Joe McElderry Come Out (World continues to spin...)

This weekend the UK press has been abuzz with news that 2009 X-factor winner Joe McElderry has confirmed  he is gay.  His revelation was published in Saturday's Mirror - only one week, McElderry says, after he told his mum.

I have two things to say about this story.  The first is that I'm glad Joe was able to come to terms with his sexuality and felt liberated and comfortable enough to make such a public statement.  I hope that his decision was the direct result of a personal revelation, not because he was threatened with a 'kiss and tell' story that would have outed him anyway.  However, visibility of positive gay role models is always a good thing for the gay community and I hope Joe continues to be just that.

The second thing I thought when hearing this story, from a business perspective, was - I wonder what his record company thought?.  It was reported early on, once McElderry had won X-factor that he would be promoted as the boy-next-door, a clean-cut image with a demographic of young female fans.  Obviously I'm not saying, that because he's come out, McElderry can no longer be all those things - but very rarely are openly gay pop stars successfully promoted to such an audience.  So maybe, once the subject of his sexuality was raised to his record company, there was a shift in strategy that will now see Joe be promoted in a completely different way.  Or maybe they just don't care and plans will continue as they were before this weekend's announcement.

Either way, I'm now even more curious to see what happens when McElderry releases his début album at the end of the year.