JADE MYA PUSHES BOUNDARIES
Even if the 26-year-old transgender singer didn’t intend to break barriers, she’s been thrust into the role
TORONTO — Country singer Jade Mya is still getting accustomed to answering questions about transgender issues.
It’s a topic she hadn’t broached much since undergoing gender assignment surgery as a teenager. But with her eyes on an international singing career — her new single “Dirt Covered Rhinestone” arrives next week — the 26-year-old Toronto-based performer is now finding more people interested in her perspective on LGBTQ topics.
They’re also curious how Mya expects to forge a career in country music, a part of the industry that’s notoriously grounded in tradition and has been seen as unwelcoming to those who stray from the status quo. It’s a weighty topic for someone who, a couple of years ago, had not really openly discussed her past.
“It was not a secret,” she says while lounging in her condo foyer. “It just wasn’t something I wanted to talk about. It was not something I wanted to make the music about.”
But last year, as rumours began swirling about her, Mya decided it was time to “control the story” by going public.
She booked an interview on Canadian TV show “eTalk” and detailed her background, saying “I’m proud of the person I am.”
There aren’t many country artists who challenge traditional perceptions of gender, and even if Mya didn’t intend to break barriers, she’s been thrust into the role.
She bristles at the “transgender country singer” label.
The classification, she says, pressures her to offer perspectives on situations she has never experienced, like the controversy at Toronto’s Body Blitz Spa earlier this month.
A transgender customer was rejected under the spa’s “no male genitals policy,” which sparked an uproar on social media.
“I haven’t lived that life,” she says. “I never went through walking into stores and wondering which washrooms I’d use. It’s always been one way.”
Mya was born intersex, which the National Health Service in the United Kingdom defines as a genetic “mix of male and female sexual characteristics.”
Doctors assigned her a gender and for several years she was known as a boy.
Growing up on a farm near Luskville, a small town in western Quebec, she and her family were immersed in the staples of countryside life, with chicken coops and a field of crops to tend to. When the kids didn’t do their homework, their punishment was picking corn for hours, she says.
It was here Mya gained an affinity for country music — with artists like Dolly Parton and Johnny Cash playing on the family’s stereo.
She was a teenager when doctors recognized something was amiss and discussed options for gender reassignment.
She underwent surgery and eventually moved to a new city, officially changed her name and restarted life in a woman’s body.
She began pursuing music and fitness modelling shortly afterwards.
But others weren’t so willing to let Mya forget her past.
The singer is still a bit shaken by the first time she encountered hateful comments written about her online about seven years ago.
A university classmate told her about a gossip website that ran a reader submission questioning Mya’s gender.
The post sparked an influx of debate from anonymous users who shared personal encounters and vicious speculation.
“That story almost prepared me for what was to come,” she says.
It also solidified her resolve to pursue her dreams. She released the album “Heartbreak Country” last year and began touring. While she was conscious that her past might eventually be unearthed, she didn’t want it to sway her from country music.
“You’ve just got to stick to your guns,” she reasons. “They’ve gotta see that you’re not going anywhere.”
Today she finds inspiration from other female country singers who survived widespread criticism.
Shania Twain tops that list for standing tall as people berated her for baring her midriff in the late 1990s. She outlasted those negative words to become one of the biggest stars of country.
Then there’s Grammy-winning Texas singer Kacey Musgraves, who fought an uphill battle with 2013’s “Follow Your Arrow,” a song that advocated for same-sex love and was banned by some U.S. country radio stations. She’s still going strong too.
Mya thinks her foot-stomping “Dirt Covered Rhinestone” captures the spirit of her own story — one that is accented by perseverance.
She hopes people will eventually lose interest in her past, but for now she’s happy getting attention for what makes her unique.
“I feel like if somebody is going to make a change it’s gonna be somebody who’s not going to give up,” Mya says.
“Country music tells an honest story — and I’m sticking to it.”