THE LGBTQ+ ARTISTS SHAPING THE FUTURE OF POP MUSIC
Queer artists have always been at the forefront of cultural innovation and breaking boundaries. There’s still a hell of a long way to go regarding LGBTQ+ representation in the music industry, but we’re definitely seeing more artists than ever celebrating their queerness and using their music to defy the standards of gender and sexuality.
Check out some of the most exciting LGBTQ+ artists who are pushing pop music to new heights and destroying the cis-het norm.
The future of pop is here, and it’s unapologetically queer.
Rina Sawayama
The Japanese born, London-raised trailblazer, Rina Sawayama has taken pop music by storm with her distinctly bold and maximalist approach.
She burst onto the scene in 2017 with the release of her debut EP ‘Rina’, featuring cyber-punk influenced song writing. Tracks like ‘Cyber Stockholm Syndrome’ and ‘Where You Are’ explore themes of intimacy and alienation in our internet obsessed age.
Although she frequently pulls from nostalgic references, ranging from luxurious 90s R&B and glitzy 00s Pop, Sawayama reinvents these styles to create endlessly catchy songs that feel well ahead of the curve.
She’s spoken openly and frankly about her pansexuality, her experiences of homophobia and biphobia, and the importance of representation as an Asian woman and a member of the queer community.
In an interview with Broadly she said: “I don’t want to ‘straightwash’ myself to represent as Asian. It’s more important to me that I’m representing queer Asians, rather than just ‘Asians,’ because that’s just stripping a whole side of me.”
Her debut full length album Sawayama came out on 17th April and is a futurist pop rollercoaster, featuring singles like ‘Comme des Garcons’, a throbbing disco banger, and ‘XS’, a searing critique of late capitalism that fuses classic Destiny’s Child era R&B with thrash metal guitars. It’s safe to say that Rina Sawayama is on course to take 2020 by storm.
Dorian Electra
Gender-fluid popstar Dorian Electra’s debut album ‘Flamboyant,’ feels like a gender studies thesis filtered through the lens of PC music’s overblown bubblegum dance - with the campness turned up to 11!
Electra’s music embraces, deconstructs and transcends an array of masculine stereotypes and explores an approach to gender that completely shuns mainstream norms.
While the themes are cerebral, that never comes at the expense of the music, which is endlessly catchy and overflowing with eccentricity. Nobody makes challenging gender conventions more joyful or fun.
Dua Saleh
Before starting to make music a few years ago, Dua Saleh had garnered attention as a poet, writing from the age of 4. The performance of their poem ‘Pins and Needles’ for the YouTube channel Button Poetry now has over 150,000 views.
The Sudanese artist released the first music project ‘Nūr’, the Arabic word for ‘light’, back in 2019. For a debut EP ‘Nūr’ sounds incredibly self-assured and fully formed.
Saleh’s prowess as a poet shines through in their songwriting.The lyrics are densely packed with details and memorable flourishes, like on the track ‘Sugar Mama’ with the line: “She wonders ‘bout my flavour, those chocolate coated layers. She looks me up and down, her pussy melting like a glacier.”
For the single ‘pretty kitten’ Saleh collaborated with fans to create a music video made completely out of Instagram face filters. Saleh worked with a group of AR designers to create four different face filters and asked fans to contribute clips of themselves wearing them for the video.
The latest single ‘Moth’, is a laid back and melancholy track that features Saleh rapping and incorporates some UK grime influences into the lyrics and delivery.
Alma
Finnish singer songwriter Alma began her career as a 17-year-old contestant on the Finnish version of Idol in 2013 and has since worked with tons of different artists and producers including Charli xcx, Tove Lo, Sub Focus and Martin Solveig.
She’s been featured on chart topping singles and her own 2017 single ‘Chasing Highs’ was a huge international success and went platinum in the UK.
She’s now gearing up for the release of her debut LP ‘Have U Seen Her?’ which is coming on the 15th May. Tracks from the upcoming album, like ‘Stay All Night’ and ‘Worst Behaviour’ are absolute jams with tight pop production.
With her brightly dyed neon green hair, refreshing honesty and defiant punk attitude Alma is the breath of fresh air the pop world needs.
Chika
Political rebel and rapper Chika has gone viral on multiple occasions due to her unmatched free-styling skills.
In 2018 she shared an open-letter slash diss-track to Kayne West set to the instrumental from ‘Jesus Walks’ where she called out West on his problematic political views – within days it racked up over 5 million views.
“I’ve never gotten a reception like that to any musical thing I’ve done and I realised I was good at it,” she told TIME in April 2019.
“I just wanted to get better from that day forward. I genuinely began to feel like, if this is something I want to do with my life, I want to be the best at it. So I kept just posting more videos, writing every single night for a year, just to brush up on the skills and that’s kind of how I fell into it.”
She’s gained the support of music heavyweights like Erykah Badu, she has campaigned for body positivity and self-acceptance, and has spoken about the importance of inclusivity and representation in the fashion industry.
Her latest project ‘Industry Games’ came out this March and focuses on Chika’s journey to self-actualisation as a queer woman of colour.
On the title track she showcases her rapid-fire delivery and her refusal to let anyone else take control of her destiny: “I can hear the snakes, they hissing, trying to break my mission, ‘cause I know who I'm about to be"
Emily Burns
Emily Burns is a singer songwriter based in London whose music has received support and praise from BBC Radio 1, Liverpool Sound City and The Great Escape.
She has toured with the likes of Tove Stryke, Gabrielle Aplin and James Arthur, sold out her own headline shows in London and across Asia, and accumulated an impressive 20 million+ streams.
Burns has an amazing ability to write emotionally heartfelt and honest songs that feel irresistibly catchy and captivating. In her lyrics, she explores topics like sexuality, vulnerability and loneliness with an openness and unpretentious relatability.
Her latest single ‘Terrified’ is a timely track that taps into our shared sense of uncertainty and worry at the current state of the world.
The anxious lyrics are offset by the song’s punchy and upbeat instrumental, encapsulating that push and pull between trying to enjoy the good times while grappling with fears about what the future will hold.