Big Freedia ‘Presses Onward’ Spreading The Gospel, Booty Bounce, Pay As You Can

Queen of Bounce Big Freedia has bounced back from personal heartbreak with a buoyant gospel album and an upcoming pass-the-plate tour that satisfies her soul.

“This record is for everybody,” explains Big Freedia, who was born Freddie Ross Jr. in 1978. “If you have a Christian or church background – or you don’t – this message is for you. Because of where everything stands in the world today, we need hope. We need something to look forward to – to give us hope, to keep on pushing, and praying, and keep on going through. And that’s exactly why I made this record…”I needed it for myself, for my own salvation and for my own hope. And so, when I did it, I gave it my all so that the world can feel what I was feeling, what I was going through and where I’m trying to get to.”

You might not intuitively think these would be the words of the inimitable Big Freedia, the person who for decades has spread a different sort of message: “Shake that ass! Shake it, shake it, shake it, shake it, shake it SHAKE IT!” It is the Gospel of the irresistible New Orleans bounce music that she’s been the genre’s most visible and successful emissary of shaking her beautiful booty across the world while helping out acts like Beyonce, Kesha, Lizzo, Drake and RuPaul among many others. But the truth is Freedia’s embraced gospel music for decades, long before her bounce music career but especially so during the tragic loss in May of her longtime partner Devon Hurst, who died at 38 from complications related to diabetes.

“Only God knows that this was going to come out at this time – especially with losing Devon and all the things that have happened in my life within the last few months,” says Freedia of the Aug. 8 release of Pressing Onward. “This record has been my safe haven. It has been the nourishment that I need for my spirit and for my soul to stay lifted up. And also, to help spread a little bit of joy around the world.”

Pressing Onward, released by Queen Diva Music, embodies a euphoric blend of gospel hymns and the Crescent City’s’ homegrown hip-hop genre bounce. It’s equal parts jubilant tent revival and freewheeling block party. And with a lifetime of gospel music to draw from, selecting the final 14 tracks, which include collaborations with Billy Porter (“Holy Shuffle”), Dawn Richard (“Celebration”), K. Michelle (Queens Testimony”) and Tamar Braxton (“Sunday Best”) backed by the Big Freedia Chorale, was challenging.

“It was very hard,” admits Freedia, “Because I had about 50 songs in the can and narrowing it down was the hardest thing I went through because I really wanted them all to be on the record. …I still have a lot of songs that were completed and done so there will most likely be Part II really soon.”

Response to this unexpected recording has been incredibly positive and consideration for a Grammy Award in two categories: Best Gospel Song for “Holy Shuffle” and Best Christian Contemporary Album. As a gay, gender-fluid man releasing a gospel record in a politically charged time, Freedia maintains a steadfast focus on the positive.

“I don’t even listen to the negative comments or look at them – if anybody does say anything negative,” she says. “But I have been getting great response from all the fans, from some of my celebrity friends, from just different people around the city of New Orleans. It’s been unbelievable the response that I have gotten.”

Combining gospel and bounce is not as farfetched as it sounds. Freedia was performing gospel music long before her rise in New Orleans’ underground club scene.

“It’s the roots of our ancestors, of the sound,” she explains. “You know being at a Black Baptist Church, it was just good ol’ hand clapping and feet stomping and people stretching out on the bench and falling out and catching the Spirit. I mean, it was always good times.”

It’s the same positive energy and joyful abandon she personifies on stage.

“Even when it’s bounce there is definitely a spirt that comes over me when I’m on stage,” says Freedia. “When I’m, you know, giving the people what they came to see, there’s a spirit that comes over me from the time that I hit the stage till the time that I leave. There’s something that definitely touches the soul.”

“Freedia will say her shows have always been revivals, and it’s true,” adds Reid Martin at MidCitizen, Freedia’s manager for 10+ years. “What Freedia does, what her specialty is as an artist, is collective effervescence – a mashup of a couple big words but basically getting people to really bond together in a crowd. …Going from bounce music to gospel music, as radical as it may seem, it’s still Freedia doing that collective effervescence thing very well and it all makes sense through that lens.”

The team developed an equally out-of-the-box approach to reaching fans on the road with a “Pay As You Can” ticket program in small, independent clubs and theaters.

“Relating that to church, nobody is looking at how much you put in the offering, and nobody’s looking at how much you put down in your envelope as you pay your tithes,” offers Freedia. “And that’s where we want the show to be – where you can come and experience this on your own dime. And whatever that may be, we are going to accept it.”

The program makes a Freedia show accessible for anyone at a time when entertainment dollars are increasingly funneled into arena and stadium shows at the expense of small clubs.

