State Champ Radio Pride
Page: 2
Trending on Billboard As a longtime ally for the LGBTQ+ community, Hilary Duff knows how important her new music is for her queer fan base. In an interview with Variety published on Monday (Oct. 27), Duff spoke about her upcoming return to music after the announcement that she had signed to Atlantic Records in September. […]
Trending on Billboard At this point, Hailey Bieber is used to seeing insults about her online, but in a new interview, she pointed out there’s one particular brand of disparaging comment that she just doesn’t understand. Appearing on Owen Thiele’s In Your Dreams podcast on Friday (Oct. 24), Bieber began talking about rude comments shared […]
Trending on Billboard
Brandi Carlile thinks she might have an problem with co-dependency.
She may well be the most decorated Americana artist in recent memory; she’s won 11 Grammys over the course of the last six years (among a whopping 26 career nominations) alongside a pair of Children’s and Family Emmy Awards and an Oscar nomination. She routinely sells out arenas and has been heralded by many as a singular live performer. She’s even sent four of her eight albums to the top ten of the Billboard 200.
But even still, the 44-year-old singer-songwriter says that she’s long felt a sense of “inadequecy” when it comes to both her everyday life and her career, thanks to what she deems a reliance on the companionship of others. It’s not hard to see why she might feel that way — Carlile is one of the most sought-after collaborators, with featured appearances on songs from modern pop stars like Miley Cyrus and Sam Smith, to musical legends like Elton John and Joni Mitchell.
“That’s kind of permeated my personality since I was a little girl. I don’t want to spend the night with myself, I don’t want to go have a meal with myself, I would never watch a movie by myself,” she tells Billboard on a video call. “My aversion to aloneness makes me feel a bit unevolved. Is my tendency to be with, to be in service to, to walk with other people really me being unevolved? Or is it just who I am? I guess I’m still pulling it apart.”
Those thorny questions rest at the center of Carlile’s remarkable eighth solo studio album, Returning to Myself (out today via Interscope Records/Lost Highway). Written and produced alongside pop-rock maestro Andrew Watt with additional work from The National’s Aaron Dessner and Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, the album tracks Carlile’s own untangling of deeply personal insecurities around ego, legacy, politics and independence. A mid-life crisis has never sounded quite this poetic.
The artist says that her new album was born, oddly, from her lack of desire to get back to creating solo albums. “Part of me really didn’t want to do it. Part of me wanted to just go back to being knee-to-knee with all my collaborators and writers and producers and friends,” she says. “It’s incredibly affirming when the people that you idolized growing up are looking at you going, ‘You’re really good, you’re very, very good.’ And that could be an addiction in and of itself — you can very easily just live in that affirmation and never take another risk.”
Those idols include John, who Carlile released an entire duets album with earlier this year, Who Believes In Angels? Carlile recalls being 11 years old living in Washington state, where “there wasn’t an inch of my bedroom wall that didn’t have an Elton John poster on it,” citing her “profound” love for John and his music.
Then there’s Mitchell, who Carlile famously brought out for her first live performance in decades at the 2022 Newport Folk Festival before going on to organize a series star-studded “Joni Jam” concerts to reintroduce the world to one of the most influential musicians of the last century. Tanya Tucker is another decorated performer who Carlile re-centered the spotlight on after decades away, by producing her lauded 2019 album While I’m Livin’ and co-starring in her 2022 documentary The Return of Tanya Tucker.
The through-line between every collaboration with one of her “superheroes,” Carlile notes, is the presence of a cause for her to take up. “Tanya was not getting her flowers — she was getting a stigma that she certainly didn’t deserve. With Joni, she had her flowers, but she didn’t know it,” she says. “Even for smaller artists, like Brandy Clark, she wasn’t being seen for the genius she is in country music … there was always some cause, and then that cause has to intersect with musical undeniability. And in that case, you know, these people are an embarrassment of riches.”
But when beginning her work on Returning to Myself, Carlile wasn’t finding a cause. She had reached the proverbial mountaintop of her professional career, and was now left to try and find some new cliff face to ascend. She remembers one particularly hard songwriting session, where she, Watt and her band were sitting in an expensive studio space creating melodically fascinating passages, and she couldn’t find any words to put to them.
“I was just in there watching money fly out the window, because I just couldn’t make the songs happen,” she says, grabbing fistfuls of her coiffed blonde hair as she recalls the stressful day. “I kept going to this little office space at the back of the studio and basically hiding from everyone. It was so destabilizing.”
In that office, Carlile noticed a purple Rhodes piano — “I think it was just there as decoration,” she offers — and sat down at it. She pulled up a poem on her phone that she had written weeks prior about wisdom and age, started putting a simple melody to it, and within 15 minutes had constructed the emotionally complicated track “A Woman Oversees.”
Writing lyrics separately from the music composition proved to be uncharted territory for Carlile — throughout her two decade career, Carlile routinely wrote her music and lyrics in concert with one another. In establishing a new precedent for the album, the singer-songwriter found that she was starting to deconstruct her own ideas about how music gets made.
