Gigi Perez, Jasmine.4.t and Shygirl
Coco Mendez; Matt Grubb; Hendrik Schneider
There are few years in recent memory where queer artists performed as well as they did in 2024. Throughout the calendar year, reigning queer artists continued their trajectory toward the summit of the charts, while up-and-coming acts saw huge breakthroughs that shook up the field.
Billie Eilish released yet another massive album with Hit Me Hard and Soft and watched “Birds of a Feather” become one of the biggest crossover successes of her already impressive career. Chappell Roan went from being a beloved DIY pop femininomenon to one of the most famous artists in the world in a matter of months. Doechii cashed in on years of good buzz to deliver an all-time great rap project with Alligator Bites Never Heal. At Sunday’s Grammys (Feb. 2), queer artists are nominated across multiple genres as well as being represented each of the Big Four categories. By almost every metric, 2024 saw LGBTQ+ artists gain more ground than almost any year prior.
With such a big year in the rearview, can 2025 possibly stack up? According to Mercury Record’s Tyler Arnold, the sky is the limit when it comes to artistic breakthroughs. “More artists will break than we have been seeing in recent years,” he recently told Billboard . “We saw it with Noah Kahan and this year’s best new artist nominees. Artist development is now a longer process, but if you’re patient, persistent and invest in the right talent, you can have these incredible moments 5-10 years into artists’ careers.”
Below, Billboard takes a look at 10 LGBTQ+ acts that could have big years in 2025, from cult-beloved stars to bubbling under artists. See who made our list below:
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Gigi Perez
Image Credit: Courtesy Photo Among a stacked field of louder, more explosive breakthroughs in 2024, singer-songwriter Gigi Perez managed to secure a viral hit that still flew under the radar for much of the year. Denizens of queer TikTok sent “Sailor Song” into the top 40 of the Hot 100, where it has remained throughout the start of 2025. Meanwhile, as the rest of the alternative star’s catalog picked up steam, Perez signed to Island Records, home of fellow 2024 breakout stars Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter. With a yet-to-be-announced album on its way and plenty of goodwill in the bank, Perez is on the precipice of having an even bigger breakthrough in 2025.
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Zora
If you’re not yet familiar with Zora, allow us to introduce you. A rapper, singer, lyricist and producer from Minneapolis, Zora is bringing Black trans stories to her music with reckless abandon. Perhaps there is no better example of that than her recently released sophomore album Belladonna — over the course of 16 songs, the multi-hyphenate embraces chaotic production and cutting lyrics to tell the story of a woman out for revenge for all the harms she’s endured. It’s equal parts scary and stunning, making for one of the most unique projects we’re likely to hear in 2025. Take this as your sign to get into Zora’s music ASAP, because her inventive style and specific point-of-view are two things we need badly this year.
Listen here.
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Baths
Will Wiesenfeld has been working in the industry — as Baths, Geotic, or even under his own name — for well over a decade. Yet with Baths’ first new album in eight years Gut, it feels like the time has come for this experimental artist to get his due in mainstream circles. The two songs he’s already shared off the project, “Sea of Men” and “Eden,” already sound completely different from the atmospheric dance aesthetics of his past works. Instead, Wiesenfeld’s new music captures electronic, rock, folk and pop in a bottle and distills them through his evocative songwriting, dropping lines like “Carnal is a normal mode, f–king all the men in droves/ Son of god is never home when I come knocking on that door.” With Gut set to drop this February, there’s never been a better time to become a Baths fan.
Listen here.
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Torres
Image Credit: Courtesy Photo Indie rock singer-songwriter Torres is leaning into the idea of community in 2025. On the heels of her excellent 2024 project What an Enormous Room, the Florida-born artist decided to team up with queer rock hero Julien Baker for a new project of duets. The first glimpses at the pair’s album show two individuals finding something completely different from their own respective careers, with the classic country bombast of “Sugar in the Tank” perfectly balancing the spare, quiet ruminations of “Sylvia.” But with Baker’s renewed profile as a queer icon (thanks in no small part to her world-dominating success with Boygenius in 2023), Torres is set to reap some long-deserved benefits with Send a Prayer My Way.
