WATCH: G Flip ft. mxmtoon's Queen Music Video
The 26-year-old Melbourne-based multi-instrumentalist muso, real name Georgia Flipo, is unashamedly queer, writing slapstastic bangers about queer romance, getting litty at the party, being unafraid and more. P.S, people also reckon she’s dating Bachie star Brooke Blurton 👀 which is a power couple we absolutely stan.
But, the singing and drumming superhero of the LGBTQIA+ community hasn’t always been that way. To celebrate their new role as TikTok’s Mardi Gras ambassador, Girlfriend chatted to G Flip about their queer journey, what Mardi Gras means to them, and the time J-Hope from BTS played one of her songs on a live-stream and she went viral.
The theme at this year’s Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras is “Rise.” What do you use your platform to rise for?
I use my platform to be authentically me, and I'm a proud member of the LGBTQIA+ community. For all my content, and also all my music, I tell a lot of personal stories, my journey of life and I use female pronouns if I’m writing a love song about a girl. But I also use my platform to advocate: I’m a partner with Youth Insearch, which helps eradicate youth suicide, I work a bit with Youth18, who run amazing youth events for the LGBT fam, and also Support Act who deliver crisis relief and mental health & wellbeing services to artists, crew and music workers who are doing it tough.
What does Mardi Gras mean to you?
I went to my first Mardi Gras last year and it was one of the most exhilarating, thrilling and euphoric experiences of my life. It was pure happiness, and everyone is just so authentically themselves. I remember standing on a float last year and thinking to myself that this is incredible, and it's one of the highlights of my entire life - that feeling in your body, soul and heart is awesome.
What does being a TikTok ambassador at Mardi Gras mean to you?
It’s been awesome - TikTok is such an amazing platform for the LGBT community, and it just embraces people who are being authentically themselves and pushes them to the front. There’s so many people, especially the other night when I was at a TikTok event, who have all met through TikTok and all came from similar backgrounds, and all different backgrounds - it’s just such a great platform that lets you express yourself and who you are, and what you believe in, and for TikTok to ask me to be an ambassador - I’m so fortunate.
In the spirit of Queen, who are the women that you look up to as role model royalty?
Queen is about the legit queens in my life, so definitely my mum, my sister and my nana all come to the forefront of my mind!
WATCH: G Flip's Stupid Music Video
What advice do you have for people who might be celebrating Mardi Gras for the first time?
Take it all in! It’s such a night full of love, and you can feel it in the air and feel it in your soul, it’s just like, the love in the air and everyone is being themselves. I remember when I went last year, like random people would just walk past and hug you. Everyone was so friendly and lovely, and it’s such an amazing experience so just take it all in!
What advice do you have for people who live in rural towns or places where there isn’t a local event for Mardi Gras—how can they celebrate it?
I think the great thing about the day and age we’re in now is that with social media and TV and everything, you can still watch the event and stay connected through the stream on TikTok and on SBS. Also, maybe if there’s some people or friends you know in those rural towns, you can get together and just have a little Mardi party of your own, at your house.
You’re a trailblazer when it comes to queer artists within the Australian music industry. What was your journey of self-acceptance and identity like? Were you always as cool as a cucumber with your sexuality?
I had quite a unique journey. I didn’t come out until after high school, later in life. I guess for me, when I was growing up, there wasn’t much queer representation in anything I watched on TV, or in any music I listened to. I didn’t have TikTok or any social media to have queer representation in front of me, so, that made me come out later in life. If I had that representation, I think I would have come out earlier.
For so many years, there was just this voice in my head that was like “no you’re not gay, you don’t like girls - you’re not gay, you like boys!” and I was so cruel to myself in my head. There were some little incidents in my life, like when I was in Year 7, there was a girl in Year 12 who came out in high school, and we all looked at her like “you’re the gay chick”. That voice just got louder in my head being like “no you’re not gay, you’re not gay”. I went to an all-girls Catholic school as well.
Then after high school, I kind of just came out: came out to my family, came out to my friends, and the moment I came out was one of the most euphoric moments for me! It was like "this is who I am", and it was unbelievable. All the girls who were closeted in high school came out after high school.
It’s so different now though — I’ve gone back to do like "inspirational" talks, and it’s amazing because I remember the girls all had pride pins on their blazers, and I’m doing the talk and one of the girls puts her hand up: “Hey G, I’m coming to your underage show with my girlfriend next week”, and I couldn’t believe she said that out loud! It was just a full circle moment, and I almost wanted to cry because it was amazing how beautiful that was, and it just wasn’t like that when I was in high school.
WATCH: Billie Eilish slams a fan who talked bad about K-pop band BTS
Last week the comments section on the Queen music video were flooded with fans of J-Hope from BTS after he found the song and played during his birthday live-stream. Can you tell us a bit more about that and how it felt when they started rushing in?
I think it was last week, or the week before, I just woke up and my phone was blowing up! I had messages from one of my managers being like “uh, G, J-Hope was playing your song”, and obviously the BTS fan base is crazy and so supportive. He was playing my song in his stream, so then everyone then started streaming my song and finding out who I am, and who mxmtoon is, and it just went from there.
It just got flooded and I think that was awesome—shout out to J-Hope, thank you so much for playing my song—I might have some South Korean fans now!
