YouTube sensation Eli Lieb is out and proud

Eli Lieb, whose cover of Miley Cyrus’ Wrecking Ball went viral last year on YouTube, likes to sing about love.

But the openly gay artist wants his songs to be relateable to both straight and gay audiences.

‘When you listen, it’s equal,’ he told me recently. ‘When you see my videos, it’s still equal and I try to make that the point – it’s just love as opposed to a gay relationship.’

While the songs can apply to straight or same-sex love, the videos leave no doubt that Lieb is into men.

‘I just write songs, I write pop songs. But when I make a video, you know (I’m gay) because if I’m writing a love song, I need to have another guy in the video – I’m not going to have a girl.’

Lieb, 35, has been performing for years and in 2009 he began recording covers of popular songs and posting them on YouTube.

He was still living in Fairfield, Iowa, and began to attract a following.

Lieb moved to Los Angeles in the summer of 2013 and has since collaborated with such out artists as Adam Lambert, Cheyenne Jackson and Crystal Bowersox.

A year ago, his Wrecking Ball cover put him on the map and it has since had more than 3.5 million views. His single Young Love is not far behind with 2.7 million views and last week he released the video for his latest single Lightning In A Bottle.

He’s happy to be making a name for himself as his authentic self.

‘I’ve been openly gay my whole career,’ he says, ‘and I don’t think there’s any other way to be.’