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As we head into Super Bowl LVIII, why not amp up your party playlists with some new tunes from some of your favorite queer artists? Billboard Pride is proud to present the latest edition of Queer Jams of the Week, our roundup of some of the best new music releases from LGBTQ artists.
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From Girl in Red’s infectious new anthem to Shygirls’ exhilarating new dance EP, check out just a few of our favorite releases from this week below:
Girl in Red, “Too Much”
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For everyone who has ever tried to dim her shine, Girl in Red would like to raise a defiant middle finger. “Too Much,” the singer-songwriter’s debut track off her forthcoming new album I’m Doing It Again Baby!, is a stunning pop-rock kiss-off to a lover who just cannot understand her idiosyncrasies. Girl in Red delights in her own dramatics, letting her partner know how much she hates being told that she’s overdramatic in the most theatrical and thrilling way possible.
Shygirl, Club Shy
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Don’t let her name fool you — Shygirl is ready for a night out with her latest project. Club Shy sees the English upstart diving headfirst into the world of electronic music, delivering a phenomenal tribute to East London’s club scene. Whether she’s waving off a former flame (“Mr. Useless” feat. SG Lewis) or on the prowl for someone new (“4eva” featuring Empress Of), Shygirl basks in the glory of her new sound for every second of Club Shy, inviting you to come and dance along.
Zolita, “Bloodstream”
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Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Zolita is here to give you a song that can help express just how much you want to be with your partner. Brandishing her unique brand of alt-pop artistry, Zolita spends much of “Bloodstream” penning her very own declaration of love. Declaring that wants to be as physically close to her partner as possible, the star’s hazy vocal and rollicking production sound like they could soundtrack the climactic moment of any late-2000s rom-com. And that’s just part of what makes “Bloodstream” so irresistibly good.
Brittany Howard, “Power to Undo”
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With a toxic former lover knocking down her door, Brittany Howard is ready to stand firm and take her power back. Her rollicking new single “Power to Undo” — off her new album What Now — follows the former Alabama Shakes frontperson as she refuses to let herself fall back into the arms of an ex, reminding them that “you have the power because I gave it to you” time and time again. Add in the chaotic production, from chest-pounding drums to haywire guitar riffs, and you’ve got a song that will put you right in the moment with her.
MICHELLE, Glow
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NYC-based alternative group MICHELLE isn’t interested in a bright burst of light; they’d rather just Glow. Their awaited 5-song EP fulfills on the promise of its title, highlighting the smaller — but still emotionally important — moments that make up day-to-day life. It could be a recognition that they’re stuck in a series of patterns (“Glow”), or just another phone call with a lover (“On the Line”) — MICHELLE makes use of the little things that can still have massive effects, and they’ve never sounded better.
Check out all of our picks on Billboard’s Queer Jams of the Week playlist below:
It’s New Music Friday, Super Bowl weekend edition, and fans are getting a slew of new songs to enjoy as game day approaches, including a whole new album from the 2024 Super Bowl Halftime Show headliner Usher. The R&B star shared his ninth studio record Coming Home Friday (Feb. 9), just two days before he’s […]
It’s Grammy Week, and artists are keeping fans fed with brand new music to enjoy while gearing up for the festivities. Billy Joel made his grand return after nearly 20 years with the brand new single “Turn the Lights Back On,” and he’ll perform the song live for the first time at Sunday’s (Feb. 4) […]
The Piano Man is back, and to celebrate his first new single in nearly two decades, “Turn the Lights Back On,” Billy Joel and his co-writer Freddy Wexler discussed the writing process with Audacy Check In this week. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Joel opened up […]
Another week means another set of new tunes from your favorite queer artists. Billboard Pride is proud to present the latest edition of Queer Jams of the Week, our roundup of some of the best new music releases from LGBTQ artists.