“If there’s anywhere that I’m on thin ice with my ego, it’s trying to work in musical complexity where it isn’t needed. But when you have the words first and you’re now suddenly in the studio, the music has to be natural. It can’t be overthought, it can’t be intentionally complex,” she says. “I did a lot less in terms of the musical math on this album than I ever have before. I was really open to two-chord soundscapes, and I have to say, I’m finding it really emotionally fulfilling.”
Carlile is just as quick to credit Watt and Dessner’s work with her on the album for its sonic cohesion, noting that while the two had never worked together before, their collaboration on this album helped make it what it was. “I kind of Parent Trap‘d them,” she jokes. “I’m kind of culty, to the point where I’m like, ‘No, I need everyone to love each other and know each other! Will you guys come together on every song and show up in the studio and please be friends? Will you guys be friends for me?’ And they f–king did, man. It was amazing.”
When talking about Returning to Myself, Carlile keeps coming back to one other album in particular: Wrecking Ball, the 1995 magnum opus from Americana star Emmylou Harris. The projects may differ in tone and genre, but Carlile instead points to Wrecking Ball‘s larger cultural footprint as her true inspiration.
“She was trying to own the narrative and have some agency over who people believed Emmylou Harris was. The way that she asserted her Emmylou Harris-ness was to do something so unexpected sonically that it challenged the psyches and the ears of Americana listeners,” Carlile recalls. “That’s the ethos that really resonated with me. It wasn’t like I took a swing for that level of genius or refinement. It was more like I wanted to feel the same way.”
One of the most unexpected sonic turns Carlile makes on her new album arrives with its sixth track, the surging rock anthem “Church & State.” Amidst an album of plaintive, introspective folk songs, “Church & State” roars with rebellion and electrifying anger, as Carlile rails against the political powers that have tried to decide the future for her and her community.
The song was written largely on the night of the 2024 election, when Donald Trump won a second term in office. Carlile recalls the rage she felt as she watched the results come in. “I just saw my marriage hanging in the balance. Everything that my kids depend on in terms of feeling, and living within the legitimacy of our family, and how we walk through the world together,” she said. “I was just so, so angry, and stressed out, and I’m in need of some catharsis.”
She remembered a riff that one of her oldest friends and collaborators Tim Hanseroth had sent to her months prior. The two had joked about a time when Billie Jean King had once told Carlile, “‘We Are the Champions’ is too f–king slow, somebody needs to write a sports anthem that’s actually up tempo,” and Hanseroth made good on that promise with a pounding bassline that became the heartbeat of the song. “Writing that song was like I was running a mile; it just was coming out of me,” Carlile says.
The lyrics that came pouring forth concerned the “frailty” of right-wing politicians, reminding them that when their day comes, this will be how they’re remembered. She puts it much more succinctly in our conversation: “Time waits for no one, and no one stays a strongman forever,” she says with a smirk.
As they began to put the track together in a studio, Carlile pitched an odd idea to Watt, Dessner and her band. What if, instead of a guitar solo on the bridge, she simply performed a spoken-word rendition of an 1802 letter written by then-President Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptists Association? The choice may seem strange, but Carlile points to the famous missive for creating the oft-cited “wall of separation between church and state” that is fundamental to the functioning of American democracy.
“I think it might be the one of the most important pieces of text that has ever been introduced into the American political system. It is so timelessly wise, and it should offend no one — yet I know it will offend many,” Carlile says, before staring directly into her camera. “And if you’re offended by it, you are the problem. Period.”
Carlile knows there will even be some in her own fanbase who would prefer that she not speak out on political topics. But she says she cannot afford to stay quiet, especially when her existence is at-issue in the current administration. “We have no choice but to wake up and be political every day because we’re women and we’re gay and this is how we now have to live our lives in this country,” she says, exasperation punctuating each word. “There can be no ‘shut up and sing’ as an option for me, that’s just not possible.”
Even with its sonic left-turn, “Church & State” still finds itself fitting into the rest of Returning to Myself, as it finds Carlile re-examining and reaffirming her own relationship to religion and politics, the same way she re-examines her relationship to age on the emotionally bare “Human,” or reaffirms her marriage on the loving ballad “Anniversary.”
But there’s still the question of her “cause” for Returning to Myself — for an artist who has moved forward with a clear sense of purpose on each one of her projects, collaborations and performances, what principle guided Carlile through this latest phase of her career?
A pregnant pause forms as Carlile considers her answer. “I dropped out of school at 16, and I moved away from home at 17, I immediately had to work in order to survive. I had no skills and no driver’s license, and all I could do to make a living and pay for my rent was find places that would let me sing live,” she says, her brow furrowing as she thinks back to her earliest performing days. “As long as I can remember, I have had to make music my job.”
