Dev Hynes: 'I choose not to define my sexuality - like Bowie and Prince'

Collaboration: Dev Hynes performs with Florence Welch, one of the artists for whom he has written songs
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Singer-songwriter Dev Hynes has opened up about his sexuality, describing himself as “fluid” like stars David Bowie and Prince.

The 30-year-old, who currently operates under the stage name Blood Orange having previously been known as Lightspeed Champion, has written for Solange Knowles, Florence Welch and Sky Ferreira.

He recently split from singer Samantha Urbani and admitted he has had sex with men but “it wasn’t my thing”, and is now seeing “a couple of people”.

He told ES Magazine: “Things are fluid. I think a lot of people look at me and think, ‘No, it’s strong if you define yourself and it’ll be helpful to others’.

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"But I think they don’t realise that I’m not hiding in not defining myself. I’m openly not defining myself. To me, that’s the school of Bowie and Prince, where they were just themselves.”

Hynes was born in Ilford and went to Chadwell Heath Foundation School, which is now an academy. He painted his nails and was into tap dancing and ballet, which attracted bullies.

He said: “It was mainly black kids doing it. There was a sense that I was different to them. White people didn’t really give a f***.”

But writing for other artists has not come without controversy, with Knowles suggesting Hynes’s role in her music was exaggerated, while Ferreira was quoted saying it “bothered” her that he sings on Everything Is Embarrassing.

He claims he is now “really good friends with both of them again”, adding: “I honestly think it was press eating up and spitting out our words... Then it was that stupid thing of just not talking to the person to clear things up.”

But he added: “It’s definitely happened a bunch of times that I’ve gone out of my way for people and it’s been thrown back in my face.”

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