“We wanted to open it up for everyone to see Freedia regardless of income,” said UTA agent Christian Bernhardt, who has worked with Freedia for 15+ years. “The original idea was, pay, as you will. We wanted to make this as inclusive as possible. On top of that, I see where the whole industry, the whole world, is struggling with high ticket prices. The other angle was to just show that perhaps there’s other ways to go about it, and that it doesn’t have to always be astronomical ticket prices.”

The idea presented some challenges and Martin and Bernhardt settled on a pre-sale model with a percentage of tickets – currently between 10 and 15 percent of available inventory – available for the “Pay What You Can” program with the remaining tickets at a fixed price.

“We have a culture of business at Team Freedia of trying things and saying, ‘Why not?’ Let’s give it a shot.’ That’s where this comes from,” offers Martin.

The team is targeting venues with caps that range from 500 up to 1,200 at Castro Theater in San Francisco to maintain intimacy and connection with Freedia. Other major markets include New York, Atlanta and New Orleans, with full routing to be announced soon.

“We wanted to make this an intimate experience,” says Bernhardt. “We wanted to make sure that it has that feel of a small congregation and to bring people really close together. That’s the main goal of this. The ticketing part is, in a way, just a side angle, but it’s become a very prominent part of this entire venture.”

Martin believes they are providing a service to fans of live music by letting them decide what they want to pay. The potential financial risk doesn’t faze Freedia.

“God always keeps me covered and keeps my cup running over,” says Freedia. “It’s not about the money all the time it is about the things that I need to fill my spirit and to fill my soul and to nourish me. And that’s where I’m at with it in my life right now.”

The show consists of gospel songs interspersed with classic Freedia booty shakers with a choir, band and dancers. She has been refining the format at several recent Pride events and mainstream festivals including Outside Lands Music Festival in San Fransico, Newport Folk Festival and Americana Fest in Nashville, where she has been inviting local LGBTQ+ choirs to join her on stage.

“I’m talking to a venue in Pittsburgh right now that wants to book it and they’re like, ‘Our choir wants to come and play this music!’” explains Martin of including local choral groups on the road. “We want to do this in as many places as we can and I’m sure we can get a lot of buy in.”

What makes it so appealing is that Freedia’s gospel roots are authentic and deep. Pressing Onward is more than an album title. It’s also the name of the New Orleans church where Freedia found her singing voice after a neighborhood friend in the Third Ward where she grew up invited her to a service.

“When I went to the church, I felt welcomed and loved,” recalls Freedia. “They received me really well.”

At the urging of her godmother, Freedia started singing in the church choir at 7 and was soon performing solos for the Baptist congregation. She went from being a member of the choir, to choir director shaping the youth choir, the women’s choir and eventually the big congregational choir. She was a member of renowned New Orleans’ group, the Gospel Soul Children Choir, and directed the choir this year at Jazz Fest. 

“Choir has always been a part of my life and my journey,” she says without pretense or apologies. Freedia has been sustained and lifted by gospel music throughout her life and she wants to share that feeling of hope and inspiration with her fans.  

“Religion is used at the moment for the wrong purposes and this brings it back to the basics,” offers Bernhardt. “It brings it back to unity, inclusiveness, everybody is allowed. Everybody can be free. And what better way to celebrate it than with Freedia?”

According to Martin, self-acceptance is the common denominator.  

“It’s definitely not a demographic thing,” he offers. “It’s a psychographic thing. White, black, queer, straight. We have so many people that are well into their 60s or 70s coming to a show, and then we have people that are Gen Z that are just discovering who Freedia is. It’s truly all over the map.”

Freedia’s supporters include a long list of A-list celebs including Beyoncé (who sampled her voice for her song “Formation” and on her 2022 Grammy-winning hit “Break My Soul,” as well as Kesha’s “Raising Hell,” Lizzo’s “Karaoke” and Drake’s 2018 Np. 1 hit “Nice for What” in addition to RuPaul, Slayyyter, New Kids on the Block, Jordin Sparks, Naughty by Nature, Boyz II Men and Jake Shears.

Beyond music, the Queen of Bounce is the executive producer and star of her long-running TV show “Big Freedia Bounces Back” (Fuse TV), and “Big Freedia Means Business” ( FUSE , WOW+), and in 2015 released her memoir Big Freedia: God Save The Queen Diva (Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster), which was released in paperback in 2020. She launched a cannabis line called Royal Bud in 2022 and plans to open her first hotel in New Orleans in 2026.

With everything she has going on, she keeps God at the forefront.

“I use God as everything,” she says. “He is my everything. So, when I step out, I walk by faith and not by sight. When I’m doing my music, my music is my hope for me, my music is my hope for the world. And I try to stay in a positive spirit and space. There’s so much negativity happening around the world, and especially in my community in New Orleans, and people getting hurt and harmed and gun violence and all of the whole nine yards. And so, I try to use God as my shield. God is my security.”