The Power of Being You
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share
my life take me from what i
am cause i’ll never
change all my colors for you
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take my
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just all that you were
and everything that you do
i don’t really need to look very much
further i don’t want to have to go
where you don’t follow i won’t hold it
back again
don’t make me closer
there don’t walk away from me
i have nothing nothing
nothing if i don’t
have you
[Music]
you see through
right through the heart of
me you break down my
walls with the strength of your love
i never knew
i don’t really need to look very
much further
there’s
i don’t wanna hurt
don’t walk away from me
i have nothing nothing
nothing
no make me
i don’t wanna hurt anymore
don’t walk away from me
don’t walk away from me
don’t you dare walk away from me
i have nothing nothing
nothing
if i don’t have
you
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[Laughter]
if i don’t have you
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hello i’m brian justin crum and i’m
so honored to be sharing with you guys
today
some of you may know me from america’s
got talent but before that i had an
extensive career performing on broadway
in wicked and greece and the pulitzer
prize winning next to normal
i even got to perform alongside some of
the original members of queen
in their musical we will rock you i
started performing at just six years old
a playful joyous little flamboyant kid
i knew i was gay at a very young age i
grew up in the church
and quickly realized that the world
around me
thought there was something very wrong
with me
mix that with growing up and performing
in musical theater where i was always
being told that i was
easily replaceable it’s safe to say that
my
sense of self was very warped
those negative thoughts became like a
broken record in my head
and the thoughts got a hold of my mind
they became truth in my heart
and once they had a hold of me it was
really hard to quiet them
freedom and self-expression in art was
always this
very foreign concept to me i was told
what to wear
what to sing and to butch it up
i had lost or maybe i had never really
found
my true sense of self
my mom talks about this very much
single-mindedness that i had as a kid
i had a goal and i was going to achieve
it no matter what
i got my ged i left high school
and made my way to new york city
i spent eight years performing on
broadway and touring with musicals
i had achieved every childhood dream
that i had but i was still sad
i was lost and i felt like a fraud
i moved to los angeles with absolutely
no idea what i was going to do
but i knew that i needed a change
so i auditioned for america’s got talent
and in the blink of an eye my entire
life got turned upside down
my first performances went viral and
in the blink of an eye i got that change
that i wanted
the strange part was i was there
but again i was being told what to wear
what to sing and on and on and on
it was an incredible opportunity that
i’m still
so grateful for but i was there to fill
a role
that they had deemed worthy of their
show
i wasn’t allowed to talk about this
successful career in theater that i had
worked my entire life for
i was this little gay boy who was
bullied and who had suffered
and they were there to save me
it made for great tv absolutely
but i was left feeling like is this
all that i am once the show had finished
i was left to my own devices i had
amassed this incredibly
supportive group of fans who were really
eager to see
what i would do next
what am i going to do next i had never
had the opportunity
of choice in my life
i thought to be relevant in music i had
to write my own pop songs
with big production and minimal vocal
effort which is
literally the exact opposite of how i
love to sing
while i don’t regret any of my original
tunes
they never felt like me and they
absolutely
never filled my soul cup
that voice in my head that was
constantly telling me
if you don’t get this right now you will
be replaced
and you will be forgotten that voice
informed
every decision that i made
i was trying so hard to be something
that i thought people wanted me to be
but
people just wanted me to be me
and i had no idea who that was
i was go go go i was touring i was
performing
and then on march 13th everything
stopped
this deadly virus had taken a hold of
all of us
and life as we knew it had to be put on
pause
i had totally forgotten what stillness
felt like and it was extremely
uncomfortable
i lost all motivation to create i didn’t
want to sing
i didn’t want to do anything but i did
discover
my love of plants like many of you out
there i’m sure
i started collecting these rare tropical
plants and they
quickly took over our entire house and
our greenhouse that we had built years
ago
taking care of these little plant babies
gave me this
strange sense of self-worth i
loved taking care of them and slowly
over time i started daydreaming
what would it be like for me to not let
these voices
dictate my entire path
i started asking questions what do i
want to do
what do i want to sing
you know i’ve always fancied myself at
great interpreter of songs and of
telling stories
so i decided i was going to make a list
of all the artists and the songs that i
had loved
and turns out they were all women
so i put together this project to honor
these women who had not only inspired me
to sing
who had really taught me how to sing
i felt excited for the first time in a
really long time
and it felt right for me
i’m taking control and i’m letting my
spirit
decide each failure along the way has
given me a gift and
i’m gathering what works and what
doesn’t work for me
as an artist and as a human it was
the pause that gave me
the freedom to explore self-expression
and to create again
i wanted to honor the opportunity of
choice
we have all been led to water by society
and
taught how to drink whether you’re a
singer who sings
a builder who builds or a mother who
mothers
we all know what it’s like to feel like
we’re constantly coming up short
we all know that voice in our head that
is reminding us that we aren’t good
enough
productivity and performance has become
the focus at the sacrifice of self-care
and dreaming
this idea like life is constantly
evolving but the reality is
we all have a choice
what would it look like for you to pause
and ask yourself who am i what do i want
to say
who do i want to say it to and how
thank you
you