Singer and chat-show host Kelly Clarkson has celebrated Trans Day of Visibility by promoting compilation album Transa, which features Sam Smith, Sade, Hunter Schafer and more.
In a sea of rising anti-queer and trans rhetoric burgeoning from the United States and elsewhere, Trans Day of Visibility is more important than ever.
31 March each year, the date celebrates trans people and helps to bring awareness to discrimination faced by the community, as well as platforming the achievements by trans trailblazers.
None other than Kelly Clarkson, the original American Idol, has joined in the festivities by promoting compilation album Transa (stylised as TRAИƧA) on a segment of The Kelly Clarkson show, despite not featuring on the record herself.
The album from the non-profit Red Hot Organisation, a body dedicated to “promoting diversity through equal access to healthcare through pop culture,” was released 22 November.
“On this Trans Day of Visibility, we wanna tell you about a new album that celebrates the beauty of the transgender community and all the artists within it,” Clarkson explained.
Happy Trans Day of Visibility!
@redhotorg #TRANSA pic.twitter.com/7EXtZwGW8q
— The Kelly Clarkson Show (@KellyClarksonTV) March 31, 2025
Transa features “I’m Not Here To Make Friends” singer Sam Smith, Hunger Games star Hunter Schafer and Sade, in the latter’s first new music since 2018. Sade has a trans son, and her Transa song “Young Lion” is a dedication to him.
Trans music legend Beverly Glenn-Copeland, OutKast’s André 3000 and boygenius star Julien Baker are also among the stars on the album’s track list. The record contains 46 tracks and over 100 collaborators.
Massima Bell, the album’s producer (and activist and model), told Clarkson in an appearance on the show, “We wanted to build on the model that Red Hot developed, but with an album that focused on all the beauty that and gifts that trans people bring to the world.”
She continued, “We ended up with over 100 of the most talented artists of our generation, and some of the most imaginative and daring trans and non-binary artists that are making work today.”
Transa is split into eight chapters, covering a “wide range of genres” and “chart[ing] a spiritual journey”.
Transa is out now.
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