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As spring draws near, there’s no better time to freshen up your season playlists with some 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.
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From Charlotte Day Wilson’s gorgeous new single to Hurray for the Riff Raff’s K, check out just a few of our favorite releases from this week below:
Charlotte Day Wilson, “I Don’t Love You”
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Throughout Charlotte Day Wilson’s new single “I Don’t Love You” — the first offering off her upcoming album Cyan Blue — the singer-songwriter presents a sobering meditation on the healing power of heartbreak. Suffused with deconstructed production elements, slow-grooving bass lines and distorted background vocals filling the backend like a chorus of ghostly past lovers, Wilson commands your attention with a wistful vocal, resonating with soul-shaking emotion on every single note. Don’t let the song’s title fool you; you’re going to “Love” Wilson’s moving new single.
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Hurray for the Riff Raff, The Past Is Still Alive
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Leave it to folk purveyor Alynda Segarra — better known as Hurray for the Riff Raff — to release their best album more than 15 years into their career. The Past Is Still Alive, the star’s ninth studio album, stands alone as a triumph in its production, performance and songwriting and practically every other metric. This thoughtful, 11-song opus sees Segarra incorporating folk, rock, Americana and jazz into an elegy of what could have been, a sobering look at the way things are now, and a prayer for that which has yet to come.
Towa Bird, “B.I.L.L.S.”
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The end of the month is coming up fast, which means you’ve likely got some payments to make. If you’re dreading the mere thought of your banks statement, then Towa Bird’s “B.I.L.L.S.” is the song for you. The rollicking new anthem flips a massive middle finger in the face of late capitalism, bemoaning our money-fueled reality. With fiery guitars and a chant-along chorus, Bird will have you declaring that you’re just as “tired of life’s expense” as she is.
King Isis, “MONKI”
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If you’re still in need of an outlet for your inner angst, allow King Isis to help. “MONKI,” the singer’s latest single, is an impactful melodic track that firmly takes up its own space, regardless of whether or not it’s “supposed” to. Defiant, but without overt aggression, King Isis lets her impressive voice do the heavy lifting, as she chants a tongue-in-cheek incantation to her would-be oppressor: “Spare me from those awful sounds/ Oh baby, can he save you now?”
Cavetown, Little Vice
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When figuring out where to go next with his music, Robin Skinner — known to his fans as indie star Cavetown — decided to mix the old and the new. The product of that experiment is Little Vice, a 5-track new EP from the singer-songwriter that sees Cavetown tackling the emotionally resonant topics his fans have come to expect with intriguing sonic twists. While each new track delivers the soft-spoken, carefully-written verses fans have come to expect, they also each come with unique left turns, from distorted guitars (“Alone”) to glitching vocals (“The Back of the Moon”). For 15 minutes, Little Vice asks you to embrace capriciousness — and after listening, you’ll agree that it’s 15 minutes well spent.
Monét X Change, “Body”
With her new single “Body,” Drag Race star Monét X Change is ready to show you the love you’ve been waiting for with a down-tempo R&B jam. Bursting with lush instrumentation (drums, bass and guitars are joined by an entire string section throughout the track), “Body” sees Monét leaning all the way into romance as her sonorous voice declares that she’s done chasing one-night-stands. Based on this fabulous new song, we won’t be looking for a one-night-stand with X Change’s music, either — there’s never been a better time to commit to this drag superstar as a recording artist on the verge of a breakthrough.
Check out all of our picks on Billboard’s Queer Jams of the Week playlist below:
Musical theater and the art of drag go hand in hand — both involve costumes, wigs, makeup and occasionally over-the-top performances. So it’s no wonder that RuPaul’s Drag Race struck gold when it learned to mash the two together. For nearly a decade, the Rusical challenge ascended beyond its humble origins, becoming a mainstay of […]
Looking forward to a long weekend? Spend it properly by listening to some 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 Kim Petras’ sexy sequel project to Serpentwithfeet’s club-inspired new album, check out just a few of our favorite new releases from this week below.
