Listen: Billy Porter Debuts New Single 'Broke A Sweat'

Billy Porter heats up the summer with brand new single “Broke A Sweat” out today via Republic Records/Island UK. The song precedes his forthcoming album, The Black Mona Lisa, arriving this Fall.

On the track, bold and boisterous horns set the mood as the funky bass line locks into an upbeat dance floor-ready groove. Handclaps punctuate heartfelt verses as the momentum culminates on a mic-drop of a chorus, “I haven’t even started yet, I haven’t even broke a sweat.”

Billy comments on the new single, “For me, with this album, after being away from the mainstream industry for decades, I wanted to make sure that I was being honest and telling the truth and standing in my own Black and queer power. There was a phrase that came to my mind which is, ‘Winners write the history,’ and I've lived long enough to have rewritten the history for myself. So that was where the morsel of the song came from. And in the pre-chorus, it says ‘Winners, write the history. So baby, I win.’ And I'm very proud of that flex. It's a flex.”

The song lands in the wake of Porter’s 25-city nationwide tour, THE BLACK MONA LISA TOUR: VOLUME 1, which wrapped in June. The show was hugely successful with both fans and critics alike.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel wrote: “Stunning” and “one-of-a-kind,” a “rare kind of performance” with “above all else, transcendent joy.” Louisville’s LEO Weekly called the show “spectacular, inspiring, dazzling.” The Minneapolis Star-Tribune noted Porter’s “panache” and “sumptuous outfits.”

“Broke A Sweat” is the fifth offering from The Black Mona Lisa album. It follows the sultry dazzler “Fashion” and “Baby Was A Dancer,” which was in regular rotation on Gaydio and BBC’s Radio 2. Porter debuted a show-stopping performance of “Baby Was A Dancer” on The Late Late Show with James Corden.

In addition to wrapping his tour in June, Billy served as Grand Marshal at this year’s New York City Pride March, and joined forces with The Trevor Project and The Stonewall Gives Back Initiative to illuminate the Empire State Building in rainbow colors throughout Pride weekend.

Listen to the new single here: