How Grammy winner Ciara is using her platform to close the gap between who needs PrEP and who is accessing it
At South by Southwest this past weekend, Grammy winning artist Ciara took the stage alongside renowned HIV advocate Dr. Leo Moore and radio personality Loren LoRosa for a candid conversation about how music and culture can expand awareness of HIV prevention and address critical gaps in the fight against the virus.
For Ciara, this marks her first venture into the HIV prevention space, and she approached it with genuine conviction. As she explained, being part of this conversation at SXSW is meaningful because she believes music, culture, and media can spark important discussions about health. If using her platform helps break down barriers and encourages people to talk with their healthcare providers about HIV prevention options, she feels that power matters immensely.
The timing of Ciara’s involvement is particularly significant. Earlier this year, her hit song One Two Step was reimagined as One Two PrEP as part of a national campaign to raise awareness about long acting HIV prevention options, specifically Yeztugo, the first ever approved twice yearly PrEP option, which stands for pre exposure prophylaxis.
The need for this kind of cultural advocacy has never been clearer. HIV diagnoses continue to occur every week across the United States, with the virus disproportionately affecting women, Black communities, and other underserved populations where PrEP use remains concerningly low due to widespread misperceptions about HIV and stigma surrounding prevention methods.
The statistics paint a sobering picture. In 2024, roughly 600 thousand people in the United States used some form of PrEP. Yet the Centers for Disease Control estimates that up to 2.2 million individuals could potentially benefit from preventive HIV medications, leaving a massive gap between who needs protection and who’s accessing it.
The disparities for women are especially stark. Only nine percent of PrEP users in 2024 were women, even though women accounted for nineteen percent of new HIV diagnoses in the United States. Black women account for half of all new HIV cases diagnosed among women, reflecting both the severity of the epidemic within that community and the urgent need for targeted prevention efforts.
Similar gaps exist across racial and ethnic lines. Only fourteen percent of PrEP users in 2024 were Black and eighteen percent were Latino, yet Black and Latino communities made up thirty eight percent and thirty four percent of new HIV cases in the prior year respectively. These numbers reveal a critical failure: the people most affected by HIV are simultaneously the least likely to access the tools that could protect them.
This is precisely why voices like Ciara’s matter so much. When a Grammy winning artist uses her platform to normalise conversations about HIV prevention, she helps chip away at the stigma and misconceptions that keep people from seeking help. Dr. Leo Moore, a leading internal medicine expert and HIV advocate named to the United States Presidential Advisory Council on HIV and AIDS in 2024, recognises this cultural power. Alongside Loren LoRosa, whose reach through The Breakfast Club and her own podcast The Latest with Loren LoRosa extends to millions of listeners, they’ve created a moment where prevention stops being a clinical discussion and becomes part of broader cultural conversation.
The panel discussion at SXSW represented something increasingly necessary: a space where public health, entertainment, and advocacy intersect. By bringing together artists, medical experts, and media personalities, the conversation acknowledges a fundamental truth: changing health outcomes requires more than statistics and clinical guidelines. It requires culture shapers willing to use their voices to spark dialogue.
As we move forward, events like this one signal an important shift. HIV prevention is no longer solely the domain of doctors and public health officials. It’s becoming a conversation that happens in music, on podcasts, and at cultural festivals. And with initiatives like One Two PrEP and the approval of twice yearly prevention options, the tools are there. What’s needed now is exactly what Ciara, Dr. Moore, and Loren LoRosa provided at SXSW: permission to talk about it openly, without shame.