Nuevo Culture

Is Yuri Trying to Win Back the LGBTQ+ Community With Her New Music Video?

Is Yuri trying to get back into the good graces of the LGBTQ+ community? On July 1, the day after Pride Month was over, the Mexican pop star premiered her gayest music video yet for “Euforia.” The rainbow-colored visual comes on the heels of Yuri’s comments over the past few years that have been seen as homophobic.

From her flashy and fabulous music videos and songs, Yuri was considered an icon among the LGBTQ+ community, especially in Mexico, throughout her four-decade-spanning career. After halting her career in the mid-’90s to focus on her faith, her LGBTQ+ fans have been credited with reviving her career in the 2000s when she finally made her comeback. But that view of her and the support began to change with comments she has made in the last couple of years about the queer community that have erred on the side of homophobic.

During a 2017 interview with CNN, Yuri expressed that same-sex couples shouldn’t be allowed to adopt children. She sort of reinforced her view on this with her support for the movie Pink, which showed a same-sex couple with an adopted child in an awful light that perpetuated negative stereotypes of the queer community. During the interview, Yuri, who is an Evangelical Christian, said, “My life instructions say that [adopting a child] is for a man and a woman.”

But the comments that really got Yuri in hot water with the LGBTQ+ community happened last year while she was a guest on El Escorpión Dorado’s YouTube show. When she was asked if any of her boyfriends in the past turned out to be gay, she responded “yes” and that it was “horrible” to find out. Yuri then alluded to people in the LGBTQ+ community having sexually-transmitted diseases by adding, “I got worried and I went to get some tests done.”

This year, Yuri seemingly started to feel the negative impact of her comments in her pockets. Her upcoming Euforia Tour reportedly hasn’t been selling well. The tour date that she had for Mexico City on June 2 was postponed to Nov. 4.

With her new music video for “Euforia,” Yuri appears to be trying to rehab her image with the LGBTQ+ community. In the extravagant visual that she produced and directed, she dances around a flurry of rainbow-colored flags and muscular dancers. Yuri tried it, but this auto-tuned mess is not it. 

Yuri has yet to apologize for her homophobic comments and hasn’t appeared to learn from the backlash. The most she has said is comments like “the people that work with me and my friends are gay.” Yuri is going to have to do more than a music video to make up for the damage caused by her hurtful comments in the past.