“King” hitmaker Olly Alexander has reconnected with a former boyfriend after ten years, revealing that the rekindled relationship heavily inspired his new record, Polari.
Polari, released on 7 February, features a number of glitzy love songs buoyed by retro synths, including “When We Kiss”, “Make Me A Man” and last year’s UK Eurovision entry, “Dizzy”.
Speaking to Attitude Magazine, the former Years & Years frontman and It’s A Sin star revealed that returning to a past boyfriend gave him “a different perspective to write from”.
The five-time BRIT Award nominee said there was a “very simple” reason he was ready to release his solo album with aplomb.
“It’s because I got back together with my partner. We were together, like, 10 years ago; we dated for a year and then broke up. We didn’t speak for a few years and ended up coming back together,” he explained.
“So, this idea of returning to love was really on my mind. I had all these different points of this relationship that had gone up and down.”
Sharing a little more information on his current relationship, the gay star explained that he feels now he’s in a “grown-up” romance.
“Now we’re in a very domestic, grown-up relationship. I’ve never experienced that before. I felt like I had a bit of a different perspective to write from,” he said.
Who is Olly Alexander’s boyfriend?
Olly Alexander has recently confirmed that he is in a relationship with one of his former partners from ten years ago, but throughout his time in the spotlight, he’s kept his romances relatively private.
In 2015, the “If You’re Over Me” singer dated former member of Grammy Award-winning band Clean Bandit, Neil Amin-Smith.
The pair were together throughout 2015, but parted ways due to their hectic schedules. Amin-Smith later left Clean Bandit in 2016, and has since forged a career as an advisor to the British chancellor Rachel Reeves in the UK Treasury.
Speaking about their decision to split in 2017, Alexander said: “We’ve had less and less time to spend together and the time we did have together were such short periods it put so much pressure on our relationship.”
He added at the time that the pair were on good terms, explaining: “I don’t feel differently towards him. I still have a lot of feelings towards gim and that hasn’t changed. I think I need to give it time and see how I feel.
“We’re still in touch. We’re just giving each other a bit of space. It’s still pretty new to be honest.”
After Amin-Smith, the musician’s relationships have been far more lowkey. In 2022, he was reportedly “in love” with an unnamed man.
He’s also previously expressed a desire for another man in the political world, albeit a far more divisive one: Jeremy Corbyn.
Polari is streaming now.
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