Diamond became a critical darling with the release of “American Pie,” a scorching, Stax-like blues number about finding her place in society as a trans woman, On “Keisha Complexion,” she has so much fun playing the coy vixen and nothing more. Dressed in a barely-there negligee, she becomes a steaming sexpot, turning one man’s curiosity into full-on lust. Soul singer Shea Diamond’s own revolution will be televised.
(Catch the full “emotion picture” Monáe? released in conjunction with the album to witness the two kissing.) After the release of the Prince-indebted jam “Make Me Feel,” “Pynk” etches a clearer portrait of Monáe? and Thompson’s largely-private love life. As the melancholy song soundtracks a funeral service for his spouse, Smith reminisces about happier, more blissful times, as the song’s epic third act blossoms into the wedding that was held at the same church.įrom the iconic pussy pants (which were on sale for a hot second) to, well, Tessa Thompson’s head poking out of the aforementioned pants, Janelle Monáe’s visual for the Dirty Computer highlight is a testament to the power of pink. Sam Smith’s elegiac ballad gets a beautifully somber music video to match. Shura ends up falling for her beautiful lab partner gal, and her brother makes moves on the jock - on a soccer field, no less. Queer bliss ensues, however, when the plan goes awry. For Shura, it’s the pretty-boy jock, and for her brother, the even-prettier female classmate. In the Set It Up-esque visual, Shura and her (real-life) brother conspire to win over their long-time crushes. Shura’s vision of high school on “What’s It Gonna Be?” is romanticized, somewhat implausible, and, as a result, way better than most queer people’s lived experience of their teenage years. To this day, Aguilera continues to advocate for LGBTQ people, sharing the stage during her most recent Liberation tour with drag icons like Lady Bunny and Carmen Carrera and donating the proceeds from her 2016 single “Change” to the families affected by the horrific shooting at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub that year. When the video for “Beautiful” debuted in 2002, Christina Aguilera broke new ground for trans and queer visibility by bringing to light the isolation that comes with living and loving as an LGBTQ person. It sounds like freedom it also sounds like the sky falling.50 Top LGBTQ Anthems: Critic's Picks (Updated 2018) "Thinkin Bout You" embodies every humid, gleaming, red-raw emotion that Ocean evokes in that letter.
These are the folks I wanna thank from the floor of my heart," he added. I'm sure these people kept me alive, kept me safe. "Before writing this I'd told some people my story.
And on the days we were together, time would glide." We spent that summer, and the summer after, together. "4 summers ago, I met somebody," he wrote. The lead single from "Channel Orange" was released shortly before Ocean posted that iconic thank-you note on Tumblr, which revealed the album's main source of inspiration: his first love, who was a man. "Thinkin Bout You" is a priceless queer artifact. "Thinkin Bout You" was released as a single on April 17, 2012.įrank Ocean's piercing falsetto on its own ("'Cause I've been thinkin' 'bout forevaaaa") is one of the most perfect, memorable moments in music history. "And that's where 'Girls Like Girls' came from." "They were like, 'All right, if you felt fearless and weren't scared, what would you say?'" Kiyoko told Billboard. "In a session with co-songwriters Owen Thomas and Lily May-Young, Kiyoko was asked a very simple question: What's something that scares you? In that moment, she came out of the closet to her co-workers, and found her voice," wrote Billboard's Stephen Daw, in an essay that dubbed "Girls Like Girls" a defining song of the 2010s. The song 'Girls Like Girls' was born."Īlthough Kiyoko is now known by fans as "Lesbian Jesus," she wrote her defining song before she had publicly come out as a lesbian. "Not that I ever expected any of them to like me back, but I just felt comforted being around them, even if I could never date them. I got involved in student council because of girls," Hayley Kiyoko wrote in an essay for Paper.
"Growing up, everything I did was always about girls. "Girls Like Girls" is a synth-pop paradise of prolonged eye contact, stolen kisses, and simmering intimacy.
"Girls Like Girls" was released as a single on June 24, 2015.