A lot of subjects blend into the same thing: intolerance. When you're a little kid, you don't know that it's going to get better. Your life experience hasn't told you that. I want to protect those people. I want to send out a message and at least try to get that across.

Sometimes being an artist means knowing when to let someone see something in you that is there that you can't hear or see.

I struggled more with my identity. Let's be honest - early on in my first records, I didn't have the power to tell David Foster or other producers what to do.

I was so lucky. I had a dad and a mom that loved me and my sisters so much. My Uncle Mike and Uncle Frank were married. They must be together for fortysomething years now. Long story short, there was never any stigma attached to that. At the youngest age, I remember my dad saying, "Sometimes men love men and women love women. It's nature.

I brought in producer Johan Carlsson [Ariana Grande, One Direction, Flo Rida] and asked, "Can you make this better?" And he did.

It's a beautiful day, and I can't stop myself from smiling!

I am a candid interview and I have a dark and dry sense of humor - a very Canadian sense of humor.