She smiles as she corrects herself. “There was a time, though, when I was a teenager and I could just sit on my bed and cry and just feel this magnetic draw into the magic of music. I hadn’t felt that feeling for a long, long time, and I could barely remember what it even was,” she says. “I needed to go back to that bedroom before the hustle and figure out what I loved about this. What can I unlearn about song structure? Can I become innocent about this again? So my next steps are going to be to find and stay in that innocence for as long as I possibly can.”
Trending on Billboard Chappell Roan is walking the walk. After advocating for the LGBTQ+ community throughout her career, the pop star has announced a fund called the Midwest Princess Project supporting vulnerable trans youth. The news came in the form of an Instagram post on Thursday (Oct. 23), with Roan writing, “I am so excited […]
How would it look for an acclaimed drag superstar to take over the lead role in one of Broadway‘s buzziest plays? In the words Cole Escola’s interpretation Mary Todd Lincoln: “Sensational!” Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news On Wednesday (June 18), Jinkx Monsoon announced that she will […]
Like any good Swifties, Emily and Jamie Dryburgh keep finding connections between themselves and the biggest pop star in the world. As the twin sisters chat with Billboard over Zoom from their Nashville office, they rattle off a list of things they have in common with Taylor Swift: They are the same age, they’re enterprising professionals in the music industry, and their office in Nashville’s Midtown happens to be right across the street from Swift’s apartment.
That literal proximity to Swift is fitting, the 34-year-olds say, considering how she helped inspire them to pursue their careers. “The first time I heard a Taylor Swift song — as obvious and cliché as it is — I realized that she was not only writing her own songs but that she was a businesswoman,” Jamie recalls. “We were like, ‘There’s this girl out there who is our age, who feels like someone [we] would hang out with, and she’s doing it.’ It feels like she opened all these doors and all these opportunities for us.”
As the co-founders and co-CEOs of Young Music City, the leading Nashville media and lifestyle LLC focused on the LGBTQ+ community, the Dryburghs, much like Swift herself, also believe in doing work with a centralized purpose. What started as a music blog in 2016 has blossomed into a coterie of entertainment brands — including the RNBW Queer Music Collective, Country Proud and Girlcrush — advocating for greater representation of and visibility for LGBTQ+ members of Nashville’s music scene by promoting events and curating stages exclusively by and for queer people.
Trending on Billboard
The pair’s efforts have worked wonders for queer singer-songwriters like Adam Mac, who attended some of Young Music City’s earliest showcases as an aspiring country artist. “When I first moved here, the only visual I had of a path that a queer person could have in country music was Shane McAnally,” Mac says of the acclaimed songwriter. “I think Emily and Jamie really did lay the groundwork for feeding my confidence to say, ‘No, you can keep going.’ ”
Born and raised in the upstate New York city of Elmira, the Dryburgh sisters say they dreamed of moving out of the frigid Northeast to find their passion in the warmer Southern states. Applying to colleges in the South “behind our mom’s back,” they ended up moving to South Carolina to attend Coastal Carolina University in 2009. Once there, they started traveling all around the South, attending concerts and festivals across genres and falling even more in love with music.
Where other fans might try and meet the headliners before their festival sets, the Dryburghs instead chatted up tour managers and assistants, learning how the industry worked in the process. “We’d hang out with them and hear their stories, and they would be like, ‘Hey, you guys need to go be in the music industry,’ ” Emily recalls.
Jamie Dryburgh
Emily Dorio
The duo took their advice, moving to Nashville and transferring to Belmont University’s music business program in 2011. Upon graduating in 2013 — “on Taylor Swift’s birthday,” Jamie points out — they began working in as many different sectors of the industry as they could. Whether interning at small, independent record labels, directing A&R for boutique publishing houses or managing artists nominated by the Country Music Association (CMA) like Joshua Scott Jones, the Dryburghs sought to learn as much as possible through hands-on experience.
Along with that experience came some big personal realizations. Shortly after graduating from Belmont, Emily and Jamie both came out — and, in short order, noticed they identified with few others in the Nashville music scene.
Emily remembers a conversation with her boss at the now-closed publishing house Anchor Down Entertainment, where she worked as an intern shortly after graduating from Belmont. “I was like, ‘I have to tell you something and you might fire me, but I just need to let you know that I’m gay,’ ” she says. “[My boss] was super supportive and just started naming people: Shane McAnally, Brandy Clark, all these high-level people that were queer. We had no clue because there were no spaces for us.”
The longer the Dryburghs spent in Nashville, the more they saw how few opportunities queer artists had. So they took action. In 2016, the two transformed their old blog, Twin Love (“It’s so embarrassing,” Jamie says with a laugh, “it was the sh-ttiest blog”), into Young Music City, a fledgling media organization complete with a YouTube channel and Spotify playlist intended to give bubbling-under artists — many of whom identified as queer — a platform to share their music with a wider audience. “We had newsletters, we had filmed performances, we had all this stuff. We were just covering these bases before things like TikTok happened,” Emily says.
