- Hi, I'm Wils.
And this is the story of how I was dropped
by my record label for coming out as gay.
I was born and raised in Singapore.
When I was in secondary school,
which is high school for you guys,
my class nominated me to go out
for a school singing contest without my knowledge.
On the day of the contest, they called out my name
and I was like, me?
Like, I didn't sign up for this.
I just gotta brave through it.
So I went on stage,
I sang and it was so terrible
and everybody started laughing and I was like,
hm, this is interesting.
If people could laugh from music,
maybe I should take up a year of picking up the guitar
and the piano and I'm gonna learn how to sing
and see if I could join the talent contest
the year after again.
A year later I went back and I joined the talent contest,
and then I sang a song and I made my classmates cry.
And this time, thank God, I was in tune.
And so I decided at that very moment,
that singing is something that helps me
to connect with people.
Like, it can invoke an emotion.
And I don't know I just like making people happy.
About 12 years ago, I came to Hollywood.
I was recommended by a record label in Taiwan
to an artist chorus in Hollywood Institute.
And then on my way back to Singapore,
I was with my parents for a holiday in Madrid, Spain,
and I was singing in a park.
A producer stopped and asked me if I would like
to join like a house party in the evening.
And I was like, stranger danger, no.
But then there was something like in my gut telling me,
oh my God, this is so fun,
like I'm in a complete different environment.
And it turns out that it was a party filled
with celebrities and I felt so small.
And then the producer who invited me, he said,
would you like to sing for us?
And I was like, no, because I'm so out of place.
I started singing and they said,
hey, would you like to stay here
and do a music video with us?
And I was like, yes!
That morning I told my parents.
My mom and dad looked at each other.
They were like.
I mean, I was convincing.
I gotta take a leap of faith.
We made a music video for my first song, "Hola,"
which became a viral hit in Spain.
They asked me, what do you wanna do with your music video?
And I said, well, I live my life as a closeted gay man.
I can't be obvious about it.
So we ended up making a music video
where I was with this woman and she was my girlfriend
and we were walking and she went to shop
and I ventured into a gay bar
and I was like this is beautiful.
My girlfriend comes in, she's like,
what are you doing in the gay bar?
And I'm like, I don't know.
Like I just accidentally, you know, ventured into this.
And so we took it out to the street
to start dancing altogether, about 30 of us.
The National Press of Singapore picked up that video,
and because they were proud of my achievements overseas,
then I was contacted by a Chinese record label
that was based in Singapore and they said,
you know, it's time to expand yourself
and come back to Asia.
There's a little part of me that says
let's see what happens.
I went back to L.A. to film my music video
for my first album.
And Randy Jackson walked into the studio, my heart stopped.
And I was like, oh my God.
Like I used to watch him as a kid.
And I was like, hi, Randy.
And he was like, hey, how are you doing?
I was like, I'm just filming a music video.
You want to sit down for a coffee
so that we could maybe discuss
something about music?
And I was like, I would love to.
He said, you know, we'll like,
we should do something for the East and the West.
You know, there hasn't been really, back then,
much of an East and West collaboration,
and you represent that and we should do that.
And I was like, yes, I would love to.
He took me to fashion week in New York.
And I performed at the Boys Meet Girls fashion show.
And I met Kylie Jenner when I was performing.
And I was like, oh my God, be calm, be calm.
- Boys and girls, the one, the only,
international superstar, Wil.
Welcome, Wil.
- We went to what is equivalent
of a Grammy Awards in Taiwan.
But then we went back to Singapore and I performed
in front of 44,000 people in front of my country,
my song "Hola."
It was a really weird feeling because, so I was like,
my dreams came true.
I'm like in front of so many people performing and singing
and doing what I love.
I was on the cover of Men's Health magazine.
I was on national press.
I felt like, lonely. It felt like something was missing.
If this is fame, and if it does not bring me anything,
like it doesn't bring me any failure,
doesn't make me happier,
then something must be wrong.
There's a law in Singapore. That's the 377A.
You can be criminalized between two consenting adult men
for having sex.
The law isn't enforced,
but it's there to keep the conservatives happy.
You know, you always have to be watching out for your back.
A lot of us love our country. It's home for us.
No matter how much we love our country,
we're not being accepted because of a law like this.
There's no anti discrimination laws
that protects LGBT people in Singapore.
So a lot of us end up feeling like we're against the law.
And we just want to be like proud of the country.
I discovered that I was gay in a very young age
at around eight.
When I'm out a lot,
I would see people like making fun of gay people.
So I started thinking, oh my God, you know,
being gay is wrong.
I had to be normal.
For me, I never had a role model.
