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Here's Frank Ocean's Gorgeous First TV Performance

Rich Juzwiak · 07/10/12 01:15AM

Frank Ocean performed his song "Bad Religion" on tonight's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and absolutely destroyed it. Accompanied by a string section, he sang the tale of unrequited love with a man ("I could never make him love me"), which seems to be modeled after the same relationship that he wrote about in his CD's liner notes. When that narrative was posted on Tumblr last week, it amounted to Frank's coming out. This is a stellar performance, particularly when he flips none too gracefully into his falsetto. It's not as fully formed as, say, Usher's, but there's also no vanity there, either — it's pure expression. This song is deeply felt and this performance only makes it deeper.