But the Dryburghs found their biggest success with the first subsidiary they launched from Young Music City, the RNBW Queer Music Collective. When they saw a friend perform at an open-mic event titled Big Gay Showcase, they were surprised by the sheer number of people who attended. So Emily and Jamie decided to try their hand at creating communal spaces for queer artists, scheduling monthly RNBW showcases at Tribe, a well-known Nashville gay bar.
“We’d pack the house, but there were only about 15 active, out artists who would come and perform,” Jamie says. After three years of staging their events, the pandemic hit. The sisters figured that their monthly showcase was over for good.
Emily Dryburgh
Emily Dorio
As they tell it, the opposite turned out to be true. During the course of the pandemic, as the Dryburghs scheduled livestreamed showcases for queer artists, they watched their online following grow as more talent started submitting themselves to be featured on the platform. The community that they had been seeking finally materialized. Once public-gathering restrictions were lifted in May 2021, the Dryburghs started booking weekly RNBW showcases at The Lipstick Lounge in Nashville’s East End with smashing success.
“Post-pandemic, a lot of people found themselves, came to Nashville, and there is now this huge world there that was not there before. We [are] easily booking six different artists for every show,” Emily says. “At this point, we’ve had almost 3,000 queer artists come through. It’s been amazing.”
Mac, who befriended the Dryburghs when he first moved to Nashville in 2012, says he has witnessed a shift in the city’s queer music scene — one he attributes, at least in part, to the work that the sisters put into creating a welcoming space. “Before RNBW, there was no place [in Nashville] for creative queers to come together and have a space to share,” he says. “It was so crucial for all of us.”
Having created their own community, the Dryburghs then set out to enlarge that space. As they built relationships around town with LGBTQ+ organizations like Nashville Pride and set up bigger stages for holding their events, they saw an opportunity. When the now-closed entertainment site Nash News approached them about putting on a country-focused concert in summer 2022, they realized that the proposed dates fell during the four days of CMA Fest. The festival was already announced and only two weeks away, but the Dryburghs took their shot, emailing their CMA and CMT contacts to see what was possible.
“We heard back from both of them within the day,” Jamie recalls. Soon, the Dryburghs were hopping on Zoom calls with executives from both organizations, pitching them on CMA Fest’s first Pride-themed stage. When asked whom they could feature there with such little lead time, they pointed to the now-vast catalog of artists they’d worked with through RNBW.
Within a few meetings, they had successfully created Country Proud, the first-ever queer-focused event at a U.S. country music festival. “The audience response was massive — a lot of people who didn’t know what [Country Proud] was still came through because we were able to bring in such great talent,” Emily says.
The show’s debut in 2022 was such a success that, in subsequent years, CMA Fest promoted Country Proud from a sponsored activation to its own main stages, bringing in artists like Brooke Eden, Angie K, Shelly Fairchild and Mac, who remembers going from local showcases to his first crowd of thousands thanks to Emily and Jamie’s advocacy. “They got me my first major stage at CMA Fest,” he says. “To see where all of this started to where it’s at now has been a privilege.”
Emily (left) and Jamie Dryburgh photographed on May 28, 2025 at The Fallyn in Nashville.
Emily Dorio
But 2025 marks the first year since the Dryburghs helped make history with Country Proud that CMA Fest won’t feature the event they created — a fact that they attribute, in part, to political pressures to reduce inclusive programming like Country Proud. “We anticipated it might be weird this year,” Emily says with a sigh.
But the sisters are taking this difficult news in stride. After all, they point out, Young Music City started with grassroots organizing. “When these partners can’t come in and when there’s things that are against their control, that’s where our work comes back in,” Emily says. “If no one else is going to do it, then it has to be us. We can put on a show with our eyes closed at this point, so when organizations back out, it’s important to say, ‘OK, we’re stepping in.’ ”
Jamie also says the music industry should take note of what has happened when major businesses have cut their diversity programs. As an example, she cites Target: After the retailer faced heavy criticism from right-wing activists over its 2023 Pride collection, the store rolled back many of its products supporting LGBTQ+ inclusivity for Pride Month 2024. Four days after Donald Trump’s second inauguration, the company announced it was ending its diversity, equity and inclusion programs; in the following months, its foot traffic and sales plummeted.
“It’s a losing strategy,” Jamie says of anti-DEI efforts. “A large part of the population is somewhere in the queer community, and leaving them out doesn’t serve your business.” What might the music industry learn from these cautionary tales? “Think bigger than just today or tomorrow. Think about years down the road,” she suggests. “This is a much bigger conversation than just your bottom line.”
After growing Young Music City from a small online blog into one of the most active LGBTQ+ music organizations in Nashville, the Dryburghs are now looking at how to take their talents national. Emily lists just a few of their long-term goals, like opening an inclusive venue in Nashville or organizing a RNBW Queer Music Collective national tour.
