Calum Scott

There are a lot of songs about love and how it starts, whether that's realizing it yourself or coming to find it later on - but no sort of talk about the actual feelings that are created from love and passion.

I was suppressed for many years. From the outside, you'd think I had a very normal life.

I am so confident and empowered by my sexuality; it plays an enormous part in my life.

I'd always been a little bit uncomfortable talking about my sexuality just because it took me a while to fully accept it. I had a bit of traumatic time with my friends when I was younger, and it kind of just put me off talking about it.

The amount of people that have said, 'You've inspired me to be confident. I've come out to my friends because of you,' that reduces me to tears every time, because I'm just, like, little old me from Hull has had an implication on somebody's life. That's massive to me. Massive.

I find myself in a position where I have a voice that has the potential to influence - I want to use that to inspire confidence in those that have yet to find it, to inspire compassion in those who don't understand, but most importantly, to inspire love in everyone through the experiences and stories that we can all relate to or empathize with.

Since I became more confident, I've thought, 'Right, let me get myself on the market'. So I joined Tinder and Chappie, and it was funny because, at first, the sites thought I was an imposter.

I come from a very normal day job, a very normal upbringing, so I had six or seven years working in an office nine to five in human resources. I had the normal life and kind of thought maybe this is what I'm going to do for the rest of my life but still had that passion and that yearning for music.

The creative process has been a little bit of an experience, really - to try and make that work for me. The only way I know how to do that is just to remain genuine, humble, and true to everything I know already in my life.

I worked in an office for eight years, so I know what it's like to slog through for money, but now to be able travel the world and sing to so many people, it's a complete dream come true.

I cannot thank the LGBT+ community enough for their support, for their love, for their acceptance, and for the first time in a letter, I am incredibly proud to say that I am gay and have never been happier.

As many of you know, my story begins where most people's in the LGBT+ community begins... with fear. I knew I was different from my peers, my friends, and those around me when I started to discover who I was and who I identified as from a young age.