Bold & Beautiful: Davín

Vocalist and competition prince charming Davín’s first Pride parade was an introduction to an attitude and freedom he’d never seen before. With a rural hometown of Roy, Utah, Davín’s journey came “full circle” when he won the Queer’s Got Talent Pride talent show event that Salt Lake’s Tara Lipsyncki produced during the first weekend in June this year. Performing Jessie J’s “Mama Knows Best” and his own single “Just Me,” Davín took first place.

With a track record of performances and finalist awards in various competitions such as American Idol, Tengo Talento, Mucho Talento, Sing! Utah and many others, this competition was Davín’s first big win. Being well acquainted with the nuances of competition life gave him profound insight to his triumph and the competition leading up to it. “These judges were judging people off their genuine talent,” Davin says. He describes his experiences in other competitions where families and supporters showed up for their contestant and cheered only for them, and first place winners of some competitions seemed to have been preselected before it even started. 

 “I think this [Queer’s Got Talent] crowd was so open to hearing everybody.”

“I think this [Queer’s Got Talent] crowd was so open to hearing everybody,” Davin says. “After I got off stage, even though I had messed up, I felt accepted and loved and like people heard the message. I was beating myself for messing up, but [I knew] that really didn’t matter because they got the message.” This “mess up” Davín speaks of was really a flooding of emotion while performing his single and affected the judges and his audience positively. The story of “Just Me,” as it can be heard even on the studio recording, is deeply personal and emotional for Davín. 

“After I got off stage, even though I had messed up, I felt accepted and loved and like people heard the message. I was beating myself for messing up, but [I knew] that really didn’t matter because they got the message.”

“When I first tried to come out, my life almost ended on my own accord,” he says. “But I was like, ‘I’m going to keep sticking through it’ because I wanted to find out what life could be like outside of Roy and my house there.” In his early twenties, Davin began dating his now husband, Jezuz Gomez, and would sometimes stay with him in Salt Lake, where he attended his first Pride parade. “I was able to be a bit more myself when I moved to Salt Lake,” says Davín. 

The lyrics to “Just Me” were born the day Davín moved to SLC when he had another coming out encounter a month before his wedding. What was supposed to be a fun weekend at his parents house in Roy turned into a catastrophic exchange when Davín’s parents harshly confronted him about his engagement. “I cried all the way from Roy to Salt Lake,” he says. “I sat up in bed [the next] morning and I wrote that whole song in one hour just with all the stuff I felt. I wrote it on paper and didn’t have a melody yet. [Afterward], I went back to my house, packed up all my stuff and left. I didn’t talk to my parents for, like, two or three weeks.” 

“I had to learn how to stand on my own and be like, ‘I am who I am. It’s up to you to decide if you love me [as] the same person that you’ve known for 22 years.’”

Despite the initial lack of acceptance from his family, Davín slowly worked through it with his parents and found the strength to claim his unique space in the world. “I had to learn how to stand on my own and be like, ‘I am who I am. It’s up to you to decide if you love me [as] the same person that you’ve known for 22 years,’” he says. “‘That’s your decision, not mine.’” Now, Davín speaks sweetly about his parents’ relationship with his husband. “My mom loves my husband, gives him gifts, and every time I talk to my parents on the phone, now they’re like, ‘Tell Jezuz we love him so much and send him our best.’” 

Davín gives credit greatly to his husband Jezuz who he says “signed me up on Monday and was like, ‘Oh by the way, you’re performing on Friday in a competition.’” To Gomez’ pleasure, he stood off stage as Davín was announced the winner of Queer’s Got Talent, proud of the man he loves. 

“[He] signed me up on Monday and was like, ‘Oh by the way, you’re performing on Friday in a competition.’”

The roots of the song “Just Me” echoes equal love and delight toward his partner and himself. His mission as a musician is to be more than just a vocalist and to tell his story through song. “I’m so proud of [“Just Me”] because of the message,” he says. “When I released it, I had people that I don’t even know message me and said it saved their life,” he says. Taking inspiration by women like Selena that sang their hearts, Davín hopes to do a similar service for his audience. In the song, he sings, “I will not change my heart for who you want me to be.” Humbly, he prides himself in the strength to unequivocally be what he is: A cute prince that does his Pride like Mariah does her whistle.

Keep up with Davin on Instagram @davinflorezofficial.

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