49 “Boyfriend”
Dove Cameron
How did you create “Boyfriend”?
I was telling the story of this crazy night I had a couple of weeks before coming off tour, and I casually said to the room, “Fuck, I could be a better boyfriend than this guy.” We were all like, “Wait, is this a good hook?” A lot of it became a recount of what it felt like to grow up queer and be surrounded by women who were famously mistreated and undercelebrated. I’m finding that of all my favorite songs I’ve written myself, the process is fast. Once you have the concept and have built the world, that’s the key.
When the song started taking off, how did your team react?
When I wrote “Boyfriend” in October, they were like, “Why don’t you put something on TikTok to show fans you’re in the studio?” It was not a grand plan. When it took on a life of its own [on TikTok], we all canceled everything, went in and finished it. Usually, you have three months to prepare for a song, but we all strapped in and have been making up for lost time, which means I’m not ever sleeping.
Is it liberating to see a song about queer identity be received so well?
It has been very healing for me to marry who I’ve always known myself to be with my public career — those things have been separate. But I got incredibly lucky: For the most part, people are kind and receptive. I think that’s a testament to where we are now with this younger generation and their own queer experiences. This generation is much more in touch with each other about intentionally building queer circles and opening up the conversation. It’s much more open-minded even from when I was in middle school. That means the most to me of anything.