Review by Vince Leigh
Not only is Drake Jensen a rising country music star but he’s also a leader in the LGBTQI+ community. With the launch of his debut album, On My Way To Finding You in 2011, the first video featured an LGBTQ love theme, which caught the attention of Andy Towle of Towleroad, who named him one of the Top 50 Comings Out of 2012.
Since then, he’s released three studio albums: OUTlaw, Retro, and Sideshow. Some noteworthy single releases from these albums include Scars That You Can’t See, the anti-bullying track which was launched at Nashville’s Hard Rock Café during Nashville Pride, and Where Ever Love Takes Us, which broke into the Australian Country Top 40 and was turned into the line dance Waves of Love by renowned Irish choreographer Gary O’Reilly.
This notoriety earned Drake Jensen recognition for his contribution to theLGBTQI+ community, as well as a notable reference in the book David Bowie Made Me Gay – 100 Years of LGBTQI+ Music History by Darryl W Bullock.
Now he’s just dropped Burn The Floor, a country crossover track that blends country, pop, and RnB to create a groove-laden genre-defying sound that contains a finely-wrought song at its heart.
It features all the tropes one would associate with contemporary country, a direct lyric and a strong chorus, yet imbues it all with a sense of cheeky swagger and carefree panache.
Drake collaborated with Nova Scotia LBGTQI+ singer/songwriter/producer Jon Hemingway and Rob Preuss, former keyboardist of The Spoons and Honeymoon Suite, and former Associate Musical Director for Mamma Mia on Broadway on this new track. As Drake has said of the song, “I created it with the ideology that I have had for years since starting my musical journey: that country music is for everyone”.
Burn The Floor is a must for those who like their country sprinkled with a pleasing amount of contemporary pop.
