Deborah Cox, back for NYC Pride, says connection with LGBTQ community started in city’s gay clubs in 1990s

NEW YORK — Multi-platinum recording artist, Broadway superstar and dance floor goddess Deborah Cox is back in New York City this weekend to celebrate Pride among her loyal and multi-generational LGBTQ fan base.

For nearly 30 years, the Canadian-born singer has been a source of joy to queer people around the world. With her unmistakable sound, unparalleled dramatics and some of the gayest lyrics in the biz — “Should I dress myself up in Chanel?” — Cox has been a constant presence in the lives of LGBTQ clubgoers ever since a remix of “Who Do You Love” hit the top of the dance charts in 1996.

Today, some of her decades-old hits continue to delight queer Gen Xers, millennials and Gen Zers alike — a staying power that still surprises the “Absolutely Not” singer, but which she sees as a sort of generational knowledge transfer.

“That’s baffling to me,” Cox told the Daily News. “But I think if you think back to when you first heard songs by artists — you know, for me, those songs have been played by the mothers, the grandmothers, the aunties.”

Over the course of her career, the 48-year-old mother of three went on to dominate Billboard’s R&B chart, spending a then-record-breaking 14 weeks at No. 1, as well as its Hot Dance Club Play charts, scoring a total of 13 No. 1 songs — many of which have become sing-along gay house classics.

And on Saturday, she’s taking the stage at the Manhattan superclub Terminal 5 to sing some of those hits.

The party, which will include music from Israeli superstar DJ Offer Nissim, marks the return of the Grammy-nominated artist to the NYC Pride stage after four years. Her last performance, during the closing ceremony of World Pride 2019, was a “really special moment.”

“It was literally in the middle of Times Square, where I had done my first Broadway show, ‘Aida,’ at the Palace [Theatre],” she said, adding that performance was her last live show before the COVID pandemic.

Cox, who began her career as a teen backup singer for Celine Dion, became the first Black woman to be inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in May 2022.

Her impressive acting resume includes a starring role in the BET+ thriller “Influence” in 2020, the HBO Max miniseries “Station Eleven” in 2021, and two acclaimed runs on Broadway — as Aida in the 2004 Elton John musical and in a 2013 revival of “Jekyll & Hyde.”

Last week, Cox announced she would play Glinda in the Broadway-bound revival of “The Wiz.”

But throughout her illustrious career, the “Nobody’s Supposed to Be Here” singer has always stood by her LGBTQ fan base, nurturing a relationship that started decades ago.

“When people find a connection with something, and that’s something that really resonates with them, that’s where the relationship starts,” she said.

And that started in Manhattan in the early ‘90s, she added, “when I was doing the [gay clubs] Palladium and Exit and Tunnel — all these underground clubs, where people sort of had their masks off, were able to just enjoy themselves and be themselves ... My music really became a huge part of the soundtrack of their lives.”