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
From Fletcher’s delicate new pop single to Lil Nas X’s introspective new song, check out just a few of our favorite releases from this week below:
Fletcher, “Lead Me On”
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Throughout her short-but-lively career, pop singer-songwriter Fletcher has proven to be particularly adept at creating emotive pop ballads about the messiest parts of love. But with “Lead Me On,” the singer’s latest single off her forthcoming album In Search of the Antidote, Fletcher takes on new meaning. While the thrilling guitar-and-drum-led melody echoes back to songs of Fletcher’s past, the lyrics play double duty — the words let the singer fall down the rabbit hole of a new romantic interest, or they help her follow a path toward becoming a better version of herself. However you interpret the star’s new song, one thing’s for certain: it’s a bonafide banger.
Lil Nas X, “Where Do We Go Now?”
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Lil Nas X’s detractors love to claim that his songs lack substance — so the superstar decided to show them exactly what he’s capable of on “Where Do We Go Now?” The emotive soft-rock ballad, which appears in his new documentary Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero, sees Lil Nas X searching for meaning in the space he occupies — he’s already become a pop icon at age 24, so what is meant to do next? The song doesn’t provide easy answers to the star’s complex question, but it does show just how versatile Lil Nas X can be as a forward-thinking artist.
Brittany Howard, “Prove It To You”
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Brittany Howard wants you to dance — she just also wants you to think while you’re busy tearing up the dancefloor. “Prove It To You,” the latest single off the performer’s forthcoming album, breaks out from Howard’s past discograhpy, embracing pure dance aesthetics to create a deliriously fun sound. As bass bumps and synths flitter in and out of your ears, Howard’s voice reminds you that she’s also a phenomenally good songwriter: “I’ve never been good at saying what I mean/ Every time I try, it comes out incomplete,” she shares in the song’s opening lines. “Believe me, baby/ I will show you how I feel for you right now.”
Jade LeMac, “Narcissistic”
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We often get to hear songs of people figuring out their lover is toxic — but Jade LeMac is embracing her own toxicity on the thrilling “Narcissistic.” Throughout the pounding pop track, LeMac paints a picture of an imbalanced relationship where she is more than happy to play the part of the villain. With a set of moody synths permeating every inch of the song, LeMac directs the listener’s attention with a gentle touch and deliciously stern lyrics, perfectly laying out why she’s an artist to keep your eye on.
Cakes Da Killa feat. Stout, “Mind Reader”
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Leave it to an artist as multifaceted as Cakes Da Killa to give you a song that revels in its own volatility. “Mind Reader,” Cakes’ new track off his forthcoming album Black Sheep, follows the celebrated MC as he flexes his supernatural flow and reminds his listeners that he’ll “never code switch, I shape-shift, it’s drastic.” Much like his words, the song’s club production never confines itself to one space — moving between four-on-the-floor, house and even jazz as featured guest Stout croons over an ecstatic chorus, “Mind Reader” serves as yet another reminder that Cakes Da Killa is one of the best to ever do it.
Cavetown, “Let Them Know They’re on Your Mind”
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DIY artist Cavetown could have easily returned with a gorgeously-written, minimally-produced ballad, and fans would have loved it — instead, the indie star decided to give fans something unexpected. “Let Them Know They’re on Your Mind” is a chaotic little thing; a song that shifts effortlessly between Cavetown’s quieter indie sensibilities, and balls-to-the-wall pop-rock production that makes it a thrilling listen everytime you press play.
Isaac Dunbar, “Apartment A”
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There is a unique chaos that comes with attending a crowded house party in New York City — a chaos that Isaac Dunbar brilliantly bottles on “Apartment A.” The pop singer’s latest track basks in its own revelry, inviting the listener in the door for a bacchanalian celebration. Fuzzy production and relentless drums keep the song in a constant state of hyper speed, as Dunbar wails that he’s looking for “love, no ricochet.”
