Christina Aguilera, Bad Bunny and Jeremy Pope will receive honors at the 34th annual GLAAD Media Awards, which serves to recognize performers, filmmakers and projects that have proven monumental to the LGBTQ community.
Aguilera, renowned Latin pop singer and five-time Grammy winner, will accept GLAAD’s Advocate for Change award in tribute of her activism surrounding HIV and LGBTQ issues. “Beautiful,” one of the songwriter’s most notable tracks, earned Aguilera prior recognition at the 2003 GLAAD Media Awards following her dedication of the song to the queer community. Aguilera has helped raise over $500 million toward HIV research with MAC cosmetics. More recently, she launched her own Pride collection in 2021.
Bad Bunny is set to receive GLAAD’s Vanguard award, placing the reggaetón star among an elite group of previous honorees such as Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Jennifer Lopez, Britney Spears, Cher and Janet Jackson. The award recognizes Bad Bunny for his allyship to the LGBTQ community, given the artist’s track record of using his large-scale platform to uplift traditionally underexposed voices.
“Bad Bunny uses his role as one of the world’s most popular music artists to boldly shine a light on LGBTQ people and issues, including transgender equality and ending violence against trans women of color,” GLAAD president and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said in a statement Wednesday. “By consistently advocating for our community, elevating our stories and demanding action from anti-LGBTQ leaders, Bad Bunny redefines the positive influence Latin music artists can have within the LGBTQ community, and has set an example for all artists.”
Pope is due to take home the Stephen F. Kolzak award, which is presented to an LGBTQ media professional who has increased queer visibility and acceptance through their work. Just an Oscar away from being an EGOT winner, Pope’s extensive filmography features groundbreaking queer performances in 2022’s “The Inspection” and the FX series “Pose.”
This year’s award show features 295 nominees across 33 categories, including the addition of the outstanding podcast and outstanding live TV journalism – segment or special categories. Also new to the ceremony is the division of the outstanding reality program category into independent reality competition and non-competition subsections. A similar move was made to the outstanding kids & family programming category, which now differentiates between animated and live action programs.
Presented by Gilead Sciences, Inc. and Ketel One Family Made Vodka, the event will be held March 30 at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles.