And all the while, they will remain committed to creating connections for queer artists in need of support. “We’ve had artists like Kelsea Ballerini and JoJo and Julien Baker in the audience at RNBW shows,” Emily says. “Our artists have met co-writers through these shows, met their spouses through these shows, and they keep coming because they know that this is a place where they can come and it’s safe.”
The sisters smile at each other. “That’s the ultimate goal,” Jamie says. “Just making our home a safer place.”
This story appears in the June 21, 2025, issue of Billboard.
In the 10 years since Sophie broke through the noise with singles such as “Bipp” and “Lemonade,” the late visionary has become synonymous with progressive pop production. So for the 10th anniversary of her breakthrough set of songs, the producer’s collaborators are celebrating her influence with a commemorative release.
On Wednesday (June 18), record label Numbers will debut an expanded anniversary edition of SOPHIE’s Product, the 2015 compilation album that brought together some of the producer’s earliest releases. Alongside the original compilation’s eight tracks, the expanded edition of Product will also include two previously unreleased singles — “Ooh” and “Get Higher” — and “Unisil,” a Product-era track that was released in 2021.
“Ooh,” originally created in 2011, features vocals from The X Factor alum Jaide Green, who reflected in a statement on her first reaction to hearing the track. “‘Ooh’ stood out to me, it was fun, playful, and creative. It was clear the lyrics were very significant to SOPHIE, however it didn’t feel like your usual heartbreak song, it was uptempo and happy,” she wrote. “Even still, there was a strength behind the words. I thought it was a perfect fit, pure genius.”
Trending on Billboard
Meanwhile, “Get Higher” was first written by SOPHIE in 2013, when she shared the hyperpop-tinged production with singers Cassie Davis and Sean Mullins. “She had this unapologetic ferocity for being true to who she was, that was infectious. I remember dancing around in the studio, vibing to the energy of creation in a way that I had never experienced before, devoid of ego,” Mullins said in a statement of the new track. “That’s what SOPHIE did for me, and I think what she’s done for a lot of other people with her incredible ability to connect us all to our higher selves through the act of creativity.”
Product will be released on all streaming platforms Wednesday, with physical editions — including deluxe vinyl, CD and a “Product card” featuring an NFC code for instant tap access to the album phones — will be available in stores starting on July 11.
Check out the full tracklist for the 10th anniversary release of SOPHIE’s Product below:
“BIPP”
“ELLE”
“LEMONADE”
“HARD”
“MSMSMSM”
“VYZEE”
“L.O.V.E.”
“UNISIL”
“GET HIGHER” (new)
“OOH” (new)
“JUST LIKE WE NEVER SAID GOODBYE”
“The first thing we do when we book: we type in your name, and we write ‘homophobic,’” says nightlife promoter and producer Rayne Baron of finding acts for her annual festival, LadyLand. If nothing incriminating shows up, the artist has “passed the first test.” Next up: Has the musician in question wished fans “happy Pride”; have they collaborated with LGBTQ artists before; have they ever just flat-out said, “I love gay people”?
Sitting in Greenpoint’s quaint McGolrick Park as a light rainstorm hovers above, Baron — better known to New York City music venues and party people as Ladyfag — is telling Billboard how she and her tiny team go about booking acts for her LGBTQ music festival, which debuted in 2018. Baron is laughing, but she’s entirely serious: LadyLand is a very queer and very Brooklyn affair that takes place during Pride Month — a time when the last thing any self-respecting LGBTQ person wants to do is watch a hater, or even a lukewarm ally, onstage.
Trending on Billboard
Over the course of seven years (during which it took a pandemic breather), LadyLand has grown from a 5,000-strong party at Bushwick’s Brooklyn Mirage to one with 10,000 revelers at Greenpoint’s Under the K Bridge Park, the fest’s home since 2023; this year, LadyLand is expected to draw some 20,000 to the official-but-DIY-coded outdoor space on June 27-28, with Cardi B and FKA Twigs headlining.
“It’s not a party with problems,” she muses of the event, which takes her three-person team all year to plan. “It is a problem, and you keep solving them until you have a festival.”
2025 marks her second year working with Bowery Presents on LadyLand, which they co-produce. “It was a struggle from the start to find investors,” she admits. “People said the numbers don’t work, there’s a reason it doesn’t exist.”
But Baron — who by the time LadyLand launched in 2018 was an NYC nightlife legend thanks to seamlessly executed ongoing parties like Holy Mountain and Battle Hymn — was undeterred, intuitively sensing that queer New Yorkers, Brooklyn residents in particular, could use something that was “part party, part concert, part festival, part gay Pride.” LadyLand has been called “gay Coachella,” a label that Baron embraces while noting that it doesn’t quite give the full scope of the experience. (“But that’s fine, because people need something to reference,” she says.)
While Coachella brings to mind influencers snapping selfies in the desert, LadyLand is an inner-city gathering for LGBTQ people whose very identity reshapes culture — not merely reposting or recreating it after it’s made the rounds.
