For Goldie Luxe, stepping into the spotlight has always been about more than performance; it’s about claiming space as her fullest, most unapologetic self. Goldie brings together maximalist pop, burlesque, fashion, and queer culture in a world where glamour is less a costume than a way of being.
Her latest release, “Touch the Sky”, began in an intimate moment of self-encouragement before one of her earliest burlesque performances: a reminder to herself to step out, shimmy, shake, and simply be seen. What started as a personal pep talk has grown into an anthem about confidence, self-realization, and refusing to shrink yourself to fit someone else’s expectations.
Goldie Luxe sat down with LOCK Magazine to talk about becoming the “swan”, the theatricality of performance, the enduring allure of ’90s and 2000s pop, and what it means to build a life, and an artistic identity, entirely on your own terms.
- “Touch the Sky” started as something you performed for yourself before stepping onstage. What did you need to hear from yourself back then—and how has that message changed now that you’re releasing it to the world?
In that moment I just needed to psych myself up and say, “Okay girl you’ve got this. You can go out there and you can shimmy and you can shake and flaunt what you’ve got!” I wrote it for one of my very first burlesque performances. I’d really been wanting to try burlesque for years, but it’s such vulnerable thing putting yourself out there in that way. And being trans, and curvy and tall had been things that made me nervous to finally take that plunge.
But, part of what makes Burlesque so amazing is its embrace of different bodies, especially curves and shape of women. I was actually just talking to a friend about it today, that burlesque celebrates a maturity that often is looked upon negatively in our society that often fetishizes youth.
And I want to clarify that, of course, burlesque is for anyone. Any gender, any age, any shape. But it holds space for the voluptuous like no other.
The song is about that stepping into the spotlight as yourself and becoming the Swan. Becoming not only something different than what people expected, but getting out there standing tall and proud curves and all.
I would say that now I’ve released the song to the world, it’s that same thing, just on a grander scale. “Hey world here I am, curvy, tall, trans, and maybe a little more mature than some people and doesn’t that just make me fabulous!”
My hope is that the song helps people feel confident to chase their dreams as themselves. Who we are is integral to our success.
2. The ugly duckling-to-swan metaphor is central to this song. Do you see the “swan” as a destination you’ve arrived at, or is becoming the swan an ongoing process?
I would say that swan metaphor is really more of a self-realization than a process of becoming. It’s a self actualization in a way. I am certainly not done growing, evolving, and changing. I hope I never do. Life is meant to be blossomed into.
But the story the ugly duckling really resonated because the “duckling” was never a duck. It didn’t become a swan it was always a swan. It was a cygnet, a baby swan.
So the metaphor is really about accepting that I’ve always been the swan. I’ve always been this way. And outside perceptions, or misperceptions really, do not dictate who I am.
3. There’s something wonderfully theatrical about the spoken-word section, especially knowing it came from a feather-fan moment in your burlesque act. How do you decide when a song needs to stop being “just a song” and become a full piece of performance art?
That’s a really interesting question. For me, because the song started as something meant to be performed on stage during an act, it had that sort-of theatricality built in from the beginning.
When I performed it for the first time it just needed something more and while the instrumental break was nice and allowed me to do more performance with my fans, it felt like I needed something different or extra to drive home that message. It couldn’t just be chorus or just that hook of “touch the sky.” It really needed to be built out somehow. So I ended up just riffing on the concept and spoke directly to the audience in that moment.
When I went in to the studio to make the record, it just felt like it needed it, because the live performance needed it. And in a sort of weird wonderful way, it became a breaking of the fourth wall of the song. It isn’t just that hook, chorus and verses, but suddenly I’m talking directly to you the listener.
4. You describe yourself as a “diamond-studded trans pop sensation”, and your work brings together pop, burlesque, fashion and queer culture. What does glamour allow you to say or express that a more stripped-back version of yourself might not?
Oh, absolutely! I am the diamond studded trans pop sensation. Ha! I think there might be a false dichotomy in your question though. It presupposes that there is some version of me that isn’t glamorous. And that might sound flippant but truly a “stripped back” me is almost the costume.
The most stripped back thing I’ve done was probably back when I used to play acoustic versions of my song “Mother’s Pearls” at piano bars back when I lived in New York. And you know what? That song used literal jewelry as a a gut wrenching metaphor for my complicated relationship with my mom. If that doesn’t point to the fact that it’s just woven into the fabric of my being then I don’t know what will.
That first album was so experimental. It was electronic genre anarchy. And there was a period after it came out, for over a year, where I was just trying to figure out where I was going because that really experimental lane just didn’t land how I had hoped. I mean all of its a learning process right?
But I tried so hard to find what is the stripped back me. Who am I just at the piano? I was experimenting with everything from country to folk to rock and you know what? All of that felt so put on and fake. Who I am on the day to day is theatrical and big and rhinestone bedazzled. To not put that all into the music, with a huge maximal pop sound would be the much more disingenuous option.
5. You’ve talked about being inspired by the maximalist pop worlds of Britney Spears and Timbaland, while The Swan draws heavily from ’90s and 2000s R&B and hip-hop-infused pop. What is it about that era of pop that still feels exciting or unfinished to you?
I just love that huge anthemic maximalist pop world. I really do. I grew up listening to that music. It was such a cool mix of soaring anthems but also really sexy moments too. And they would coexist on the same album and yet be so cohesive as a project. And you would just feel so damn good listening. Does anything compare to listening to “Oops!… I Did it Again” front to back or” Loose” by Nelly Furtado?
We’ve lost that a bit. A lot of music today is hook and chorus, there’s no build up, there’s no bridge, there’s no drama. So many albums from the past decade have just been a collection of singles.
I think luckily thats changing. We’re all so desperate for the drama. And we all want to feel sexy and free right? It’s honestly the only thing that’s going to save us from the onslaught of Ai slop. Thoughtful cohesive projects are our salvation I’m telling you.
6. “You don’t have to shrink yourself to fit somebody else’s expectations” feels like the heart of “Touch the Sky”. What’s one expectation you’ve had to unlearn in order to become Goldie Luxe?
Oof there are so many expectations I’ve had had to learn to let go. I grew up in the southern US, where gender roles were super defined. Being a trans woman was unheard of.
I always stuck out. People really made me feel I was wrong for talking a certain way, walking a certain way, dressing a certain way, expressing myself a certain way. The vocabulary I used. The colors I was drawn to. And all of these small things were so innate. But people were really hostile to them. I had to really unlearn the shame that came from years of people telling me who I was was wrong.
I had to learn that what you think I should be has nothing to do with who I am. I had to learn that it’s my right as a human being to feel comfortable in my skin. And peoples expectations around my gender, or my sexuality, my age, my comportment had nothing to do with me. And that I deserve to not only be who I am, but also be incredibly proud of who I am. I think that’s the biggest thing about unlearning in order to become the Luxe part of Goldie Luxe. It’s the pride in my differences because they are what make me who I am. And how incredible that is.