Kim Petras, Slut Pop Miami
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After stunning fans in 2022 her surprise, sex-positive EP Slut Pop, Kim Petras is ready to do it again — this time, in some warmer weather. Throughout Slut Pop Miami, the singer returns to raunchy lyrics, club beats and absolutely wild song titles. Whether she’s talking about the various things she’d be interested in riding (“Banana Boat”) or taking on her role as the girlboss of the bedroom (“Head Head Honcho”), Petras spends all 12 tracks of her latest project letting everyone know just how far she’s willing to go.
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Serpentwithfeet, GRIP
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Queer folks know what it means to find both safety and intimacy in the confines of a queer club — so Serpentwithfeet decided to make an album dedicated purely to that feeling. GRIP chronicles as many different iterations of queer-affirming encounters as the singer can, from diving into a full-blown relationship after a one night stand (“Deep End”) to the anxiety of feeling isolated on the dance floor (“Black Air Force”). Tinged throughout with Serpent’s “kinetic R&B” sound, GRIP is here to give you everything you could ask for from a night out on the town.
VINCINT, “Good II Me”
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If there’s one thing you can expect from a VINCINT song, it’s euphoric vocals over thundering dance production. “Good II Me,” the singer’s latest single, delivers just what you were hoping for as VINCINT shimmies off his problems and dances the night away. House pianos, electro drums, and a full choir join his stratospheric voice as the song reaches its climactic chorus — and any chance you had at resisting the urge to dance along disappears right along with it.
PVRIS feat. Tommy Genesis & Alice Longyu Gao, “Burn the Witch”
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If you’re feeling pessimistic about the general progress of our world, then PVRIS has a song for you to rage along to. “Burn the Witch,” Lyndsey Gunnulfsen’s hardcore collaboration with fellow female rockers Tommy Genesis and Alice Longyu Gao, is a pissed-off middle finger to an establishment of men who would rather bring the world crumbling down around them than stop persecuting women. The song’s relentless drums and gothic guitar lines serve as apt punctuation for the trio’s message to the misogynists of the world: “You f–ked the world for power, look who’s got it now.”
Laura Jane Grace, Hole in My Head
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After a lifetime of fighting against the machine, Laura Jane Grace is ready to take a look back. Her new album Hole in My Head serves as a series of reflective entries about the Against Me! frontwoman’s life of sheer punk rock chaos. Reexamining her origins (“Punk Rock in Basements”), her transition (“Dysphoria Hoodie”) and her beliefs (“I’m Not a Cop”), Grace embraces folk-rock to tell her story in the best way she knows how — through utterly excellent music.
Check out all of our picks on Billboard’s Queer Jams of the Week playlist below:
After watching LGBTQ+ artists dominate at the 2024 Grammy Awards, Ryan Butler — the Recording Academy’s vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion — says he’s finally seeing his team’s hard work pay off. “After those wins, I’m confident that we’ve done the work that was needed,” he tells Billboard.
That work, for the last two and a half years, has involved building out the Academy’s DREAM Initiative (Diversity Reimagined by Engaging All Musicmakers). Through the new network, Butler’s DE&I team created a series of what he calls “membership resource groups” to help “create dialogue and a deeper understanding of what support looks like” for underrepresented groups — including women, the Black community and plenty of others. Now, with their most recent group, the Recording Academy is looking at what they can do to help the LGBTQ+ community.
During Grammy Week, the Recording Academy officially launched Academy Proud, their latest membership resource group aimed at increasing representation and visibility among their voting body. Partnering with LGBTQ advocacy organization GLAAD and queer entertainment organization OUTLOUD, Academy Proud officially launched during a Grammy House event on Sat., Feb. 3.
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So how will Academy Proud actively benefit the LGBTQ+ music community? Below, Billboard chats with Butler about the new initiative, his goals for driving representation at the Academy forward and the work that still needs to be done for underrepresented communities at the Grammys.
Tell me a little bit about how this initiative got started — when did the concept first come up, and when did you decide to partner with GLAAD and OUTLOUD here?