“In Brooklyn, we are still the heart of queer counterculture. We still write the prophecies for fashion, our DJs are playing the tracks with the ripple effect and the slang we use is a solid three years ahead of Hollywood,” says Charlene, a local performer and writer who’s become a mainstay of Brooklyn’s queer scene over the last decade (she recently took over summer Sunday BBQs at long-running gay bar Metropolitan from “Mother of Brooklyn Drag” Merrie Cherry.) “LadyLand is the only festival in New York that happily places our club fixtures and family alongside acts that are frankly too big for the club.”
“What makes LadyLand stand apart is how it celebrates the full spectrum of queer creativity — New York DJs, underground legends, dancers, fashion kids — it’s all there,” says dance music and ball culture legend Kevin Aviance, who made a surprise appearance in 2019 and returns this year. “Ladyfag curates with such intention, and it shows. Unlike circuit parties, this isn’t just about a beat — it’s about art, community and freedom.” As for what to expect from his DJ set, he adds, “Get ready, because I’m bringing the heat. Beats will be served, and the dolls will dance.”
That club-meets-festival vibe means that despite LadyLand’s big headcount, it doesn’t feel like a sprawling, isolating affair. “If it’s 10,000 people, 5,000 of them know the other 5,000; if they don’t know them, they might want to sleep with them. So you have to make it feel more familiar,” Baron says of pulling together the three-stage festival every year. “It’s a really strange concept to explain [to investors].”
Baron says Bowery Presents (which owns and operates many NYC venues) has been an open-minded co-producer. “It’s nice to feel supported,” she says. “They’re concert people, they know.” She also hails 12-year partner Red Bull: “They don’t do bullsh-t. They have never tried to do things that would affect the integrity of LadyLand.” This year, the energy drink brand helped her create a new stage that will bring Paul’s Dolls, a weekly party in Manhattan celebrating trans artistry, to the fest. “It’s a club, and you cannot have a gay club without dolls. We need them they need us. Gay culture is an ecosystem,” Baron explains. “In general, gays to the front. You don’t have to be gay to be here, but it helps.”
Ladyfag took her signature festival (including those giant inflatable green forearms with blazing red nails) from the Brooklyn Mirage to Under the K Bridge in 2023 for a simple reason. “Mirage kicked me out because I didn’t make enough money,” she frankly admits. When she started looking around her own neighborhood of Greenpoint, she was struck by the fact that the freshly built state park (where folks sometimes held illegal raves during the pandemic) reminded her of an electronic music festival in London which takes place in a park under a bridge. “I was always obsessed with Junction 2 Festival — my wife is English,” she says. After connecting with the parks department, she pulled everything together (“shoutout to my little team, Veronica and Carlos”) in just three months, putting on the first big event of any kind at the Under the K Bridge Park: “There was no template.” Since then, the state park has hosted numerous live music events, with the inaugural CBGB Festival set to take place there on Sept. 27.
LadyLand
Courtesy of LadyLand
To appeal to an extremely discerning nightlife crowd (“people can be c-nty,” she sighs) and live music lovers in a city that has no shortage of concerts, Baron goes through a high-wire balancing act every year while booking the lineup. Her team needs to nab headliners who sell tickets, but not book so many A-listers that it turns into a gathering of Stan armies. “I don’t want mega fandom,” she says. “We don’t want people standing in front of stage for 20 minutes waiting for the next performer, ruining the vibe.” She mixes in LGBTQ legends with up-and-coming artists, and spotlights local talent while also bringing in names who rarely make it to NYC. Plus, there are radius clauses with other NYC events and scheduling conflicts — oddly enough, Glastonbury has proved to be some of her biggest competition simply because it often goes down the same weekend and can pay more to performers than her scrappy little fest can.
“We are a small festival, as far as fests go,” she acknowledges. “Agents’ jobs are to make their artists money and there have been a lot of kindnesses shown my way.” Her long history in NYC nightlife has helped in that area, too — including for this year’s day-one headliner. Prior to Cardi B’s meteoric rise, when she was just another reality star (Love & Hip Hop) trying to break into music, Ladyfag booked her to play her monthly party Holy Mountain in February 2017. “She got very excited about being with the gays,” Baron recalls, her lips curving and eyes twinkling. “She was only supposed to do a few songs, but she wouldn’t stop. Within a few months, she became one of the biggest stars in the world — and she always remembered it.”
With that shared history, Baron was able to get the hip-hop superstar for less than what Cardi B would get from Madison Square Garden. “Was it free? F–k no,” she laughs. “Was it $4,000 that she put in her bra back in the day? No, we have all evolved from that.” This year’s day-two headliner, FKA Twigs, is someone Baron knows “outside of her agent,” too. LadyLand’s 2018 headliner Eve came from a similar situation (“We met at a party”) and she notes that while the inaugural edition “didn’t make any money, we didn’t lose money.” The following year, her nightlife background helped her nab Pabllo Vittar to pinch hit at LadyLand when headliner Gossip dropped out the last minute.
