GLAAD Media Award Music Winners Include Renee Rapp, David Archuleta and Beyonce

The 35th Annual GLAAD Media Awards, honoring those in the media "who have shown exemplary achievements for fair, accurate, and inclusive representation of the LGBTQ community," were recognized on Mar. 14 in Los Angeles in the first of two ceremonies. The second event takes place on May 11 in New York City.

Up-and-coming pop sensation Renee Rapp took home the Outstanding Music Artist for Snow Angel, presented by Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong. From the stage at the Beverly Hilton, Rapp was equal parts funny and joyous. "My parents are straight, but they're here," she deadpanned to laughter. With a shout-out of appreciation to songwriter and three-time Grammy winner Victoria Monet, Rapp also acknowledged her thanks for being included in the LGBTQ community and made a statement to "call for an immediate cease-fire and permanent cease-fire in Gaza."

She ended with, "Please continue to advocate for yourselves, continue to advocate for your friends, for your queer friends, and for those who can't advocate for themselves."

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In the Outstanding Breakthrough Music Artist category, the award went to pop singer David Archuleta. In 2008, Archuleta was the runner-up in the seventh season of American Idol and scored a Billboard Number 2 album with his debut Crush. However, it's been the personal struggles with his lifelong Mormon faith (he left the church in 2021) and musical history since then that has allowed Archuleta to be honest and forthcoming with his asexuality.

In an interview with Yahoo! Entertainment in May 2023, he acknowledged that "I'm still learning how to not try and be so apologetic and try to over explain. You can't convince everyone to like you." He furthered revealed that prior to his coming out, he had considered suicide. "You just kind of lose hope for yourself and you believe the narrative that's fed to you that it's like, I'm going to turn into something evil so I'd rather end things before it gets that bad."

Since embracing his authentic self, he has released more personal material with his latest single "Hell Together" dropping Mar. 28.

Beyonce was honored in a Special Recognition category for her documentary musical Renaissance: A Film by Beyonce. Released last December 1 (World AIDS Day), the movie over $44 million at the global box office. A new song that rode over the end credits, "My House," was released as a single. Her ongoing investment with the LGBTQ community has seen philanthropic efforts supporting GLAAD, with her and her husband Jay-Z's acceptance of their Vanguard Award in 2019.