The first time I heard Dove Cameron’s “Boyfriend” on the radio, I thought it was Billie Eilish and I thought “wow, this is a bop!” Dove’s voice is very Billie-esque, although Billie is more of a whisper-singer and Dove isn’t. In any case, I suspect a lot of people now “know” Dove Cameron because of the success of “Boyfriend.” It’s a song where she is trying to convince a girl that she (Dove) would be a better boyfriend than the guy who is the girl’s current boyfriend. It’s super-cute, anthemic and just a great pop song. Now that Dove’s music has broken out in the mainstream in a huge way, she’s getting serious profiles and doing serious interviews. I thought she was in her early 20s, but she’s 26 years old, actually. She’s been working on Disney shows for a while. Some highlights from this LA Times interview:
Her image: “I’ve gone from the girl next door to the bad girl next door.”
Her decade with Disney: “I never had that moment where I was like, “I am a Disney girl.” I never looked at Miley or Demi or Selena or Zendaya or Bella or anybody — Hilary Duff or anybody that came before me — I never looked at them and thought, you and me — same. I was always the strange outlier who doesn’t belong and who will never fit in. I had huge impostor syndrome. I felt like I was wearing a rubber mask or something. So I don’t really look to anybody else for a roadmap. I mean, this whole narrative that I was on Disney and then found my way out with a pop song, it was a total f— accident.
Her isolated journey: “It’s an isolated journey. I think the Miley/Selena/Demi trifecta, they met because they were all there at the same time. I’m imagining they were all on the lot together. Also — and I cannot stress this enough — my life has always been personal stuff first and career stuff, like, fourth. More often than not my life is therapy, journaling, songwriting, poetry. I don’t really run into people very often.
Why her voice sounds raspier now than it did years ago: “I was very protective of my voice for a long time. I was born a coloratura [a type of operatic soprano], but it’s so hard to live that way. It’s monastic — you have to prioritize your voice above everything else. I remember meeting Kristin Chenoweth when I was 15 or 16, and I was like, “How do I do this?” and she said, “Here’s the litany of ways that I’m able to preserve my voice.” I thought, holy f—, there’s no way I can do that and still do everything else I want to do. And so my voice accrued damage. I spoke more, I sang more, I was working more — seven days a week, 18-hour days. And when you do that, your voice just gets raspier.”
“Boyfriend” as a queer anthem. “Every song of mine is a queer song because I’m a queer artist. Does that mean that every song is “I am G-A-Y”? No. I think there’s gonna be a lot of room in my artistry to talk about things other than that I love women. And “I eat boys like you for breakfast” does not translate into “I hate men and I only date women.” It means this one guy is a d— and I can take him in a fight. I’m a pansexual artist, so I’m attracted to and in love with who I’m attracted to and in love with.
How coming out affected her career: “I thought about that for a moment — not as an impetus or as a halt, but just like a brief meditation. I have no interest in living a life that isn’t entirely, energetically bold and truthful. And my sexuality is such a natural part of who I am and how I relate to the world that if I thought keeping it a secret would positively impact my career, I just wouldn’t be in this line of work.
What she thinks of homophobic legislation like Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill: “I think that’s a sort of death scream, as my mom likes to say — a death rattle, where a thing gets louder and more thrashy when its existence is threatened. I’m not saying that everything is great now. But I do think that if that type of thinking wasn’t under threat, we wouldn’t hear about it as much because it would be the dominant voice. We wouldn’t even notice it.
I think the biggest difference between Dove’s journey and the other “Disney girls” is that she was given the space – and she actively took the space – to figure out who she is and develop her own thing in her own time. She’s part of the Disney machinery, for sure, but the Disney machinery has changed a lot in the past decade too, and it had to change because of Miley/Demi/Selena. Anyway, I like Dove. I like how confident and bold she is. I like that she knows herself.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
Dove Cameron attends the 2021 CFDA Fashion Awards, held at The Pool and Grill in New York City on Wednesday, November 10, 2021,Image: 642618792, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Dove Cameron, Credit line: – / JPI Studios / Avalon 
Dove Cameron attends The 2022 Met Gala Celebrating “In America: An Anthology of Fashion” at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 02, 2022 in New York City,Image: 688276358, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Dove Cameron, Credit line: – / JPI Studios / Avalon 
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, USA – MAY 15: American actress Dove Cameron wearing an Ashlyn gown and Giuseppe Zanotti heels arrives at the 2022 Billboard Music Awards held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 15, 2022 in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States.,Image: 691794744, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Dove Cameron, Credit line: Xavier Collin / Image Press Agency / AvalonncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pLHLnpmirJOdxm%2BvzqZmcG9jZYJ3e8OorZ6Xk5a6pr7Op5aerpWnxqC%2FzqeemKeWlLqqusSYoKyXkZS%2BtrHEq5asp56crKOxwpqsrJ2Pnrqgrb6qrJ6dopSus8DIrKto