It’s been in my mind for about two and a half years, when we first started to partner with GLAAD. I wanted to create a network of member resource groups — most companies have ERGs (employee resource groups), but we are so member-focused, that I wanted to be a little innovative in this space and create MRGs. So, I created this network called the DREAM network, and under DREAM we have eight priority demographics, and we proceeded to create MRGs around each one of those demographics. So we have Women in the Mix, the Black Music Collective, Grammys Next Gen, Gold Music Alliance, and now Academy Proud. We also have an MRG for the Latin community, for Indigenous people and for disability and accessibility.
For our readers, can you explain how a member resource group works for the Academy’s membership? What is it that an MRG provides directly to members?
On its highest level, it’s driving representation. This is a way for us to really establish a baseline of how many of our members identify as LGBTQ+, and then [that] helps us figure out what we can do to support that membership, to increase representation in that membership. I feel like inclusion and diversity are often action items — it’s very easy to invite people and include them — but you first really need to create a sense of belonging. So, what the membership resource groups do is create a sense of belonging, and give someone who is maybe Grammy-curious, and who may have joined us at a Grammy House event, to know and understand that the Recording Academy can be their home.
Dr. David Jones and Ryan Butler on Feb. 3, 2024 in Los Angeles.
Unique Nicole/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
So what specific initiatives do you see Academy Proud taking on in the coming months or years to actively court a more diverse LGBTQ+ membership base?
Well, I think the visibility of what we did this Grammys Week is going to be amazing for those who may be outside of the Academy wanting to be a part of it, or determining if they’re going to be able to become members. The visibility of having an official Grammy Week activation is huge — but I really want to make sure that we understand what support looks like for the queer community. It’s going to be different for every community. I identify as a Black, gay man; I know that we often talk about intersectionality, but for me, it’s also about indivisibility. I’m always Black, and I’m always gay, and I don’t really live my life in sections. It’s great for us to have that dialogue and to understand how the queer community feels within the music community, and what we as the Academy can do to support the community year round. So if it’s panels, discussions, surveys, gatherings, I want it to be interest-led by the community itself.
We could make a beautiful deck and say “this is what we’re going to do,” but that may not be what the community needs. It’s really important for us to be listening, and to really have a deep understanding of what support looks like. What is stopping you from joining the Recording Academy, and if you have joined, what’s stopping you from being an active member? What barriers do you see to becoming an elected leader? That’s really how we change — it’s about representation on our board of trustees, in our elected positions, as presidents of our chapters.
I know you’re still in the early stages of the initiative here, but in those early stages, has there been any particular feedback that provided a solid baseline of where to start?
I think the recognition is where we really needed to start. In the queer community, we understand that we are the innovators, we understand that we are on the front end of helping to curate and cultivate what’s happening across the culture. I think the first step was the Recording Academy recognizing that, and recognizing the contribution and the impact that the queer community has on music and other cultural areas; music, fashion, film, etc. For us to actually recognize that, I don’t think there’s many organizations that are really standing on the fact that, but for the contributions of the queer community, we would not be where we are today.
The launch of the initiative happened in tandem with this year’s ceremony, which saw a lot of historic wins for the LGBTQ+ community — alongside having a wide range of LGBTQ nominees, three of the Big Four winners were queer women. To what do you attribute this uptick in queer representation at the Grammys?
It’s really because of the hard work we’ve been doing across all of our verticals. Our philosophy is going from the inside out — we’re just now starting to see the “out” part, but the work has been in progress for years. You really have to build a place where someone feels like they belong. Yes, we could have launched Academy Proud two years ago, but we wanted to make sure the LGBTQ community felt like they belonged at the Academy. From here, we just keep moving forward and increasing the representation on our national board and in our programming, and making sure that representation is not just isolated to the month of June.
With those bigger strides, there are also areas where representation is still coming up short — there has been a noticeable lack of trans and non-binary nominees over the last few years, even as the number of LGBTQ+ nominees grew year-over-year.