Being the only son in my family,
the son is supposed to carry the last name.
A lot of times in family settings,
my relatives would be like, when are you getting married?
I'll be thinking, I mean, to a man.
And I just love the feeling of affection.
But as I grew older,
that went away more and more because I couldn't be myself.
And I didn't want people to know that I was gay
because I didn't want my family to be hurt.
A lot of us end up hiding ourselves
from our parents or the society or friends,
because we don't want to bring shame to the family.
And instead of focusing on the happy things in life,
my mind is fixed upon hiding.
When I was working with the label, you know,
I remember there was once before I went on stage to perform
for a show in front of the President of Singapore.
My stylist was there picking out some clothes
and he picked out one of the clothes for me,
and I was like, yeah, that looks good.
And then one of the executives was like, no, that's too gay.
My stylist friend was gay. I'm gay secretly in the closet.
And I was like, oh my God, what, I can't be myself?
I didn't speak up for my stylist friend,
which I felt really horrible about.
I had a discussion with Randy before we came back to LA.
I was like, Randy, I have to tell you something. I'm gay.
I'm not happy, you know,
being in front of so many people
and feeling like I can't be myself.
And Randy was like, oh,
I thought you were going
to tell me something more important.
No matter what you are, I love you.
I just felt so excepted,
and it was not an issue.
I told Randy, I said, Randy,
I think I need some time to discover
about myself as a gay man. I never had that.
And he was like, go ahead. Do it.
I was in Los Angeles then,
and I went out to the gay bars.
I saw everybody could just be themselves.
And I was like, you mean, you could be gay,
and just like be happy and just be on the streets
and nobody's gonna like laugh at you for that?
In Los Angeles, I could just be me and I was free.
And one day I pulled up YouTube.
Elton John's, "Your Song," popped up.
The lyrics, I'm not one of those who can easily.
I'm not one who can easily hide. It's hard for me to hide.
I don't want to be hiding.
And then I started crying, bawling my eyes out.
It was such a release.
Thank you, Elton John.
I want to be able to do the same thing
that you did for me for millions
or underrepresented kids who can't be themselves
and who want to be themselves,
who want to belong.
From that day, my life changed
and I promised myself
that I would never hide again.
I had the courage to call my record label
and I said, hey, I'm gay.
That doesn't change anything about me.
And I want to come out to my fans,
and the record label told me, no you can't.
Nobody would want to listen to a gay artist.
They hung up the phone.
And so an hour later, calming myself down,
I try to go up on my social media,
and then I couldn't log in.
And I realized that my social media were all deleted.
And the years of connecting with hundreds of thousands
of fans were just wiped before my eyes.
And I felt erased and I felt so betrayed.
And I felt like I was being punished
for being truthful about myself.
I received a text.
They couldn't even call me.
And they said,
because of our difference in direction,
you're no longer part of the record label.
And then I got another message saying,
I would suggest that you keep this to yourself
if you want to continue having any chance
as a singer in Asia.
I was heartbroken.
For a couple of months later,
I felt just really sad.
And my parents are very, thankfully, supportive
of me being gay.
And my mom was like, are you okay?
And I was like, yeah, mom, you know what?
I'm sorry that I was at the peak of everything.
And you know, this happened because, you know,
I came out and I kind of had a little internal battle
about myself feeling like, oh my God, like,
should I have just stayed in the closet?
I was like, no,
I could be myself and live this life.
And so I made friends,
people were sharing with me their stories
about how they came out
and they were so kind to me
and I felt belonged in a community
like I had this gay family that would be there for me.
I decided that I'm going to write a song about this.
And so I wrote a song called, "Open Up Babe,"
and it was about me opening up to the world
and not closing up.
You know, it was hurtful.
It was painful, you know, to go through that.
But I don't want to stay that way.
So I did my first single as an openly gay artist,
as an independent artist.
And then I started receiving thousands of messages
from people in Asia.
They were sharing with me the stories about how they're gay,
some of them in the closet, some of them not,
but they're so happy that they now have representation.
And that was a time where I go, you know what?
It's no longer a shame.
I now feel proud being a gay man.
I realized that I want to fight
for every gay, lesbian, transgender, and bisexual
who ever felt discriminated against.
I am now working on an album.
I'm coming out with a song called, "Someone Who Loves You."
I decided that I really want to write the song
to remind all of us that we deserve to be loved.
Someone will find you and love you for who you are.
So yes, I was dropped from my record label.
Yes, I was heartbroken.
But now I found the purpose.
You should celebrate every aspect of gayness in you.
You decide who to love.
Don't let anyone decide that for you.
Be the gayest as can be.
(outro music)