Check out all of our picks on Billboard’s Queer Jams of the Week playlist below:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6JaXyDN8L1aEuVZElWwAE4?si=ab85b8991a714491
As January comes to an end, music’s biggest stars are gearing up for an exciting 2024 with a slew of brand new singles and albums. Justin Timberlake gave fans a taste of things to come with the release of “Selfish,” the first cut from EITIW. He’ll be back on our screens when he serves as musical guest on Saturday Night […]
With the weather getting colder, warm up your ears with a few new tracks from your favorite queer artists. Billboard Pride is proud to present the latest edition of Queer Jams of the Week, our roundup of some of the best new music releases from LGBTQ artists.
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
From Aurora’s stunning new single to Green Day’s bisexual anthem, check out just a few of our favorite releases from this week below.
Aurora, “The Conflict of the Mind”
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Norwegian pop star Aurora is firmly in her empath era. With “The Conflict of the Mind,” the singer pushes every emotion she’s felt to the forefront, and embraces the feelings of those she loves dearly in a gorgeous, sharply-crafted melody. The production of her latest track retains all the dainty aspects of her past projects, while simultaneously pushing her sound forward into new sonic territory. Her voice, meanwhile, remains her strongest instrument, evoking pain and pleasure and love and heartbreak and every other emotion she’s left unspoken for this long.
Green Day, “Bobby Sox”
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Leave it to Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong to pen a grungy pop-punk song that doubles as a much-needed bisexual anthem. “Bobby Sox” plays as a punchy-yet-sweet love song, with the romantic lyrics asking if the song’s subject wants to be his girlfriend while sitting around and watching TV, while the chorus’ chunky guitars and pounding drums throw long-time fans back to the band’s Dookie days. But from the second verse on, Armstrong switches up the game, intermittently switching out “girlfriend” for “boyfriend,” giving everyone a new celebratory single to jam along to.
Adrianne Lenker, “Sadness as a Gift”
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Big Thief frontwoman Adrianne Lenker has always thrived at transforming complex emotions into revelatory pieces of songwriting. That trend shows no sign of ending on “Sadness as a Gift,” the singer-songwriter’s latest solo single. The spare indie-folk song pairs Lenker’s inimitable vocal with a simple guitar-and-violin combo, as she embraces the ending of a relationship. She wants it to be simpler than it is, but knows that nothing will make it easy right now; “We could see the sadness as a gift and still/ Feel too heavy to hold,” she sings.
Maggie Lindemann, “Hostage”
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For anyone who’s ever felt trapped in their own psyche, alt-pop singer Maggie Lindemann has just the song. “Hostage,” the singer’s volatile new single, follows Lindemann into the recesses of her own mind, as she explains the various ways her brain places her in a constant state of panic, even when the world around her does nothing to arouse those fears. Over a torrent of gothic synths, Lindemann begs the listener to “hold me close when my voice gets shaky, be patient with me.”
Sleater-Kinney, Little Rope
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When you live in a world where catastrophe is the new normal, how do you learn to keep going? That’s a central question posed on Sleater-Kinney’s phenomenal new project Little Rope, an LP that revels in its elusiveness at every given opportunity. Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker masterfully craft each song on the LP with enigmatic shifts in sound and theme, all while providing emotive new tracks for fans to dive deep into. Whether foreboding (“Hunt You Down”), fatalist (“Dress Yourself”), or frenzied (“Needlessly Wild”), Little Rope is an execellent ode to finding meaning — or the lack thereof — in pain.
Shygirl feat. Boys Noize, “Tell Me”
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Get ready to rave, because Shygirl and Boys Noize are here to heat up your next party. “Tell Me,” the latest single off of Shygirl’s forthcoming Club Shy EP, delights in it’s early-2000s Eurodance aesthetics — Boys Noize amp up every ounce of the song with out-of-this-world synths and a relentless beat. But Shygirl’s vital voice centers the track in the here-and-now, begging a lover to stay with her.
