in terms of having room for people with platforms to be human and not to be picked apart. I was really nervous to come out, and one day, I dropped it because I was behaving like somebody who was out and I realized I wasn’t.”
