Tue. June 2, 2026
CHICAGO, ILL. -
Growing up as a closeted kid in Honolulu, the world often felt incredibly bright on the outside but painfully small on the inside. The humid air, the blue Pacific, the kids laughing on the playground, it all felt like it was happening behind a glass wall. On the inside, there was just a quiet, swirling mess of confusion and fear. It is a very specific kind of loneliness when you realize you are different before you even have the words to explain why.
In those years of trying to navigate an identity that felt dangerous to talk about, movies and music became a safe haven. Disney animated films gave us a template for longing, but it was the pop versions of the songs playing over the end credits that really stuck. Specifically, it was the smooth, warm voice of Peabo Bryson.
With the news of his death today, a whole wave of nostalgia and sadness brings those childhood memories right back to the surface. For a generation of kids who grew up queer and hidden, Bryson ended up singing the soundtrack to our deepest, most private hopes. He sang about worlds where hidden truths were finally brought into the light and where being misunderstood was just a temporary step before being deeply loved.
Back then, the fear was constant, especially the terror of being called a mahu. Growing up around local Hawaiian creole pidgin, that word was thrown around as a harsh, ugly insult meant to shame boys who did not fit the mold. It would take me years to learn its true, indigenous meaning, that a mahu actually holds a sacred, respected place in traditional Hawaiian culture as someone embodying both male and female spirit. But as a child, it was just a weapon that kept me hiding.
WATCH: Official music video for Beauty and the Beast with Peabo Bryson and Celine Dion
That is why his performance in the theme for Beauty and the Beast felt so heavy. When he sang the line, "Just a little change, small to say the least," it felt like he was speaking directly to me. To a kid trying to make sense of their own feelings, the word change is terrifying.
You spend years praying for a change that will magically make you fit in with everyone else. At the same time, you live in absolute terror that people will notice the small changes in the way you walk, the way you talk, or the way you look at other boys. Bryson sang those words with so much gentleness. He made the idea of changing sound natural, inevitable, and beautiful. In a world that treated being different like a mistake, his voice made it feel like growing into who you really are was an act of grace.
WATCH: Official music video for A Whole New World with Peabo Bryson and Regina Belle
Then came Aladdin and the massive promises of A Whole New World. When Bryson came in on the verses, he sang, "I can open your eyes, take you wonder by wonder, over, sideways and under, on a magic carpet ride."
When you are stuck in the closet, your actual world feels totally rigid and locked down. You are trapped by what people expect of you and what keeps you safe from insults. Hearing a man’s voice promise to open your eyes and show you a landscape that was huge and free felt like a lifeline. It was the sound of an escape route.
The phrase "wonder by wonder" gave me something else to think about besides the fear that usually filled my mind when I looked to the future. It gave a hint that outside the strict lines of a straight childhood, there was a horizon full of beauty and freedom waiting.
Maybe the most moving lyric Bryson delivered in that song was the simple line, "Let me share this whole new world with you."
The closet is defined by a complete lack of sharing. It is a lonely room where you keep your truest self locked away from your family, your friends, and your neighbors. The invitation to share a world, especially a brand new one built on honesty and freedom, went straight to the heart of the queer experience. It was a promise that one day, the hiding would stop. It told us that there would be a partner out there who would see the real you, step into a new reality right beside you, and make sense of everything you had to keep secret for so long.
Peabo Bryson was a legendary R&B singer who spent his life singing about romantic love. But for the kids listening from the bedroom floor in Honolulu or Chicago or elsewhere, wondering if they would ever find a place where they belonged, he was something much bigger. His voice carried the weight of our closeted dreams, turning simple pop lyrics into verses that opened our eyes. He put a melody to a future we could not see yet, promising us that a whole new world was out there waiting.
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