“We jumped in blind not really knowing what to expect, but I was completely blown away,” says the Brazilian drag juggernaut, who returns to play the fest this year. “It was amazing! The community, the energy, the artists, the vibe. I am so honored she asked me to play again this year officially, it feels very full circle with her.”
Despite that extensive Rolodex, LadyLand now books dozens of acts each year — meaning long gone are the days when everyone on the bill is a pal or acquaintance.
To fill out the lineup — and bring in artists outside the NYC nightlife realm — Baron and her team spend months sending each other clips of singers, DJs and rappers, debating their musical merits and keeping an eye on who’s buzzing on queer socials. Oftentimes, that means she can book rising artists before they become big names and demand higher price tags. One such case was 070 Shake, who blew up after signing on for the inaugural LadyLand but before the festival made its bow; this year, she sees 19-year-old rapper Cortisa Star in that vein.
But intuition without dollars only goes so far. With palpable remorse, she talks about the year where she almost booked a pre-fame Megan Thee Stallion but wasn’t able to afford the private plane that would have been required to take the rapper from point A to point B. Miley Cyrus has been a white whale for LadyLand; she says they’ve tried to get Ethel Cain every year; Grace Jones is on her wish list; and once she almost had Charli xcx locked, but her stage setup was too large for LadyLand’s then-home at Brooklyn Mirage. “Those are the things that happen that people don’t understand,” Baron says ruefully. But with each passing year, she checks another name off her wish list. For 2025, that “bucket list” booking was New York dance legend Danny Tenaglia, who plays Friday, the same day as Cobrah and Sukihana.
Plus, there are leftfield surprises that seem to fall into her lap thanks to LadyLand’s reputation as an experience that is queerer, edgier and more communal than most Pride Month events. “I appreciate those people who don’t need me and did it anyways. Madonna doesn’t need me, she had just done Brazil — the biggest concert she’d ever done — and then she came to my festival,” Baron shares of the 2024 edition, where the Queen of Pop popped by to help judge a ball. “She wanted to make a moment for gay people, and she did.”
LadyLand
Courtesy of LadyLand
Her careful, intuitive curation has brought everyone from SOPHIE to Honey Dijon to Pussy Riot to Christina Aguilera to the LadyLand lineup. “For a lot of people, it was the only time they ever got to see SOPHIE,” Baron says. One of those in attendance at the late electronic pioneer’s 2018 set was indie singer-songwriter Liam Benzvi, who is on this year’s bill. “The BQE is an institution of noise, and I’m proud to call it a friend and a bandmate,” says Benzvi of delivering his synth-pop gems at a state park that is literally under the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. “Being from Brooklyn, I expect to see quality live music while surrounded by cool people, and cool is usually LGBTQ, so it’s a win-win for me.”
Bringing thousands of people to a state park entails “so much more work,” Baron chuckles as the raincloud above us finally burst open, forcing us to move the interview indoors to her apartment. “It’s a neighborhood. People live here — I live here — and you can’t have people partying after until 7 a.m. We need to make sure there’s enough bathrooms so that people aren’t pissing everywhere…. These are things that people don’t think about, nor should they have to.”
Plus, there’s “boring festival stuff with agents and managers, arguing about the run of the show, the size of the name on the poster.” To ensure each day’s lineup has an organic flow and isn’t solely based on least-to-most Instagram followers, there’s oftentimes an extended back-and-forth with artist reps, who care less about sonic juxtaposition and more about optics. “Sometimes agents do win and it’s a pisser,” she says. “I’m usually right on vibes.”
As anyone who has spent a moment at LadyLand (or any of her ongoing parties) can attest, Ladyfag does indeed know vibes — arguably, she’s become the premier connoisseur of queer nightlife vibes in NYC over the last decade. And in doing so, she’s not only spotlighting queer culture, but changing it.
“Ladyfag has created the pinnacle opportunity for us to show off the cultural engine we are,” Charlene says, “and in doing so has reshaped my relationship to the word ‘Pride.’”
“It feels like church for the children, honey,” says Aviance. “A safe, fierce space where you’re seen, heard and celebrated. I’ve been to a lot of parties in my time, but LadyLand is truly one of the best.”
In need of some new tunes from your favorite queer artists? We’re here to help. 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 Kehlani’s lovelorn new R&B track to Kevin Abstract’s confessional new collaboration, check out just a few of our favorite releases from this week below:
Kehlani, “Folded”
Break ups don’t always have to be a hot mess. With her latest offering “Folded,” Kehlani isn’t aiming to put her ex on blast, but rather to extend them an olive branch. A breezy R&B melody helps the singer glide through this airy song of moving on after lost love, as she asks her lover if they can come pick up their clothes. “I have them folded,” she offers.