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Jasmine.4.t
It’s rare that you get to watch a young artist make a generational statement on their debut album. It’s even rarer when that artist is a trans woman breaking into the music scene. Yet Jasmine.4.t has done just that with You Are the Morning, her absolutely stellar new project out via Saddest Factory Records. Telling the story of her own experiences transitioning, Jasmine Cruickshank explores a vast array of genres and styles, all while encapsulating her specific experience in radically honest lyrics. It’s no wonder that she got all three members of Boygenius to produce her album; Jasmine.4.t could very well become the next queer femme star speaking directly to her community on massive stages around the globe.
Listen here.
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Charlie Houston
If the world is going to get as absurd as it seems, Charlie Houston is here to provide a soundtrack to match. While the Canadian singer-songwriter has been putting out music since 2021, she’s about to release her long-awaited debut album Big After I Die on Friday (Jan. 31). Houston’s sardonic approach to songwriting makes each of her latest releases a joy to listen to; even when she’s singing about revisiting her most embarrassing memories on “Lewps,” she still manages to make it funny and meaningful. Of course, a sharp sense of humor is only one half of the equation here, as Houston’s delivery of immediately memorable hooks (like on the hilarious “Slut for Excel”) add even more sparkle to her already shimmering body of work. Add all those components together, and we’re betting on seeing a lot more of Houston as 2025 goes on.
Listen here.
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Shygirl
Image Credit: Courtesy Photo Ever since Charli XCX stopped the world with her culture-reshaping work on Brat, everyone has been looking for the next evolution of that sound. Enter Shygirl. Growing her following over the last few years, the London-based DJ and rapper has already garnered the attention of tastemakers like XCX, the late great Sophie and even Rihanna. But in 2024, it finally felt like rest of the world was starting to catch up. With a prominent appearance on Charli’s Brat remix album as well as her own collaborative EP, featuring dance stars like Boys Noize and SG Lewis, Shygirl was, well, not so shy about her ambitions. Now, with her latest EP Club Shy Room 2 due out at the end of February, it seems like nothing can stop the Shygirl train in 2025.
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Jordan Suaste
If we learned anything from 2024, it is that release schedules no longer dictate the likelihood of global success. Jordan Suaste may have debuted his last album in September, but we’re not ready to say goodbye just yet. Maybe I Already Am was an excellent debut LP, and the indie pop singer left plenty on the table for potential gains in 2025. Maybe his stunning queer anthem “Love Who You Want To” becomes a pertinent anthem in a time of chaos and goes viral. Maybe his sensual banger “The Devil” gets a prominent sync for a movie or TV show. Maybe people will just come around to his heartbreaking coming-of-age story told on “Charlie” and stream the hell out of it. Anything could happen, and we hope Suaste’s top-tier talent gets some more love this year.
Listen here.
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Sasami
There’s a reason why Sasami made Billboard’s list of 2024 songs that absolutely deserved to be smashes — “Honeycrash” was a maximalist banger that deserved better. But with the impending release of her new album Blood on the Silver Screen in March, Sasami is well-equipped for a massive breakthrough this year. Take, for instance, her latest single “In Love With a Memory” — not only did Sasami get the internet’s favorite underrated singer-songwriter Clairo to join her, but she delivered on a new side of her signature sound, as glitching synths provided a backdrop for her laid-back voice. Sasami has been close to hitting it big since her debut album back in 2019; let’s make 2025 the year that finally puts her right at the forefront.
Listen here.
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Miya Folick
Image Credit: Courtesy Photo Indie rock darling Miya Folick has been around for years, but her latest work seems poised to gain some major traction in 2025. Her third studio album Erotica Veronica is due out on February 28, and this time, the singer-songwriter is taking some bold creative risks. The entirety of her new project is self-produced, with Folick switching up her sound to add a more refined, folk-adjacent layer to her kaleidoscopic sound. The early singles off the project — especially the quietly angry “Fist,” which debuted on Wednesday (Jan. 30) — point to a bright year ahead for Folick. Here’s hoping that 2025 sees this perennially underrated artist get the shine she deserves.