Gaylist: A Playlist by Queer Artists

Hello friends! In complete honesty, I was planning on doing an entirely different post this week, but seeing as I injured my dominant arm earlier in the week, I had to change what I was planning on writing about, since I now type twice-as-slowly.

That being said - I decided to give you a queer-dominated playlist to enjoy, with some facts about each queer artist featured.

...A "Gaylist", if you will!

So please, enjoy the Spotify playlist below, accompanied by some queer-musician fun facts!

• Lady Gaga: It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that Lady Gaga fell onto this list. She has been a strong advocate of LGBTQIA+ rights since she hit the charts in 2008. Her song, “Born This Way” has become, some may say, an LGBTQIA+ anthem for this generation.
• Frank Ocean: Frank Ocean has widely become known as a queer icon, being one of, if not the first openly gay rapper in this generation of LGBTQIA+ individuals. His album “Blond”, was noted for adding to the lesser-heard black queer narrative.
• Tegan and Sara: Tegan and Sara are twin sisters, who both identify as gay. The two haven’t been widely known in mainstream culture, but are very popular in the indie scene, especially within the lesbian community.
• Kesha: Kesha has been in the public eye since her rise to fame in 2009, although not many fans are aware of her identity as a bisexual woman. This song is one the singles off her new album, “Rainbow”, which she has said to have drawn inspiration from the LGBTQIA+ community.
• RuPaul: RuPaul has been a notable figure in the queer community since the 1990’s, and is noted for bringing the art of drag further into the pop culture spotlight. The song featured on this playlist is one about embracing who you are.
• Sam Smith: Sam Smith identifies as a gay male who has become known for his soulful, diva-like voice. Sam Smith received 4 Grammy’s for his debut album and in his acceptance speech, he credited his ex-boyfriend for breaking his heart and inspiring the album.
• Angel Haze/Sia: Angel Haze is a pansexual, agender artist who is hoping to add to the black-queer narrative, as well. Angel Haze is known for writing music about social issues such as equality, sexual assault, and race relations. Sia is a queer artist who most notably has written songs about her struggles with mental health and substance abuse. This song was written by both about the oppression that they’ve faced.
• Demi Lovato: Demi Lovato is a queer artist who started her career as a childhood Disney actress, who has struggled with a history of self-harm, eating disorders, and depression. Recently, Demi has said that her sexuality is “irrelevant” to her career.
• David Bowie/Freddie Mercury: Throughout David Bowie’s career, he identified as multiple sexualities, first saying he was gay, then bisexual, then heterosexual. Later in his life he said in an interview that he changed his view so often because he wanted people to focus on his music, rather than his sexuality. Freddie Mercury on the other hand, openly identified as a gay man throughout his career. Both men were known for their flamboyant gender fluidity, and have been noted for being strong leaders (whether they knew it at the time or not) in changing public opinion of gender fluidity.
• Tracy Chapman: Although Tracy Chapman has never explicitly discussed her sexual orientation, she is known to have had same-sex relationships in the past. Chapman is also known for her interest in social activism, human rights, and poetic lyricism.
• Trixie Mattel: Trixie Mattel was made famous by being a contestant on the 7th season of RuPaul’s Drag Race. While Trixie has made her name as a drag queen and RuPaul-protege, she has also made a big name for herself in the past year after releasing a best-selling country album.
• Mary Lambert: In addition to being a singer and songwriter, Mary Lambert is also an outspoken LGBTQIA+ activist, lesbian, and a proud Christian. She has frequently expressed that the condemnation that Christians typically express towards the LGBTQIA+ community is unethical and unrelated to one another.
• Adore Delano: Adore Delano is another RuPaul-protege, stemming from the 6th season of RuPaul’s Drag Race. Since becoming a huge fan favorite on the show, Adore has announced that they identify as gender-queer, and has openly denounced gender as a social construct.
• Halsey/Lauren Jauregui: Halsey started as an indie artist that has quickly grown popular on the pop charts. Halsey identifies as bisexual and made news recently when she refused to record the song you’ll hear here with anyone other than a queer-identifying female artist. Lauren Jauregui also identifies as bisexual and is a member of pop girl-group Fifth Harmony.
• Le1f: Le1f is a professionally trained ballet dancer, and has made a name for himself in the music industry as an openly gay rapper. Le1f has also publicly criticised rapper Macklemore for his LGBTQIA+-inclusive song “Same Love”, stating that it’s inappropriate for a heterosexual to exploit queer issues for their own financial gain.
• The Runaways: The Runaways’ is an all-girl rock group from the 1970’s. Front-woman Joan Jett identifies as a lesbian, as well as multiple other members. Band member Lita Ford announced in 2016 that the reason she left the group was that she found out that her bandmates were homosexual.
• Who Is Fancy: Who Is Fancy, also known as Jake Hagood, identifies as a gay male. He gained notoriety as an opening act for pop star Meghan Trainor’s arena tour.