Gossip, “Real Power”
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Just when we need them, Gossip is back, baby. With their latest anthem “Real Power,” the alt-rock trio is calling on people to seize their own means of self-actualization, even in the face of controlling systems that would try and stop them. Inspired by frontwoman Beth Ditto’s hometown Portland and the city’s Black Lives Matter protests in June 2020, “Real Power” brings everything that makes Gossip great — advocacy-focused writing with infectious melodies and stratospheric vocals — into one glorious song.
Check out all of our picks on Billboard’s Queer Jams of the Week playlist below:
We’re nearly three weeks into 2024, and the new year is already overflowing with great new music from today’s top stars in every genre. Nearly four years since their last studio LP — 2020’s Father of All… — Green Day are back with a brand new album, Saviors, featuring a slew of singles including the Rock Airplay chart-topper “The […]
When Kali Uchis picked the orchid as the title and theme of her new album Orquídeas, which arrived on Friday (Jan. 12), she didn’t know it was the flower of fertility. And then, later in her rollout, she found out she was pregnant with her first child, telling Billboard News, “It all came together perfectly.”
“The flower, for me, it always symbolized timelessness, femininity, luxury,” says the Colombian artist. “It has an eerie, mystical quality about it as well. It’s also the national flower of Colombia, so for me it all tied in.”
Orquídeas is Uchis’ fourth album and second Spanish-language full-length (she typically switches between English and Spanish on each project). Features include her friend Karol G (“Labios Mordidos”), plus Peso Pluma (“Igual Que Un Ángel”), Rauw Alejandro (“No Hay Ley Parte 2”) and the “unpredictable” pairing of City Girls’ JT alongside El Alfa (“Muñekita).
The Grammy winner debuted in 2018 with Isolation, followed by Sin Miedo (del Amor y Otros Demonios) in 2020 and last year’s Red Moon In Venus. She believes that Orquídeas, defined by its uptempo, high-energy productions, perfectly compliments those prior albums.
“I’m not a new artist anymore, I’m looking at my discography as a whole,” she says. “My next album that I’ve been working on that is also going to come out this year is all downtempo music. So being able to have to contrast, there’s so much within me that needs to be expressed and I never want to confine myself to anything.”
She confirms that forthcoming fifth album was written and recorded while pregnant, which is perhaps where the inspiration for a more soothing, lower energy release came from. And while she says “there’s so much to be excited for” about motherhood (she will soon welcome her first born with longtime partner Don Toliver), she also admits how hard it was to keep her pregnancy private, saying she still had a few shows and a red carpet appearance on her calendar — both of which made it harder to hide her growing baby bump.
Balancing her professional life with her private one has always been a priority to Uchis, who says she most looks up to Sade for how she walks that line. “It is such a fine line between trying to understand how much of ourselves are we really meant to share, or do we really feel comfortable sharing. And at the end of the day, I really thought it was strange that there is such an expectation on an artist to share their personal life,” says Uchis. “I try to remember that my music is supposed to be in the forefront, my private life and personal matters, I really don’t want that to be something that’s consuming or overshadowing my work.”
And as someone who puts their art first — and who has always embraced her bicultural upbringing along the way, having been born and raised in Virginia — Uchis has become a safe space for others who hope to do the same. “There’s a lot of artists who sing in Spanish who are English speakers primarily and they’ve come to me like, ‘You really make me want to make music in English too. I’ve always wanted to but my label doesn’t want me to do that because this or that is what sells for me,’” she says. “I think as an artist, what’s most important always is the thought of no limitations…I feel like everyone should be as free and creative as possible.”
Watch the full interview above.
This week in dance music: The dance world roared back to life after the relative calm of the holidays, with CRSSD dropping its spring 2024 lineup and Bonnaroo and Hangout Fest both including a load of dance artists on their bills — including headlining sets from Pretty Lights and Fred again.. at Bonnaroo.
