Eric Sedeño Lives For A Diva Getting Her Sexy On

If you’re not already following him, you’ll certainly recognize Eric Sedeño from TikTok and Instagram (@ricotaquito), where he regularly goes viral for his series about being a “Type B friend” or his wigged-out comedy videos. He’s also busier than ever with his podcast, The Wild Wild Web, which launched in August of last year and has featured guests like Bob The Drag Queen, Boman Martinez-Reid, Bretman Rock, and Manny MUA. Like many content creators, Sedeño’s career took off during the TikTok boom of the pandemic, but if you ask the 29-year-old, his life followed another transformative trajectory: time before Shakira, and time after Shakira. Below, for Bustle’s Gay Gay Music Video Night, Sedeño pays tribute to the divas who served so hard, they hastened his gay awakening.

One of the most memorable Gay Guy Music Video Nights I’ve had was when my friends and I almost missed a party because we were watching music videos for so long. We were at my friend’s house just pregaming by accident for almost the whole night. Everyone got so into it. Sometimes Gay Guy Music Video Night is just with your friends, but this time it was a huge, random group of gay guys fighting over who got to put their video on next.

I don’t remember what music video they chose, but my friend who was hosting is a Lamb and put on a Mariah Carey ballad. That’s when we all were like, “OK, we gotta go!” Listen, I love Mariah — but it wasn’t the moment. Gay Guy Music Video Night is about catching the vibe and keeping the same energy. But I do think a slower song is OK: My first submission for Gay Guy Music Video night would be Ariana Grande’s VEVO performance of the positions album. It’s just beautiful. The rays shining all around her in the beginning, the grassy stage, the cinematography — oh my God, I go back to that all the time! It’s a little long, so at Gay Guy Music Video Night, I might only do one song — “pov” is the one I go to most often, though I also love “my hair.”

I’ll watch it alone, too. When this performance came out, I was really in an Ariana Grande era. She’s such a powerhouse singer. I’d be cleaning my house like, “You know what, I actually need to put this video on,” and then the vacuum would stop moving — I’d just be standing there watching it.

My next submission would be Chloe x Halle’s performance of “Ungodly Hour” at the 2020 MTV VMAs. I think I might have actually discovered this one at a Gay Guy Music Video Night. I’d only seen the actual music video before someone put that on and turned me onto it. Their matching outfits, the lasers — it’s all just really, really good. Chloe x Halle, you guys don’t really do that anymore, but we need more of you performing like that! It’s not fair!

And for my third submission, I have to choose something from Beyoncé. I really loved her self-titled era, when she dropped all those videos, but I’m going to go with “Check On It.” She’s in all pink, she’s shaking ass, and the video has this awful, awful border around it — I don’t know why they did that in the 2000s, but it’s crazy. So either that or “Beautiful Liar” with Shakira. Do I feel more like Shakira or Beyoncé? I would never pit two beautiful women against each other; I feel like both of them at the same time. I feel the Texas of Beyoncé in me, because I’m from Texas, and the Latina in Shakira — that’s how I was born.

I definitely remember watching “Beautiful Liar” on the family computer. I was young and not gay yet, but it was brewing. I was like, “Oh my God, this is crazy.” Between that and “She Wolf” — those two music videos changed me. Music videos attract gay guys so hard. There’s something about a talented, beautiful woman pouring her heart out into this visual medium that just gets gay guys going. With “Beautiful Liar,” they’re so sexy in it, it almost feels like it’s for straight men in a way, but then gay guys are so into it! All they want is see these girls serve, so it’s kind of hilarious that they’ve taken over as the main audience for that.

You know who else I’ve been putting on a lot recently? Addison Rae. Her music videos are really good. She filmed “Headphones On” in Reykjavík, Iceland. I love the color story and the actual story: She’s working at the grocery store, puts on her headphones, and is teleported. I’m like, “Wait, I see that, I get what you’re doing!” She really knows the power of Gay Guy Music Video Night.

Sometimes, Gay Guy Music Video Night is my favorite part of the night. When you get to the bar, you can’t really hear anyone, and you do this cycle of dancing, going outside to get some air, getting another drink, then dancing and starting the whole cycle over again. Before you start that nonsense, Gay Guy Music Video Night is just so fun: You’re comfortable, you’re hanging out with your friends, you’re sharing your favorite things. It’s such a gay guy-specific activity, and I love that. I haven’t planned a Gay Guy Music Video Night for Pride Month yet, but I know it’s coming.