Brandi Carlile sings with Big Bird and Snuffleupagus on “Sesame Street” Photo: YouTube screenshot
Two of Sesame Street’s biggest stars, Big Bird and Snuffleupagus, recently performed a new song with six-time Grammy Award winner Brandi Carlile.
During the lesbian singer-songwriter’s recent appearance in the long-running children’s educational TV program, she spoke with Big Bird and Snuffleupagus about nature. Both characters loudly claim to love nature before admitting they’re not really sure what it actually is.
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“Well, nature is all around us,” Carlile explained. “It’s everything in the world that’s not made by people, so it’s the trees, grass, animals, vegetables, the wind, the sky — all that stuff.”
When Big Bird excitedly said that “Nature sounds amazing!” Carlile asked if they’d like to hear a song about it. She then strummed her acoustic guitar in a community garden.
She sang: “When I feel a gentle breeze / hear it whistling through the trees / when I greet the green, green grass beneath my feet / I see a butterfly in flight / floating in the warm sunlight / when I taste a summer berry / and it’s oh so very sweet / I feel so lucky that you and me / get to live in this beauty.”
In the song’s chorus, she crooned, “When I see nature all around me / and I feel as peaceful as can be, / clouds roll by and happiness surrounds me — / it’s in my nature to love nature, naturally.” In the televised segment, Big Bird and Snuffleupagus sang along against backdrops of forests, hillsides, beaches, and deserts.
Carlile shared news of her appearance on the show with her one million Instagram followers, posting an image of her nine-year-old daughter Evangeline sitting in the trashcan of the show’s grumpy, green monster Oscar the Grouch.
The 42-year-old musician and LGBTQ+ rights activist dropped out of high school and released her 2005 self-titled debut album at the age of 25. She has since released seven studio albums. She married her wife Catherine Shepherd on September 15, 2012. They have two daughters.
In 2008, Carlile established the Looking Out Foundation, along with Tim and Phil Hanseroth. The philanthropic organization provides promotional and financial support to community nonprofits, including the Human Rights Campaign. In October 2018, Carlile performed “Party of One” as a duet with nonbinary singer Sam Smith and donated profits of its sale to The Story Campaign, a group that records war refugees’ oral histories.
This isn’t the first time an LGBTQ+ entertainer has appeared on Sesame Street, which is currently in its 54th season. Past seasons have featured Black HIV-positive actor Billy Porter, gay comedian Billy Eichner, gay TV journalist Anderson Cooper, lesbian talk show host Ellen DeGeneres, gay film actor Ian McKellen, nonbinary pansexual Afrofuturist musician Janelle Monae, queer Black musician Tracy Chapman, bisexual comedian Margaret Cho, bisexual Irish actor Alan Cumming, lesbian rocker Melissa Etheridge, gay actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson, lesbian actress Jodie Foster, asexual fashion expert Tim Gunn, gay actor Neil Patrick Harris, gay pop legend Elton John, queer rapper and actress Queen Latifah, lesbian comedan Rosie O’Donnell, gay actor Zachary Quinto, gay R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe, Black lesbian comedienne Wanda Sykes, lesbian comic actress Lily Tomlin, and gay Asian actor BD Wong.
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