Paul Middleton releases new cover to promote mental health

International pop artist Paul Middleton has dropped a new cover of the Rhianna feat. Calvin Harris single We Found Love to celebrate self love and bring awareness to mental health in the LGBTQ Community.

Having already scored two number one singles on Britain’s LGBTQ Music Chart, Middleton released the video for the “chilled remix” of Rhianna and Calvin Harris’ smash hit single last Wednesday, in the hopes of sharing his personal struggles with mental health.

Middleton said his attraction to the song stemmed from feelings of not belonging in the LGBTQ community due to the body image expectations imposed by social media, and noted that the lyrics reflected his journey towards self-love and acceptance.

“We found love in a hopeless place … I felt I was a complete ‘hopeless place’. I had really bad days,” he revealed.

“Some days, I would be on social media, and it just made me question who I was. If I didn’t look a certain way, then I didn’t belong in the LGBTQ community, or I had to be sexually ‘loud’ with pictures, which is not me.”

Middleton first shot to fame in 2014 after the release of his first album Covers, which featured a selection of covers from the ’80s to the present, which he dedicated to his mother.

Since the album’s global success, Middleton has toured the world including the USA, Germany, Ireland, Spain, Belgium and Jordan.

Now he’s back with a message that aims to remove the stigma surrounding mental illness.

Middleton said the lyrics of We Found Love were a reminder that self-acceptance and loving oneself is “super important”.

He added that music had helped him on his journey through mental illness to self-acceptance, after ending a toxic relationship and losing his mother to cancer.

The video for the cover of We Found Love, filmed in Sardinia, Italy depicts Middleton and his partner exploring the island and aims to celebrate the new love they share together.

“It is a continuous journey of healing but through the strength and love of my friends and doing healthy things that gave me positive energy, I found I was able to let love fill my life and soul,” he said.

“I felt so lucky to be able to explore such a beautiful island with an amazing man. We literally filmed wherever we went, so the video is totally chilled, we hired this small boat and almost died because of these waves in the ocean.”

We Found Love is out now on iTunes, Spotify, Apple and taken from Remixes, an EP due for release in February 2020.