Journey with me into the rich world where faith, sex, politics and art collide: Flamy Grant’s drag contemporary Christian music.
Here’s what you need to know about the worship pastor more than two decades turned drag queen and her chart-topping album “Bible Belt Baby.”
She was a worship pastor for decades
Flamy Grant is a drag queen from western North Carolina who affectionately refers to herself as “a Bible Belt Baby and your gay auntie.”
The person under the wig is Matthew Blake, a former worship leader turned drag queen.
Yes, the name is a reference to that Amy Grant
If the name sounds rather familiar to another contemporary Christian music (CCM) artist you may have heard in the 90s and early 2000s, you’re on the right track. Blake did choose the name as an homage to Amy Grant, the singer whose music was (and remains) popular among CCM listeners.
Amy Grant has been called the “Queen of Christian Pop” and has her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Blake covered Grant’s song “Takes a Little Time” on the record.
“I chose to cover “Takes A Little Time” because it fits the theme of my journey on the record, and it added new meaning to perform it with Semler, the two of us queer Christian artists, slowing it down, making it contemplative,” Blake said in an interview with the National Catholic Reporter.
“And Flamy Grant just came to me. I liked word play in some of my favorite fellow drag queens’ names. Amy Grant was my idol and Flamy Grant just fit me.”
Let’s talk about the chart-topping single “Good Day”
In the song “Good Day,” Blake addresses being alienated by the church because of their sexuality and identity. The lyrics go like this:
“So I’m here to stay and I’m sitting in the front row
‘Cause it’s a good day to come out of the shadow
God made me good in every way
So I’ll raise my voice to celebrate a good day”
Blake described his upbringing in the South, which he refers to as the Bible Belt, as “super evangelical” and “fundamental” in an interview with Paste Magazine.
“I was a worship leader up until last year really, the last decade in more progressive churches. I’ve always been interested in drag, but as a kid, I didn’t know it was drag. I just liked my mom’s clothes. It got pushed out of me. I realized that if I’m going to belong in that [Christian] community, I’d have to suppress it,” they said.
How a Trump ally fits into all this
The album really took off after worship leader and failed congressional candidate Sean Feucht called the album a sign of “the last days” in a July 26 post on X – the social media site formerly known as Twitter. He became a common face of the Christian pro-Trump movement during 2020 and has over 300k Instagram subscribers.
“If you’re wondering the end goal of the deconstruction movement in the church, then look no further than former worship leader @derekwebb’s new collab with a drag queen. These are truly the last days,” Feucht posted.
Feucht, the former worship pastor for megachurch and Christian media organization Bethel Church, was particularly critical of Grant’s song “Good Day,” which featured another former worship pastor who now affirms LGBTQ+ people, Derek Webb.
“Good Day” and the album soared to the top of contemporary Christian music charts following Feucht’s criticism.
“Good Day” was #1 on the Apple Music Christian music charts just a few days later. “Good Day” and Bible Belt Baby both hit Number One on the Christian songs and albums charts, respectively. Bible Belt Baby even rose as high as Number 48 on Apple’s album chart for all genres last Thursday.
Feucht and his followers represent where Trumpism and Evangelicalism collide. He started the “Let Us Worship” movement during the early months of the pandemic. The organization exists to “rise up with one voice and tell our government leaders, and the rulers of big tech, that we refuse to be silenced!
He’s also been quoted saying that Christians should make all the laws in America and that God (specifically the Christian God) is America’s “only hope.”
Christian blog Baptist News Global credited him, a longtime Trump ally, for inspiring the online community of ex-evangelicals to start streaming the song.
Critics say she’s revolutionizing Christian music
Flamy Grant is one of a small but growing number of queer people of faith making music about their religious experiences. Some of them even publish their music on Christian labels and list it in the Christian genre on streaming services.
Here are some other queer Christian artists Flamy Grant has worked with (some of them are real OG’s) and some other queer artists talking about their experiences in church:
- Semler
- Jennifer Knapp
- Derek Webb (formerly of Caedmon’s Call–that band your mom liked)
- Ethel Cain
- Julien Baker
What’s next?
If you’re hoping to experience Flamy Grant herself, she’s performing across the country in September. To look at dates and buy tickets, go to flamygrant.com.