We can never celebrate too early, and there’s plenty of work still to be done, but I feel like we are in a much better position now. When DE&I is being attacked in so many spaces, I am proud and honored to know that the Recording Academy stands firm in supporting it, and it’s still a part of our values, and we understand how much better we are when we have the contributions of everyone.
That’s especially true as the political right continues to push anti-LGBTQ bills and laws, including laws that aim to restrict performers’ rights to free speech and expression. How do you look at combatting those restrictions from the perspective of providing DE&I resources for the Academy’s membership?
It’s about creators, and it’s about being there 365 days a year. We’re known for Music’s Biggest Night and the awards show that we do, but we’re working through the rest of the year, not just on Grammys night. Whether it’s our advocacy and public policy team in Washington, D.C. or our DEI team, the Academy is here protecting and advocating on behalf of all creators. Whenever there is a creator in a space facing a barrier, it is our job to make sure that we eliminate that barrier, and allow that creator to be their full self.
I want to go back to talking about the trans community, though, because they are the ones being most directly affected by that legislation. With this lack of trans visibility in the music industry at large, including at the Grammys, how does this initiative specifically aim to uplift the voices not only of trans and non-binary artists, but trans and non-binary workers throughout the industry?
That work is not just isolated to Academy Proud — it’s also part of Women in the Mix, where we made a very conscious decision to not use terms like “women-identifying.” We’re here for all women — if you are a woman, you are a woman. We released our Women in the Mix study, and it was the first study that surveyed gender-diverse people in the industry. Now, we do have a baseline for that, and recommendations surrounding that. It really is about that crossover and overlap between our membership resource groups. We are absolutely dedicated to uplifting the trans community, through both Academy Proud and Women in the Mix.
Folk singer-songwriter Allison Russell made history with her first Grammy win this year for best American roots performance. While her win presents a cause to celebrate for many, some in Tennessee’s statehouse aren’t interested in congratulating the singer.
On Monday (Feb. 12), Tennessee Democratic Rep. Justin Jones criticized the House Republican Caucus Chair Jeremy Faison for blocking a resolution he proposed to honor Russell for her first win at the Grammys. While a similar resolution honoring Paramore for winning two Grammys — for best rock album and best alternative music performance, respectively — passed, Faison objected to the resolution honoring Russell, removing the resolution from the chamber’s consent calendar.
Rep. Jones vented his frustrations on X about his colleagues snubbing Russell. “Tonight my Republican colleagues blocked a resolution honoring Black American Roots artist Allison Russell for her first Grammy win,” he wrote. “[She] has worked tirelessly to foster an inclusive Nashville through her music and continues to make Black History here in Tennessee.”
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In response, Russell thanked the representative, as well as Rep. Gloria Johnson, for standing up to Faison. “That you & [Rep. Johnson] presented this resolution is a high honour,” she wrote. “That the TN GOP blocked it, I take as a compliment. Their bigotry, sadly, is on relentless display. We have a chance this year to make a real change in TN.”
Billboard has reached out to representatives for Russell for additional comment.
Both Russell and Paramore’s Hayley Williams have been outspoken against Tennessee Republicans, specifically calling out a pair of anti-LGBTQ bills that passed in March 2023, which effectively banned gender-affirming care for transgender youth throughout the state and banned public drag performances. While the so-called drag ban has since been deemed unconstitutional by a federal judge, the state’s ban of gender-affirming care was upheld by a federal court in September 2023.
In protest of the Tennessee legislature passing these anti-LGBTQ laws, Russell helped organize Love Rising, a benefit concert for the LGBTQ community that took place at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on March 20. Williams served as one of the headliners for the event, alongside Russell, Maren Morris, Jason Isbell, Sheryl Crow and more.
Speaking to Billboard last year, Russell thanked Williams specifically for participating in Love Rising. “It’s people like Hayley [Williams] taking a red-eye flight to come back from opening for Taylor Swift, because she said she’d rather die than not be there to support the trans and drag community in Tennessee,” she said. “These incredible allies are so important.”
