Troye Sivan didn't tell anyone about his alarm. But at 3 a.m. on Nov. 10, the pop star woke up to not just his alarm, but to dozens of notifications — he woke up a GRAMMY nominee.

"Normally with accolades, it doesn't actually make you feel any different. But this did," Sivan tells GRAMMY.com. "I was sort of floating for a few days and still kind of am… it's something that I've wanted in my entire life."

It's not every day that your love of partying earns you a GRAMMY nomination, but Sivan's passionate, party-starting single "Rush" scored him not one but two nods. At the 2024 GRAMMYs, the track is nominated in the new Best Pop Dance Recording Category, and its equally unapologetic music video is up for Best Music Video.

But despite its thumping beat and chanting chorus, "Rush" is more than an ode to late nights in Melbourne and acting on impulse; it's reverence for real connection. A euphoric representation of its parent album Something To Give Each Other, "Rush" is a catalyst as much as it is a release.

In its music video, striking choreography animates beautifully sweaty corners; "Rush" holds nothing back, spiritedly soundtracking everything from keg stands to glory holes. It ends with Sivan walking home on a bridge, with dawn as the backdrop of his widening, quiet smile to himself. As Berlin warmly unravels below Sivan, the video leaves viewers with the aftertaste of ecstasy — and reminds them of the gift of time and connection.

"Rush" marks a new era for Sivan, who has become dance-pop royalty since first building his fan base as a popular YouTube creator in the early 2010s. But while his latest music is a culmination of years of experimentation — from the darker indie pop of his 2015 debut album, Blue Neighborhood, to the crushing electropop of his 2020 EP In A Dream — the bliss of "Rush" unlocks a fearless part of Sivan's artistry that not only flaunts his creative genius, but his true self.

From his Melbourne home, Sivan sat down for a Zoom chat with GRAMMY.com about the thrill of his first-time GRAMMY nominations, the electricity that inspired "Rush," and how his art has unlocked a new sense of freedom.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Congrats on your nominations! How did you celebrate after hearing the news?

I didn't go back to sleep because I was too excited. I felt like I had taken this massive international flight and that the whole world was just sort of a big dream, and I just floated around Melbourne with my best friend, and we got our nails done, and I went for a walk, got food. It was a really, really surreal day for sure.

Let's talk about "Rush." Tell me about a moment when you were making that song and you knew you had something special.

I knew that there was a feeling that I had felt a lot over the last couple of years that I hadn't yet captured for the album. It was this feeling of electricity. It's this really kind of turbo feeling of being so hot and so sweaty — drenched in sweat on a dance floor — with hundreds of people that you don't know. 

When I close my eyes and really focus on the music, you can kind of feel the lights going by on your skin — that moment, it's so much more than just a party. It can actually be like a spiritual experience, and quite a meaningful one, especially coming out of these really intense COVID lockdowns. That feeling meant so much to me, and I just felt so connected to myself and to other people and to music and to sex and to dance music.

So I knew that I needed to capture that moment, and we tried so many times and never got that. Then finally, when "Rush" came, I sort of knew that that was it — when I listened to it, it felt like the feeling. It was one of the last songs that came together for the album, and then basically completed the album.

Who was the first person you showed "Rush" to?

I went away for the weekend with some friends… and I played it for my sister in the car. She was like, "Will you please, please, please play that song?" We had all been drinking and we were playing games and stuff like that, and they had a really good sound system, so I was like, "Okay, fine. Yes."

I played the song, which is really out of my character — I was definitely a few drinks in because I don't like listening to my own music. I remember I started playing it and everyone stood up and started dancing. We were already having a good time, so I didn't know what to make of that.

But by the end of the song, they were all kind of singing along with the chorus and it just created a feeling in the air in that room that I was like, Oh my God, I think maybe this is something really, really special. As soon as I got back to Melbourne, I went back like the next day and finished everything.

What was the first time you heard "Rush" in a club or at a party?

When it came out, we went out in West Hollywood and went for a walk down Santa Monica Boulevard where all the gay bars are. And I remember hearing it coming out of, like, four clubs as we were walking down the street. So that was also [when] I was like, I think this is working.

The first time I heard "Rush" at the club, I was in the Castro. Everyone was immediately up when it came on.

Really? I mean, really, it's written for the Castro, so I'm really glad to hear.

Your song captures a sense of liberation. When do you feel the most creatively free?

I think I feel the most creatively free when I am bored. I don't know if that's, like, the weirdest answer ever, sorry. [Laughs.]

But I just feel like I get reminded that I'm doing exactly what I'm supposed to be doing when I have more than, like, three days off. Immediately I'll start tinkering with a music video concept or graphic design project or working on music or editing a video or whatever. 

I think my baseline when I have some time on my hands is to be creating something, and it's the thing that I love most in the world. Simultaneously it feels like a holiday when I'm doing it, and that's crazy because it's my job, you know?

Creative freedom can also come from playing with genre. "Rush" is nominated for Best Pop Dance Recording, which is one of the three new award Categories this year. How do you feel that pop dance has evolved in the last few years?

Oh, my gosh, I mean pop dance is such an important Category to me, and especially with this album because that's really what I wanted exactly to make. I love pop dance and I have grown up on pop dance. 

Also, to be nominated alongside someone like Kylie Minogue — just thinking about a song like "Can't Get You Out Of My Head" or these songs that really shaped me as not just a songwriter but as like a human being — it's really important to me, and I also think, in general, to queer people. Because dance music has been so unbelievably important to queer people, and so has pop. So this combination of the two, it's really like it's for us.

Exactly. I think my connection with music helped me realize that I was queer, even.

Yeah, it's definitely a queer-coded Category.

