From Lady Gaga and Christa Aguilera, to Elton John and Gloria Gaynor, we rank the 50 most spiratnal LGBTQ+ songs to uplift the queer muny
Contents:
- FROM YMCA TO BLOOM: CHARTG THE EVOLUTN OF THE GAY ANTHEM
- THE 50 BT GAY SONGS TO CELEBRATE PRI ALL YEAR LONG
- CHER ‘BELIEVE’ AT 20: THE STORY BEHD THE WORLD’S MOST ENDURG GAY ANTHEM
FROM YMCA TO BLOOM: CHARTG THE EVOLUTN OF THE GAY ANTHEM
* gay anthems 2018 *
Three inic gay anthems turn 40 this year: Sylvter’s You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real), Gloria Gaynor’s I Will Survive and the Village People’s YMCA. The 2009 book Queer by Simon Gage, Lisa Richards and Howard Wilmot lists 10 thematic creria for gay anthems: “a big-voiced diva”, “overg hardship love”, “you are not alone”, “throw your r away”, “hard-won self-teem”, “unashamed sexualy”, “search for acceptance”, “torch song for the world-weary”, “love nquers all” and “no apologi”.
Gay pop n now, like never before, be both mastream and sexy: Troye Sivan’s Bloom is a thly veiled scriptn of losg his virgy, begng wh the playground chant of “Take a trip to my garn / I’ve got so much to show you” before the chos has him repeat, tong hard on every tough snare beat: “I bloom, I bloom, jt for you”.
THE 50 BT GAY SONGS TO CELEBRATE PRI ALL YEAR LONG
Compare that wh Bronski Beat’s Smalltown Boy, an 80s gay anthem all about havg to pe opprsn. Janelle Monáe’s Make Me Feel, meanwhile, is a bisexual update of Prce’s Kiss, wh a central rea – “That’s jt the way you make me feel / So real, so good, so fuck’ real” – payg homage to Sylvter’s earlier gay anthem. Usg terviews to -sign fans’ terpretatns of the lyrics, all three acts have cemented the songs’ stat as gay anthems.
CHER ‘BELIEVE’ AT 20: THE STORY BEHD THE WORLD’S MOST ENDURG GAY ANTHEM
” It is remiscent of gay in Lana Del Rey’s morbid attu, and post-Aids crisis gay anthems past that spoke about ath: Ja Jackson’s Together Aga, TLC’s Waterfalls, Pet Shop Boys’ Beg Borg, Gee Michael’s J to a uld jt be the more playful e of the word ath: when somethg is so good mak you jt “die”? This nstant prciple of her work, along wh her vol support for her gay brother Frankie, had tablished her as a gay favoure long before the Manchter Arena bombg.