Among the stars gracing the BET Awards red carpet on Sunday was R&B crooner Giveon, who hinted at a potential tour when asked about his plans for 2021.
“My debut project was during a pandemic, so I was in the house and never got to see the people who listened,” he tells Billboard. “I’m hoping that I can get in front of the people and sing all the songs together.”
On the summer festival circuit, Giveon will be performing at Chicago’s Lollapalooza in late July.
Giveon took home the BET Award for best new artist, not long after the resurgence of his early 2020 single “Heartbreak Anniversary.” The track has spent 19 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 and currently sits at No. 16. On the Rhythmic Airplay chart, the song peaked this week at No. 3. When it comes to its virality on TikTok, Giveon says he wasn’t “at all” expecting it but believes in the timelessness of his own music.
“Songs with concepts like that, it’s always gonna resurge every once in a while because it’s a timeless topic. In 50 years, people are still gonna be going through the same thing,” says Giveon. “It’s just timeless. I want people to press play and not be able to dictate what decade it was made.”
The Justin Bieber and Drake collaborator says he’s not much of a “freestyle in the booth” artist but prefers to pen thoughtful verses before delivering his lyrics at the mic. “I like to write it down so it’s all in sync and every line complements each other,” he explains. “By the end of the song, it should all conclude, like a college essay.”
Giveon went on to outline his songwriting process, explaining his preference for the “raw emotion” of writing songs in the moment, rather than returning to concepts later, and creating bodies of work that “flow into each other when you play them back to back.”
