Scene: Michael T Ogilvie

Newcastle’s Michael T Ogilvie drops FLEX, a cheeky, self-aware anthem about desire, ego, and the male form.

Sonically, this vibrant, fun-filled pop banger delivers pulsing rhythms, funky bass and sultry synths—laying the perfect dance-inducing foundation for Michael’s soulful vocal flow. Packed with cheeky lyrics and a hook-laden chorus, it channels flavours of Sam Smith, Shawn Mendes and Frankie Goes To Hollywood. A track built to bring the vibe to any workout.

Here, the queer pop artist and founder of collective The Future is Queer, which curates inclusive spaces that spotlight emerging queer talent, tells us more about local LGBTQIA+ art scene…

No one does art like the LGBTQIA+ scene and Newcastle and the North East’s scene is full of incredible artists. When I first moved to Newcastle in 2021, I was truly blown away by the amount of creatives from all different disciplines. My first experience of any organisation, group, or collective was working with Pride Radio when I started volunteering with them. It opened so many doors to meeting other queer creatives in the North East. At the same time, I began gigging on the queer scene and was part of that year’s Northern Pride celebration, Ste Dunn and the rest of the team at Northern Pride are fabulous and I’ve been lucky enough to be welcomed back to the stage every year since then.

I was originally born in Scotland, which I’m very proud of, but I grew up in West Cumbria and as you can imagine, there weren’t very many opportunities for a queer boy, never mind a dancing, singing queer boy. Seeing such a thriving queer scene in Newcastle really drove my passion to start The Future is Queer. I wanted to use my 10 plus years of gigging experience, working with major pride events, festivals, and other queer organisations to pass opportunities down to other performers that might be overlooked or not know how to access those platforms. Since it started in March 2023, we have worked with hundreds of performers, worked on multiple main stage Pride events, and also hosted so many different showcase events to give performers opportunities to showcase their talents. In 2024, we were made a finalist for Gaydio Pride Awards for Event of the Year. This was really important to me as we were the only people in the whole of that year’s nominees from any category to represent the North East.

The Newcastle queer scene is accessible for all performers looking to work within their community, from showcase events with the Future is Queer to Open Drag, which is now moved to Oscars at the Yard and more recently Doll Haus, which is an amazing collective showcasing trans performers.

I can truly say I am so proud to be living in the North East, to be working with so many amazing queer creators on and off a scene. I think it’s important to remember that success for one person within the community is success for all of us within the community.

My new single FLEX is a club song for the queers. It’s about showing off, loving yourself, bigging everyone up, and inflating egos. I can’t wait to see the girls, gays and they’s sweating to this song on the dance floor.