In this YouTube monologue, Bay Area trans Pinay pop artist Mar XOXO introduces herself and shares how pop music shaped her identity. She cites childhood exposure to Britney Spears, Mariah Carey, and Beyoncé, and explains that creating music and visual art helped her embrace her trans self. Mar outlines a recurring theme in her work: connecting the inner mental world with outward expression, encouraging listeners to break out of personal “mental prisons” and find inspiration from others. She concludes by promoting her upcoming live show, “Sia at El Rio” on January 8, promising good music, vibes, and community.
Chapters
Hi, I'm Mar XOXO. I'm your local Bay Area trans Pinay pop princessa. I've always been into pop music ever since I was a kid. I grew up listening to Britney Spears with my ate Angela, and we always do like the "Slave 4 U" choreo. My mom always loved Mariah Carey, Beyoncé, so it was always karaoke pop music vibes. So the way I found pop music and creating music brought me to myself and my identity. Like growing up, I kind of suppressed my own trans identity and making music, writing my own stories, expressing how I feel, and on top of that, expressing my art visually connected me back to myself. I guess a common theme throughout my music would be connecting your inner and outer world. So if in your inner world you feel— and this is not just like a trans thing, it's in every human experience— you feel like you're in a mental prison, you feel like you can't express yourself, you feel like you can't do the things you do or all kinds of things. How do you break out of that? You can see how other people live the way that they do to be successful emotionally, personally, in all kinds of ways. Like this. You learn from other people. Everybody models and is inspired by other people. So these are like a lot of common themes that I take in my music is like your own personal internal struggles and also representing for other people to be inspired by. Come to Sia at El Rio January 8th. It's gonna be a good time. We're gonna have good music, good vibes, good people, and you. Tonight we let the flowers bloom. [MUSIC] [MUSIC]