Check out Rep. Jones and Russell’s posts below:
Start warming up your voice with a quick “Do-Re-Mi,” because this week’s epsiode of RuPaul’s Drag Race is bound to be one of your “Favorite Things” — a Rusical challenge!
In an exclusive first look shared with Billboard on Thursday (Feb. 15), the queens of season 16 are gearing up to perform in their very own parody show, The Sound of Rusic. Based around the 1959 Rogers & Hammerstein musical (and its iconic 1964 film adaptation starring Julie Andrews), the annual Rusical immediately begins stirring up tensions between the queens in the new clip.
Tasked by RuPaul to cast themselves in the production, Plasma and Morphine Love Dion both reveal to the audience that they intend to play the lead role of Mariah. “It’s, like, the reason the show has a heartbeat,” Plasma says in her confessional. Morphine quickly jumps in to add that she’s not giving up the part without a fight: “I’m just tired of being safe, so I know from the get-go, ‘B–ch, I need a leading role.’”
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But before we get to see their inevitable confrontation over the lead role, two other queens — Q and Megami — begin squabbling over the part of the “Baroness Braun,” described by Xunami Muse as the show’s villain. As both queens refuse to back down from their first choice, Plane Jane finally breaks the tension by calling for a high-stakes game of rock, paper, scissors for the role. In one round, Q covers Megami’s rock with her paper, earning the nefarious part for herself.
Speaking to Billboard last year, Drag Race executive producer Tom Campbell said that the beloved challenge format was originally intended to be “a one and done challenge” for the queens of season 6, before the producers recognized how fruitful an annual Rusical could be. “This challenge, and Drag Race itself, is like a healthy tree that grew through a crack in the sidewalk — it doesn’t make sense, it doesn’t fit the algorithm, but it touches people’s hearts and and that’s what’s important.”
Episode seven of RuPaul’s Drag Race season 16 premieres Friday, Feb. 16 at 8 p.m. ET on MTV. Watch the exclusive teaser clip above.
As Beyoncé enters her country era, the global superstar has the unequivocal support of at least one fellow artist — Reneé Rapp. During the Mean Girls star’s concert in Paris on Tuesday night (Feb. 13), Rapp delivered a faithful cover of Queen Bey’s 2016 country song “Daddy Lessons.” Dressed in a pair of baggy jeans […]
After watching Barbie fever sweep the nation last summer, RuPaul wanted to help the queens of RuPaul’s Drag Race season 16 live their own life in plastic with the show’s latest challenge.
On Friday’s episode (Feb. 9), the judges tasked the remaining batch of queens with creating their very own limited edition dolls, making a miniature outfit for their made over mannequins as well as a life-sized version that they could model down the runway. Putting the contestants’ business savvy to the test, Ru then asked the girls to brand and pitch the dolls via voiceover.
Crafting two identical high-fashion looks for both herself and her “Fantasy Edition” figurine, Q finally got the A she’s been waiting for all season, scoring her first challenge win. Meanwhile, the self-proclaimed Queen of Flips Mhi’ya Iman LePaige didn’t impress with her clashing bodysuits, while La Diva Más Latina Geneva Karr failed to live up to the judges’ expectations with what guest judge Law Roach called a “horror queen” look.
Lip synching to Janet Jackson’s 1986 hit “Control,” Mhi’ya earned her regal sobriquet; with a series of death-defying handsprings, walkovers and jump splits, the Queen of Flips handily won the battle, sending Geneva Karr driving back to Texas.
Billboard chatted with Geneva about her time on the show, her struggle with sewing challenges, her Untucked reading session with Law Roach, and what it felt like to lip sync in every single episode.
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You had quite the run on Drag Race — what has it been like to watch yourself on the show these past few weeks?
Listen, getting to actually be there and film it and everything felt like a dream. And then I get to re-experience it and watch myself every single week for the past six weeks on television, and I’m just like, “Oh my god, I actually did it. I’m on Drag Race!” It’s just all good emotions and happy thoughts. I feel fulfilled — I feel like I graduated from the school of drag!
Does it ever feel weird watching yourself back on TV?
