Billy Porter Covers 'For What It's Worth' in Support of Black Lives Matter in New Music Video | Playbill

Music Video Billy Porter Covers 'For What It's Worth' in Support of Black Lives Matter in New Music Video The Tony and Emmy winner updates the 1966 protest song to address the political realities of 2020.
Billy Porter

Billy Porter has released a new music video, covering the 1966 protest song "For What It's Worth (Stop, Hey What's That Sound)." The Tony-winning star of Kinky Boots and Pose Emmy winner combines his performance of the Buffalo Springfield song with viral footage surrounding the Black Lives Matter movement. Watch the music video here.

The new music video is the latest in Porter's public support for the Black Lives Matter movement, which has seen a resurgence in the wake of the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and others. Porter encourages viewers to visit BlackLivesMatter.com in the video's description, "for information on how you can make a Change For Good."

Written by Stephen Stills, "For What It's Worth" was intended to be a response to the Sunset Strip curfew riots of 1966, which saw young people fighting back against police after local business owners had a curfew enacted on the Strip in Hollywood. In the years since, the song's lyrics have helped it become a classic and oft-used protest and anti-war song, with covers by Cher, The Staple Singers, and Rush.

Porter's first Broadway role was a show-stopping Teen Angel in the 1994 revival of Grease, going on to appear in the original productions of Smokey Joe's Cafe and Miss Saigon. He won a Tony Award for creating the role of Lola in Kinky Boots. He later appeared in FX's American Horror Story before becoming Pray Tell on Pose, a performance that won him a Primetime Emmy Award in 2018.

 
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