Country singer Steve Grand's self-produced music video for "All-American Boy," a song about unrequited gay love, is going viral on the internet.
Last Tuesday the Chicago-native uploaded the independently funded video to YouTube and quickly racked up views. "All-American Boy" already has over 500,000 views. For someone with no record-label, whose only finances come from gigs at the local church, and using a $7,000 video budget, this many views in such a short amount of time is a feat-- especially when the topic of the song is same-sex love.
In an industry with so few out singers, Grand felt that it was important to release a song with explicit same-sex relational lyrics. In the YouTube description of the video Grand writes, "This is the story I've been aching to tell my most of my life... the universal story of longing to be loved...it is what I hold dearest to me."
Grand tells BuzzFeed.com that anyone can relate to the song regardless of gender or sexuality. “It really is a human story,” he says. “It’s a universal story of longing."
He tells Suntimes.com that the song was based on his own experiences. "I was a 13-year-old boy [at camp]. One of my counselors was warm and strong and he took an interest in me — not sexually, but as a friend, and it really moved me. I remember leaving with a horrible ache in my heart.”
With the majority of responses to the video being positive, "All-American Boy" is set to be a popular video for all music lovers-- gay or straight.