Singer back after two-year hiatus to celebrate Pride
A singer has released a new song to honour Pride Month after suffering homophobic abuse.
Freya Roy, 27, is originally from Halesworth in Suffolk but now lives in Norwich.
She took a two-year hiatus in her music career to work on collaborations and produced songs for other artists.
Ms Roy released a new track on Wednesday that she described as a "queer anthem".
"I've had quite a long period of producing and collaborating," Ms Roy explained to BBC Introducing Norfolk & Suffolk.
"I had no real plan of what was to come and then I've found myself with a bunch of tunes that are ready to go so I thought, let's go with it.
"It's nice to have a break and a bit of detachment, then come back to my own stuff which I was doing alongside, but I've come back to [it] fully."
Her new song, titled Waiting Line, is the first of several releases that will be scheduled throughout the next year.
It comes after Ms Roy said she experienced "a few homophobic experiences that I never thought I'd address in my writing".
She shared on social media that she had been shouted and clapped at while kissing her partner in public.
She was then keen to celebrate Pride, as well as offering an energetic song.
"I came through with this little beat I was working on and it slowly developed into just offloading all of this stuff," she continued.
"It fell quite nicely with Pride and I thought I'd use it to highlight Pride Month and use it as a way to celebrate it.
"Maybe it's something other people can relate to when they hear it."
'Your community'
Ms Roy said she felt it was important to "surround yourself with people who have shared similar experiences".
"I think it's important to find your community of people," she said.
"It's important to go to places where you're around similar people - like queer communities where you feel accepted... and there is a share exchange between everyone that is unspoken.
"You can have confidence and let that carry you to help you through situations that are not so nice."
You can find out more about BBC Introducing Norfolk & Suffolk with Angelle Joseph here.
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