Singer and songwriter Frank Ocean is the first cover star of new GQ editor Will Welch's tenure.
Frank Ocean talks about the evolution of his music, his activism during the midterms, and his plans for 2019 https://t.co/mB9TBhygug
pic.twitter.com/u4vAKmoYT0— GQ Magazine (@GQMagazine) January 10, 2019
Ocean becomes the latest Black celebrity to cover a major magazine. As Blavity reported, the latter part of 2018 saw Black stars taking over newsstands, with everyone from Tracee Ellis Ross to Beyoncé appearing on covers.
The trend has continued this year; for example, Anok Yai, a model discovered thanks to a viral Howard homecoming photo, covered the January issue of Elle.
In the article accompanying his cover, Ocean opened up about safeguarding his privacy, and spoke about his decision to make his Instagram public. He opened up that social media account last November as Blavity reported.
“I feel like there was dissonance between how I was seen by the audience and where I was actually, so that contributed to the decision to make my Instagram public, for sure,” said Ocean.
Ahead of the 2018 midterms, the singer worked to encourage people to vote by offering limited edition merchandise to those that registered and hit the ballot box. He told GQ he hoped to do his part to help increase midterm turnout, which tends to be lower than in presidential election years.
“I was excited about the idea of incentivizing people to vote and to get excited about midterms, because people aren't usually excited about voting at midterms,” Ocean noted.
Let's hope Black excellence continues to be represented on our magazine shelves.
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