Lil Nas X's big hit, "MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name)," is loaded with meaning. For starters, his birth name is Montero Lamar Hill, something he explained during an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in January 2021. "It's slightly embarrassing, but I'm not embarrassed," the singer said. "My mom wanted the car, the [Mitsubishi] Montero, and she never got one." He added, "So yeah, I'm named after a car."
It's significant that Lil Nas X used his birth name, which seems to be a soft spot for him, in a song that emphasizes names. The lyrics read: "Call me by your name, I do not care if you lyin'," per Genius. Both the lyrics and music video have major links to the biblical story of the Garden of Eden, aptly renamed Montero. There's a snake of temptation that Lil Nas X's character seems unable to resist. The lyrics echo both the Garden of Eden and temptation: "I'm not phased, only here to sin/ If Eve ain't in your garden, you know that you can."
In a 2019 interview with Gayle King, the singer said that as a teenager, he prayed that being gay "would go away," per CBS. Well, his reclaiming of the Garden of Eden, where traditionally all living things were named, and calling it Montero, shows an embrace of who he is to the very core. One fan tweeted that MONTERO "is the most gorgeously subversive and proudly queer music video I think I've ever seen." Bravo.
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