Milahroy, Backseat | Beaming with Pride 🏳️‍🌈

In the 83rd edition of Beaming with Pride 🏳️‍🌈 (2024), we highlight the song, “Backseat” performed by Milahroy.

Prepare to beam with P-R-I-D-E 🏳️‍🌈! Beaming with Pride 🏳️‍🌈 celebrates, embraces, and spotlights songs by LGBTQ musicians or allies.  Here, we provide background and insight into musician(s) and analyze + go gaga over the decadent bops served up.  When the music dictates deeper, more transcendent discussion, we ensure the point is fully articulated.  All styles of music are welcome while the songs can be classics or brand-spanking new. So, without further ado, in the 83^rd edition of Beaming with Pride 🏳️‍🌈 (2024), we highlight “Backseat” performed by Milahroy.

“Your mom knew before we did, but we were only kids.” What did his mom know, Milahroy (Roy Halim)? About their special ‘connection,’ aka, their same-sex desires 👨‍❤️‍👨. “We shared a class and then a bed, you called it best friends.” Their ‘bond’ failed to become an enduring relationship on “Backseat”: “Oh, how I wish you and your wife the best.” Many times, songs have imparted the tale of a queer bond that failed to develop into something enduring, often because of fear, homophobia, or internalized homophobia. There was something there, but it’s gone now, “No longer part of your life / I’m only in your newsfeed, you’re only in my likes.” “Backseat,” penned by Halim, appears as the fourth track on his EP, Give In To Let Go.

In the second verse, Milahroy recalls one of their experiences, forgotten by his married ‘best friend.’ He proceeds to come out to his family but denies their ‘relationship’: “My sister asked if it was that boy I had over all along / In the silence, bit my lips, I said, ‘No, we’re just best friends.’” Oh, the lies! It seems that Halim had to ‘find himself,’ often the case when you’re young and especially when you’re gay. He seems to lament that this bond, easy back in the day, is over and that life isn’t as simple as it was when they were younger either.  “So naïve, young hearts binding in the backseat / But I swear you were happier than I see.” Word. But, lessons have been learned, and life experienced, and Milahroy knows who he is. Milahroy sounds fantastic throughout this well-written, must-hear, deeply personal queer song.

Milahroy // Give In To Let Go (EP) // Myla // 2024

Milahroy, Backseat: Beaming with Pride 🏳️‍🌈 No. 83 (2024) [📷: Brent Faulkner/ The Musical Hype; Myla; Elias Souza, Los Muertos Crew from Pexels; CatsWithGlasses, David, Maicon Fonseca Zanco, Square Frog, Sudo from Pixabay]