Demi Lovato, Olly Alexander and Mawaan Rizwan will join previously announced hosts Trixie Mattel and Daniel Howell for the YouTube Pride 2021 livestream on June 25, Billboard can exclusively reveal.
The emcees will host the six-hour livestream event celebrating the LGBTQ+ community, including Pride parties from their respective YouTube channels. The festivities will include musical performances, challenges and more, during which viewers will be encouraged to donate to The Trevor Project, which provides crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to LGBTQ+ youth, as well as the UK-based LGBTQ+ youth homelessness charity akt.
The livestream’s special guests will include YouTube star Tyler Oakley, RuPaul’s Drag Race season 8 runner-up Kim Chi, All Stars winner Monét X Change, season 9 runner-up Peppermint and season 13 contestant Denali Foxx.
Demi Lovato announced last month that they are non-binary and their pronouns are they/them. The “very personal” news came as part of Lovato’s new “4D With Demi Lovato” podcast, in which the 28-year-old singer explained, “Over the past year and a half I’ve been doing some healing and self-reflective work. And through this work, I’ve had the revelation that I identify as nonbinary.” Alongside H.E.R. and Brandi Carlile, Lovato paid tribute to Elton John by performing a medley of his biggest hits at last week’s iHeartRadio Awards.
Speaking of John, Olly Alexander teamed up with the living legend at the 2021 Brit Awards last month to perform a cover of the Pet Shop Boys’ “It’s a Sin,” a collaboration the pair released after to benefit the Elton John AIDS Foundation. Alexander announced in March that he would keep Years and Years going as a solo project after the synthpop group started as a trio, releasing “Starstruck,” his first single as a one-man band, in April.
YouTube Pride 2021 will be held on Friday, June 25. JA Films producers created a Pride 2021 microsite asking content creators to submit videos of themselves sharing their stories and questions for the hosts with a chance to have their videos featured on the YouTube livestream.
YouTube is also launching a #GiveWithPride donation campaign with hopes to raise $500,000 for The Trevor Project. YouTube is matching donations made to the campaign up to $250,000. If the campaign’s fundraising goal is met, YouTube creators will band together for a zany challenge video, including Patrick Starrr, Gigi Gorgeous, Elle of the Mills, The Fitness Marshall, Jackson Bird, Alannized, Jessie Paege, KingOfReads, and Jade Fox. The video, which teases creators bleaching their hair, getting tattoos and re-creating viral dance challenges, will air during YouTube Pride 2021.
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