'The Heist,' the independently released Macklemore & Ryan Lewis album that contains 'Same Love,' is also up for the biggest prize of the night. In the top category, she'll face off against none other than Macklemore. Now, 'Brave' and 'Roar' rub elbows on Top 40 playlists, and Bareilles, profile heightened, has found herself the recipient of an unexpected Grammy nomination for Album of the Year. Epic, Bareilles' label, responded to the controversy by promoting the song to mainstream pop radio (before that it had, like many of Barelles' other records, been consigned to the dreaded Adult Alternative category - a wasteland of mannered, middle-of-the-road material.) Luke, Perry's main collaborator, insisted that 'Roar' had been written and recorded before the release of 'Brave,' but that didn't stop Bareilles' fans from crying foul. Upon the release of Katy Perry's blockbuster 'Roar' in August, many fans noted its similarity to 'Brave.' Dr. 'Brave' has become Bareilles' biggest hit since 'Love Song,' the bouncy, Billy Joel-like record that put her on the map in 2008.īareilles has had a little luck. In it, the narrator counsels a closeted gay friend to come out. Sara Bareilles' 'Brave,' co-written by Jack Antonoff of fun., is a more personal record - it addresses a single individual, rather than a social movement - but the singer and pianist is capitalizing on the pop audience's present broad-mindedness. In his verses, rapper Macklemore takes pains to establish both his unwavering commitment to civil rights for gay couples and his own ironclad straightness. 'Same Love,' a Macklemore & Ryan Lewis song written in support of the 'yes' option on the Washington state referendum to legalize gay marriage, has been a major hit.

In popular music, it is a good time to be a friend of gays and lesbians.

Yet people who weren't gay did join the club, in large numbers, in order to register their belief that homophobia was really stupid. At the time, some of my more outspoken peers thought this was a bit of a cheat: you could join the FLBGTA - and even go to some of their mixers - while leaving your sexuality ambiguous. It was modeled on PFLAG, the largest advocacy group in the nation for parents of gay children.

The college I attended had an organization called the FLBGTA - friends of the lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender alliance.

Sara bareilles brave official video