Greyson Chance has finally come back to music more confident than ever.

Appearing on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show”, the 21-year-old, who achieved fame at 12 after a video of him singing Lady Gaga’s “Paparazzi” went viral, talks about his years away, his journey back to music, and the fan who inspired him to come out.

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After high school, Chance says he went away to college to focus on his education.

“In my sophomore year, I think, just because the pressure was lifted off,” Chance says, “no one was expecting anything, I was really for the first time in seven years able to sit in front of a piano again and really think, Okay, I have a voice, what do I want to say and how do I want to say it?”

DeGeneres also asks Chance about his decision to come out as gay publicly in an Instagram post when he was 19.

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The decision to write this came after I received a message from a brave individual. Such message inspired me to shed light on an aspect of my private life which I have kept distant from my career in music. I came to fully recognize that I was gay when I was sixteen. I decided not to publicize my sexuality largely due to a matter of privacy, as I was still trying to find comfort and confidence within my own skin. Further, I always found conversations regarding music, politics, art, books – and the greatness of Nas’ catalog – to be far more interesting than what type of guy I was into. This is still true today. While this message is most definitely overdue, I encourage anyone who is navigating their sexuality to devote as much time as they need to the process of finding self-confidence, self-acceptance, and self-love. Hell, for me, it took years to write this message. Nevertheless, I figured now was the time to let a few more friends know that I am happy, I am here for you, and I am proud of who I am. Cheers -G

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“There’s was a guy from Arkansas, and obviously being from Oklahoma I immediately resonated with him on that, and he told me his story and how he was going to have a much more difficult time than I ever did coming out to his family,” Chance recalls. “And at the end of the message he put, ‘You know, I know you’re not gay, but I just wanted to let you know your music really inspires me.'”

Chance continues, “I looked at myself after that and was like, Come on kid, find the courage to do it, find the confidence.”

He then wrote up his coming-out message and published it just before getting on a plane and “landed to chaos.”

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Also on the show, Chance performs his song “Shut Up” from his brand new album Portraits.