Trending on Billboard
Kevin Abstract & Dominic Fike, “Geezer”
We love it when a plan comes together, and seeing Brockhampton frontman Kevin Abstract reunite with his old friend Dominic Fike on their new duet “Geezer” feels like the best of plans. Over some indie guitars and a scattershot beat, the pair trade verses about finding their way to success, even when the people around them still feel stuck in the same place. It’s a tender take off Abstract’s upcoming new LP, and one that’s only bound to make you more hype to hear the whole thing.
Blondshell, “Diet Pepsi” (Addison Rae cover)
If you’re still jamming out to Addison Rae’s cult-favorite track “Diet Pepsi” from last year, then allow us to offer you a little bit more with a slightly different vibe. Indie star Blondshell takes Rae’s breakout alt-pop track and puts the emphasis back on the “alt,” as she translates the song into a shimmering alt-rock track that sounds like it could’ve come off her latest album. Add in Blondshell’s excellent live vocals, and you’ve got a killer cover on your hands.
Japanese Breakfast, “My Baby (Got Nothing At All)”
When it comes to soundtracking modern romance, there are few people more adept that Michelle Zauner. So it’s no wonder why A24 tapped the alt-rock star to pen her new Japanese Breakfast song “My Baby (Got Nothing At All)” for their new film Materialists. Throughout this sunny slow jam, Zauner takes some light shots at the gold-diggers of the world, opting instead for a tune about how little her lover has — and how special that makes their own connection in turn.
salute & Peter Xan, “Gbesoke”
The Yoruba word “gbesoke” roughly translates to “lift it up” in English — and after listening to salute’s latest collaboration with Peter Xan, you’ll understand why they chose to use that word as their title. With salute’s top-tier dance production working overtime alongside Xan’s alt-rock voice delivering commands to the listener, “Gbesoke” easily accomplishes its goal and will have you lifting it all up as you bounce along to this banger.
G Flip, “Big Ol’ Hammer”
What even is Pride Month without a big, campy, gay pop song to play? Thankfully, G Flip is here with just the right track for the occasion. “Big Ol’ Hammer,” the Australian star’s country-meets-synth-pop magnum opus, sees them embracing their butch side as they sing about a lover that makes the “feel like a man.” The music video only adds further context, with Flip dancing it out in a garage surrounded by fellow queers in coveralls as they declare that they’re hanging “in a tool belt, like a big ol’ hammer.”
Check out all of our picks below on Billboard’s Queer Jams of the Week playlist:
Real recognizes real. According to Hayley Williams of Paramore, rising rap star Doechii is as real as it gets.
In a touching tribute penned for Them, the “Ain’t It Fun” singer offered plenty of praise for the “Denial Is a River” rapper, sharing that she’s been closely watching her career since her performance at the 2022 BET Awards. “Watching her on that stage, I had the same feeling I did the first time I saw Missy Elliott on MTV as a kid,” Williams said. “It was raw, bold, unmistakable talent — the kind that doesn’t wait for permission. She came out swinging, and I remember thinking, Oh, she’s taking it. This is hers.“
Prior to Williams’ discovery of Doechii, the rapper had already paid tribute to Paramore through a sample of the band’s hit ballad “The Only Exception” on her 2020 single “Yucky Blucky Fruitcake.” Williams pointed out in her tribute that she “hadn’t even caught” the interpolation when she first saw Doechii’s performance.
The singer went on to praise Doechii’s self-assured artistry, and even added that she still aspires to that level of confidence more than 20 years into her career as a performer. “People sometimes assume because of how I am onstage, that I carry that same confidence. But the truth is, that kind of boldness is something I still have to work to access,” she said. “With Doechii, though, that energy feels inherent. When I listen to her, I feel it — like it transfers through the speakers. And I think a lot of her listeners feel the same way.”
Trending on Billboard
Williams added that the rapper’s openness about her sexuality is just another example of how Doechii is doing music stardom on her own terms. “It’s powerful to watch an artist like her speak openly about identity in the public eye,” she said. “We need that. We need women who are unapologetic about who they are, who they love, what they believe.”
Closing her tribute, Williams thanked Doechii for giving performers everywhere — including herself — something to aspire to. “Watching someone emerge with that kind of confidence, that kind of clarity, is a gift,” she said. “She reminds me — and probably a lot of people — that moving through the world with certainty doesn’t mean you stop learning or growing. It just means you know your worth as you go. And that, to me, is something to look up to.”
Doechii is coming off yet another big win, this time at the 2025 BET Awards, where she took home the trophy for best female hip hop artist. During her speech at the ceremony, Doechii called out President Donald Trump activating the National Guard in response to the ongoing Los Angeles protests around ICE raids in the city.
“I want y’all to consider what kind of government it appears to be when every time we exercise our democratic right to protest, the military is deployed against us. What type of government is that?” she asked the crowd. “People are being swept up and torn from their families, and I feel it’s my responsibility as an artist to use this moment to speak up for all oppressed people.”