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See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Meanwhile, Kraftwerk announced a nine-show residency at Disney Hall in Los Angeles this May, Alesso was announced as a performer for a big Super Bowl party in Las Vegas next month and New York City’s Teksupport announced an 18-show boat party series settling sail in May.
As part of Billboard‘s “future of genre” series, we spoke with extremely of-the-moment producers Odetari and 6arelyhuman; “Strangers” phenom Kenya Grace signed a global publishing admin deal with Warner Chappell, and Beatport made two key promotions and claimed over $100 million in revenue for 2023.
In sadder news, Black Coffee was injured in a flight accident in Argentina, but is reported to be “optimistic and doing well.” And the world lost a legend, the BBC Radio 1 presenter Annie Nightingale — the stations first-ever female presenter — dying this week at age 83.
And along with all this, we have 2024’s first week of heavy dance music releases. These are the best new dance tracks of the week.
Jamie xx, “It’s So Good”
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The Label: Young
The Spiel: The sole lyrics on the latest from Jamie xx function as self-fulfilling prophesy, with a childlike voice reiterating “It’s so good!” over a complex, percussion-forward production that incorporates Brazilian funk and loads of fun (but also cerebral) bells and whistles, as well as the breathing room that makes them all pop. The song soundtracks a new Chanel ad campaign and is also xx’s first new music since the absolute bangers “KILL DEM” and “Let’s Do It Again” from 2022. More music from this year from the perpetual fav would, indeed, be so good.
Camelphat, “Running Man”
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The Label: Mahool Records
The Spiel: In the Camelphat arsenal since 2023 and (finally) getting an official release this week, “Running Man” is a punchy, wind-up toy of a melodic house track, with the urgently blinking synth at the fore building to a nearly hectic place before releasing, then rising again. The track is out on Mahool Records, the label from Saudi Arabian dance company MDLBEAST, marking the imprint’s third-ever release. Camelphat’s spring tour dates include L.A.’s Skyline, EDC Mexico, Ultra Music Festival in Miami and Awakenings in The Netherlands.
Gorgon City feat. Bbyafricka, “Biggest Regret”
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The Label: Astralwerks
The Spiel: You think you’ve got Gorgon City’s latest figured out, until the 30-second mark, when a thunder of bass enters the production like a gamma ray, leaving as quickly as it came as the song returns to a spare beat that gradually grows lusher with a swirl of piano stabs and the hypnotic voice of Los Angeles-based singer BbyAfricka, before booming in once more. The track is the first new music from the duo since their excellent 2023 album Salvation. Their 2024 tour schedule thus far includes festival dates at M3F, We Are FSTVL, Forbidden Forest and Hideout.
Logic1000 feat. DJ Plead and MJ Nebreda, “Every Lil”
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The Label: Therapy
The Spiel: The third single from Logic1000’s forthcoming debut album Mother, coming March 22, slinks into your ears like a curl of fire smoke through a crowded dance floor. A collaboration between the Berlin-based producer, Australia’s DJ Plead and Miami-based MJ Nebreda, “Every Lil” is seductive and transportive, lifting us from the late afternoon mid-winter darkness to an all-night beachside party in some tropical locale, a vibe created especially by this one’s emphasis on hand percussion. The song comes ahead of Logic1000’s new podcast Logic1000 & Helena Star Present: Therapy, which will feature conversations about motherhood, mental health and the music industry.
Four Tet, “Loved”
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The Label: Text Records
The Spiel: The first track on Four Tet’s forthcoming album — the producer’s twelfth studio LP, the title and release date for which have not been announced — is quintessential, with Kieren Hebden finding the same sort of shuffling, gently swaggering beat that’s been a defining element of much of his studio output. Over it, he layers a gently glowing synth and, midway through, some light cacophony in the form of what sounds like a pair of baking trays being banged together. The four-minute track then returns to its soothing low simmer, playing like a salve for the nervous system — which is, appropriately, also the effect that feeling loved has.