Diamond Dress - Ezra Phoenix

Solomon Esera, known by his artist name Ezra Phoenix is a Wellington based artist on the rise and looking to share his soulful & heartfelt music with the world.

He shared with NZ Musician that music has been integral to helping him define exactly who he is and stake claim to his own place of belonging in the world.

“I want to be the first Pacific Island gay pop star in NZ to make it, and to be known as a gay, Samoan popstar!”

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He breaks down his single 'Diamond Dress' below -

"Serving you two-spirit goodness, because being masculine and feminine are two sides of the same tapa cloth.

As a Samoan diaspora living in New Zealand, the masculine and feminine binary has had Ezra perplexed for years until a recent discovery of a term revived by Native American-Indian LGBTQ communities in the US, ‘two-spirit’. He has always felt a natural belonging to both masculine and feminine energies, constantly migrating the colourful spectrum that they create.

Fa'afafine were celebrated and revered in Samoan families, partly because they embodied both traditional male and female gender roles that required physical strength and grace. This ‘two-spirit’ way of life has become less valued within Samoan culture since the influence of Christianity in Samoa; this natural state of being for many young Samoan people has been cloaked with discriminated, shame, as a sin.

A Tama Samoa is expected to be masculine, heterosexual, ‘act like a boy’, to show no sign of weakness, to name a few. This toxic masculinity leaves no room for the feminine, a trait just as natural and valid. Ezra strives to live his life against the grain; his flamboyant fiery fierceness is a result of embracing both masculine and feminine qualities that come instinctively, intuitively, and unapologetically.

Diamond Dress celebrates individuals who naturally embody masculine and feminine traits, and symbolises the ‘two-spirit’ couture that these individuals so effortlessly wear on the daily with sass and grace. The new single weaves into its fabric traditional Samoan percussive instruments to refocus its message towards Samoan and Pacific Diaspora communities, beaconing them to look to the past for clarity and truth.

It’s time we stop shaming boys who are naturally more feminine. Let us celebrate their beauty and uniqueness as a Tama Samoa in a Diamond Dress." - Ezra Phoenix