7 Queer Artists Perfect for Your End of Summer Soundtrack
| 09/08/21
7 Artists Perfect for Your End of Summer Soundtrack
These rising queer musicians are providing the soundtrack for your next big celebration.
Ashnikko
"I'm crazy but you like that," a lyric from Ashnikko's hit song "Daisy," has become a mantra of sorts for the pop songstress's fans. Brash and unapologetic, Ashnikko has a fearless, take-no-prisoners attitude that makes her music bristle with the sinister. The out queer 25-year-old North Carolina native dons a giant blue wig and a larger-than-life persona akin to a drag queen to deliver tongue-in-cheek messages of feminism and sexual liberation on her debut album, Demidevil. You have to possess a certain amount of bravado to sing lyrics like "Make your man call me daddy" with conviction. In "Slumber Party," Ashnikko fantasizes about stealing your girlfriend for some "cunnilingus on my couch," and we have no doubt she could do it. Put this album on if you want to feel like a bad bitch.
Tiana Major9
Black queer women are having a moment in pop culture. Musicians like Victoria Monet, Kehlani, and Janelle Monae are expanding what it looks like to be Black, visible, and free to explore their sexuality on their own terms. Soul singer-songwriter Tiana Major9 is a part of that wave. The 25-year-old first garnered international attention with "Collide," her collaboration with EarthGang for the Queen & Slim soundtrack that went on to be nominated for a Grammy before her first album was even out. Major9 stepped into her stride with "Same Space?," an ethereal ballad anxiously anticipating the end of a relationship, accompanied by an aesthetically stunning music video. Her music might not be explicitly queer, but Major9 says it's "important to be myself in every way I present myself."
Duncan Laurence
He might be a "small town boy," but Duncan Laurence isn't playing a losing game. The bisexual singer-songwriter was thrust into the international spotlight when he won the Eurovision Song Contest in 2019 for the Netherlands. His mid-tempo kiss-off to a toxic ex, aptly titled "Arcade," has become the most-streamed song in the competition's 65-year history with a boost from TikTok virality. Laurence's debut album followed a year later in the throes of a pandemic. Energized by his tender vocals, Small Town Boy is a gentle reflection on love and loss, moving on and growth, ebbing and flowing between heartbreak and euphoria like the bends of a river.
serpentwithfeet
After a year of isolation, appreciation for our relationships, both platonic and romantic, has kept many of us not only sane but alive. Through a tender fusion of '90s and 2000s R&B, gospel, and folk music, singer-songwriter serpentwithfeet's new album, Deacon, offers a healing meditation on gratitude, queer love, and Black boy joy. In "Fellowship," the 32-year-old leads us in a sunny meditation: "My friends, my friends, my friends," he sings warmly. "I'm thankful for the love I share with my friends." In "Same Size Shoe," he's grateful for a lover with whom he can share not only shoes but a history, a future, and their life experience. Recount the love and savor the sweet with serpentwithfeet.
Madeline the Person
It's easy to scroll endlessly through TikTok, but now and then, a voice demands that you pause and pay attention. Madeline the Person is one of those voices bursting with raw emotion. The 19-year-old is translating that same energy from her viral Goo Goo Dolls covers into her original music. "I make songs that are stories!" she says. "My music is where I talk about a lot of things that I can't describe otherwise. I think it's really important for me, personally, to name my thoughts so that they're less scary." For instance, she wrote "As a Child," her latest song, "on a family vacation a few years after my dad passed away. It occurred to me on that trip that I had been carrying that emptiness for so long and that I hadn't really stopped to put it down in a while. The song just fell out of me because I so badly needed to explain how heavy I felt." Listening to the story pour out of her is nothing less than magical.
Andrea Di Giovanni
Andrea Di Giovanni's music is a love letter to the LGBTQ+ community. Their eclectic debut album, Rebel, opens with the gospel-tinged pop power ballad "Stand Up," their silky baritone encouraging people to be themselves unapologetically, no matter what person or religion is telling them not to. "My music is full of my passion," Di Giovanni says. "I like to think about it as powerful and empowering." With explorations "of relationships with myself, with a lover, and the world at large," their music is inspired by the likes of Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, and Queen, "the sounds of my childhood," Di Giovanni says, mixed with more recent pop stylings of Robyn, Kara Marni, and Mahalia. If you're in Copenhagen this August, you can catch Giovanni performing at the World Pride opening ceremony.
girl in red
Want to know if that cute barista at the coffee shop is gay? Ask her a simple question. "Do you listen to girl in red?" If the answer's yes, make your move. Singer-songwriter girl in red has come to define a generation of depressed sapphics who headbang to her angsty, mid-tempo, alternative music. Her new album, if i could make it go quiet, features 11 songs about intrusive thoughts, girls, queer longing, girls, toxic relationships, sex, and oh yeah, girls. Buckle up, lesbians, this album is an emotional roller coaster.