Oh, yes. It’s definitely weird, and it forced me to realize that I do certain facial expressions that I was simply not aware of. Now, my drag family is saying, “Yeah, you do that literally all the time.” [laughs]
Girl, you have been giving us the best reaction shots all season long.
Honestly, when you’re seeing my face like that, it is 100% natural. That is me being me in a way that I cannot control.
I have to commend you on your stamina, because you lip synched every single episode you appeared in — whether it was for a win, for your life or in a challenge. How the hell were you still standing by the time you finished these five episodes?
Yeah, there was a lot of lip synching. I like to think that Mama Ru and the judges were just taking care of my health — they wanted me to get my steps in! That’s what we’re going to run with.
Of course nobody wants to be in the bottom lip sync, but this is what I do back home. If you come to a show, I’m going to be lip synching. Let’s face it, I’m not going to bust out a sewing machine and sew out and eight count [laughs]. I will be performing, dancing, giving it to you! So, it’s kind of natural for me — if I had the opportunity to not be lip synching every episode that I was in, then I would have obviously chosen not to do so.
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You certainly showed just how good of a lip sync artist you are on the show. For you, what makes a great lip sync performance?
I grew up in the old-school traditional drag style. So to me, what makes a great lip sync is learning to connect with the song and express all your feelings and emotions through the words. You don’t need tricks, stunts, splits, kicks. It’s a lip sync. You have to be able to transport people, and tell the story of the song through your face. That’s what makes a great lip sync.
You had a heartbreaking moment halfway through the sewing challenge, where you decided to fully start over and make an entirely different outfit when you ran out of fabric. What was going through your head when you made that choice?
Yeah, I felt like I had to make an executive decision to either alter the outfit that I was working on and settling for something I didn’t want, or starting over. For some reason, in that moment, with the pressure of looking around and seeing everyone doing the most, it got to my head. I figured, “Maybe I should do the most, and try to find other fabric to come up with something bigger.” I didn’t really understand that a branding challenge doesn’t necessarily mean going big and over-the-top, as long as you actually make a brand. But with the nerves and the lack of sleep, I was just not thinking correctly.
I hear that, but I also appreciated that the queens in Untucked talked about how graceful you are under pressure. You really are a pro at accepting the circumstances for what they are and not allowing yourself to crumble under the pressure!
Thank you! As a former pageant queen, I understood in my early years of doing drag that sometimes, you have to just keep that composed mentality. Even when you see everything around you crumbling, you always have to remind yourself that you are fierce, and you might just be having a bad week. You just have to keep pushing forward and fighting.
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Speaking of Untucked, I must say I was beside myself when you clapped back at Law Roach’s critiques to his face! You are a brave queen, because Law will gather the girls if he needs to.
[laughs] Listen! Ms. Law Roach had her moment already on the judges panel! I got the critiques, and I thought, “I already took it over there, and now you’re in my territory, where I’m supposed to be calm — let’s put a stop to this real quick before you get too comfortable, Miss Thing!”
Let me be clear, I love Law Roach. I genuinely loved getting read by him. He said what needed to be said, and I was honored to get that feedback, truly. I really appreciate the honesty. This was just me having fun and seeing how he would react. Not going to lie, he was a little cracked!
As you head off the show, we’d love to know — what music have you been listening to lately?
As everyone saw on the premiere, I am a big Becky G fan. I have been listening to her new songs with Ángela Aguilar (“Por El Contrario”) and Peso Pluma (“Chanel”), and of course “Guapa.” I mean, and also “Shower,” it was my first lip sync after all! I’m just really gravitating towards her music and taking in the fact that she gave me so much advice when she was on, and I got to give her a hug! Yeah, I’m definitely in my Becky G era.
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.
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
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:
There’s no need to “convince yourself” of any “delusion” — drag superstar Jinkx Monsoon is really performing at Carnegie Hall! On Wednesday (Feb. 7), Carnegie Hall officially announced their 2024-25 concert season. Among the many new shows coming to the legendary New York City venue, one in particular stood out to Drag Race; on Valentine’s […]