Do you try to fit in? Or do you try to represent? That’s a dilemma LGBTQ+ artists often face. On one hand, these musicians might want to be seen as just an artist, another human making music. On the other hand, representation does matter. And so does authentically writing songs that talk about life as a queer, or gay, or trans person.
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Some audiences might think those particular songs are not for everyone. Perhaps labels think that content won’t appeal to mainstream audiences. But even when songwriters write about their reality as an LGBTQ+ person, the emotions they convey are mostly universal. Joy, pride, fear, shame, anger, or sadness. It’s all important human emotion to express, for everyone.
1. Tegan and Sara
Tegan and Sara Quin are Canadian musicians who went from playing punk music in their teens to being accomplished indie rockers to making a shift into mainstream pop music. While they never hid the fact that they are queer, it didn’t come up in their songs when they started releasing music in the late ‘90s. For a while, they actively avoided using pronouns in their songs when referring to a love interest. But over time, their writing changed. In 2007, they released The Con, which included “I Was Married.” The lyrics never mention the words gay marriage and homophobia but it speaks to the reality of being seen as a threat, of love being intercepted by outside forces, and what it feels like when one group of people wants to control and restrict other people’s lives.
Now we look up in (tell me who, tell me who)
Into the eyes of bullies breaking backs
They seem so very tough (it’s a lie, it’s a lie)
They seem so very scared of us
I look into the mirror (look into)
For evil that just does not exist
I don’t see what they see (tell them that, tell them that)
Try to control the pull of one magnet
To another magnet
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2. Sam Smith
The British singer and songwriter Sam Smith came out as gay shortly after releasing their first album in 2014 and then came out as non-binary and gender-queer five years later. Their songs went from sounding gloomy and heartbroken to joyfully celebrating life with all its struggles. The changes in Smith’s songwriting is a reflection of the songwriter’s personal evolution.
While one of their earlier songs called “HIM” still shows the struggle of feeling unwanted (Holy Father, we need to talk / I have a secret that I can’t keep / I’m not the boy that you thought you wanted / Please don’t get angry, have faith in me), the sentiments on the 2023 album Gloria are more assertive.
When Smith talked about making the album with Tom Power, host of the radio show Q, they explained: “I feel free as an artist. I feel free as a person.” One example of this new-found freedom is the song “Who We Love,” a collaboration with Ed Sheeran.
Everybody’s looking for somebody
For somebody to take home
I’m not the exception
I’m a blessing of a body to love on
‘Cause I’m not here to make friends
No, I’m not here to make friends
‘Cause I’m not here to make friends
I need a lover (I need a lover)
3. The Highwomen
In 2019, four women teamed up to form the country supergroup The Highwomen: Brandi Carlile, Natalie Hemby, Maren Morris, and Amanda Shires. Carlile is married to a woman and shares glimpses of her private life with her wife and children on social media from time to time. She is also the one who sings the lead vocals on the group’s country ballad “If She Ever Leaves Me.”
At its core the track is a sweet love song but it comes with a tongue-in-cheek message for men who have no gaydar and whose ego’s lead them astray.
I see you watch her from across the room
Dancing her home in your mind
Well, it takes more than whiskey to make that flower bloom
By the third drink you’ll find out she’s mine
I’ve loved her in secret
I’ve loved her out loud
The sky hasn’t always been blue
It might last forever
Or it might not work out
If she ever leaves me, it won’t be for you
4. Halsey
American singer and songwriter Halsey is bi-sexual, uses both she and they pronouns, and was already out as a teenager. She told Paper magazine that people in high school would “walk past me in the hallway calling me ‘dyke,’ you know what I mean? That was just a part of my reality.”
Her second studio album hopeless fountain kingdom features two songs that speak to her identity: “Bad at Love” and “Strangers.” The latter is a song about lovers who feel a distance grow between them. The lyrics could be about any relationship but Halsey is referring to a personal experience with another woman.
She doesn’t kiss me on the mouth anymore
‘Cause it’s more intimate, than she thinks we should get
She doesn’t look me in the eyes any more
Too scared of what she’ll see, somebody holdin’ me
5. Troye Sivan
Actor, singer, and former YouTuber Troye Sivan has found an unapologetic and almost carefree way to express queer joy. His second album Bloom, which was released in 2018, had fans and critics pouring over lyrics trying to decipher whether Sivan is just singing about flowers, blooming, and plums or if he might be singing about first sexual encounters, bottoming, and the slang term “fruit” for gay men. Sivan at least revealed that his song “Seventeen” is about his introduction to the gay community through an encounter with an older man.
I went out looking for love
When I was seventeen
Maybe a little too young
But it was real to me
And in the heat of the night
Saw things I’d never seen
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
Seventeen
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