Going back to "Rush," I wanted to talk about the nominated music video. What did the vision board for the video look like?

It started with me and Gordon von Steiner, the director of the video, working together and me explaining to him that "Rush" is this daytime hot sweaty party. We started with so many references of just, like, sweaty skin that was shot on 35 millimeter film, and it was like this sort of deep grimy green. But then also, this warm orange that was really important to me. The clothing was like this burgundy and yellow.

The more we spoke about it, it was super clear to us exactly what this video needed to look like, but more importantly, what the video needed to feel like. And Gordon loves Berlin and partying, and I love partying and I love Berlin… [but] this was sort of more serious than just like a party video. It needed to have that element of rawness and vulnerability that I think comes with those moments. It had to be real.

We went to Berlin and we shot it across two days. Honestly, once we got there, it was like just having a party and filming it… Once the camera was rolling, whatever was happening was happening, and it was such an incredible couple days. 

The cast all knew each other from being queer and cool in Berlin and from partying together. They welcomed me with open arms, and we ended up going out together for real afterwards. It was just a really beautiful couple of days. I feel like you can feel all of that in the video.

Absolutely. What was it like to learn the choreography for the video? And how do you think Timothée's "SNL" choreo stacked up against yours?

I think he slayed it. [Laughs.] It's not easy, so I think he did a good job.

But for me, choreo was something that I have been terrified of my entire life. It was a really big deal for me because growing up in the closet, I used to sort of like make these changes to myself or my desires or the way that I kind of carried myself throughout the world to kind of protect myself. And one thing that I never allowed myself was dancing.

For me to finally allow myself to express myself in that way, it felt just like a big moment for me personally — and really scary, but something that I wanted to do my entire life. So I had the best time.

It was one of the greatest gifts that this album has given me, to find a new sort of expression at 28 that I really, really, really enjoy has been a beautiful thing. It's something that I want to keep doing probably for the rest of my life. It feels incredible, and it kind of gave me the confidence to keep going and dance. Choreography ended up becoming such an important part of the visual identity of the whole album.

You mentioned earlier that the music video's warm orange was important to you. That made me think of the album cover. What was the process like for actualizing the cover?

The album cover is one of my favorite photos ever. I had been at a record store in L.A. and I found this really old record that I haven't been able to even find on Google or Spotify. I took a picture of it, of this guy smiling really big, and I thought that that was the coolest thing in the world. I don't know why. 

I think it was because, normally, vanity is such an important part of what influences these decisions that we make as pop artists — you know, Do I look hot or not? And I thought that there was something so badass about being like, No, that is the least of my priorities. I'm trying to convey a feeling here. I'm trying to convey something real and meaningful. I've been making this album that was all about this like unbridled joy and liberation.

So I knew that I wanted to smile on the album cover, and then I loved the idea of sitting between someone's legs. It just felt so intimate to me and kind of like this implied sexuality. But another thing that I love is that you don't see who it is [behind me], and you just see me and you realize that this moment is about connection with someone, but it's really about connection with yourself and allowing yourself to enjoy life and your body and your sexuality.

When it came time to shoot it — I'm really bad at smiling for photos, and I think you can always tell when a smile is real and when it's not. We spent the whole day shooting and I didn't smile once. Then for this one frame, the guy who was sitting behind me kneeled down, and he tickled my ribs, and I threw my head back and I laughed and it was one frame. And that was the album cover, and I love it so, so, so much.

It's also very different from the blurriness of In A Dream, or on Bloom, where you can't see your face. How does this latest cover represent the evolution of your music or yourself?

This album was really about communication with the world. I feel like I wanted to scream from the rooftops about the message of this album. I wanted it to be in every single layer of it, whether it's the album cover or one of the videos or one of the songs. I wanted to show people exactly how I was feeling.

In the past, I've felt comfortable being a bit more mysterious, or making people intrigued and then having them listen to the album and take what they want from there. Whereas this time, I just felt so loudly proud of myself and the experiences that I was having and everything that I really just wanted to be a little bit more bold with it.

You've had such a loyal fan base from a relatively early age. How does it feel to have a lot of your supporters grow up alongside you and still be connecting to your music now?

I really do feel like the luckiest guy when it comes to the people that listen to my music. I think a really important part of us connecting is that it feels like these are people that I would want to be friends with if I knew them in real life. They're really funny, they're really smart. Nothing gets past them if it's not genuine — like, they know when something is real, when it's not. It's like I'm speaking to a friend.

[Albums are] kind of like these time capsules for me in my life of different chapters of my life. But it's also kind of like an update to everyone being like, "Oh, hey guys, what's up? This is what's been going on for the last couple years." It's just a very special relationship and I'm so thankful for them.

That makes me very excited to tour, to go out and see some familiar faces… I started making YouTube videos when I was 12 and I still meet people on the street or whatever that will be like, "I remember when you made this video" and it's, like, from literally 14 years ago.

Not too long ago, I was reading this interview with boygenius where they said that queerness is inherently creative, and it also involves creating a different future for yourself. That really stuck with me. What are your thoughts on that, and what do you want your future to look like in terms of that?

I definitely think that my queerness and my creativity are inextricably linked. I think that me being closeted, not 100 percent feeling like the real world was somewhere where I felt completely comfortable or seen, made me retreat to my bedroom and to my creativity in a way that was sort of my education on how to do everything. It's where I learned what I liked creatively, and I don't think I would have felt that way if I was, like, the sort of cool sports star at my school or whatever. I would have been too busy doing other things.

I'm really grateful for that time of introspection, and sometimes kind of loneliness, and just all those big feelings — and that sensitivity that I think came from being a queer kid. I think that really informs who I am today and everything that I do. That's really beautiful, and something that we can be really proud of.

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