The 10 best LGBTQ+ songs of 2024 – from Billie Eilish to SOPHIE
From Billie to Arca, Tinashe to Chappell, it truly was a queer woman's world this year - and weren't we just lucky to be living in it?
By Gary Grimes
Has there been a single better time to be an LGBTQ+ musician than the year 2024? From the clubs to the airwaves, this year has seen a tidal wave of queer artists, both old and new, come to dominate pop culture in ways we’ve never seen before.
Leading the charge was a growing pack of queer female artists, so plentiful they’ve carved out a whole new genre of ‘sapphic pop’ simply by virtue of existing. From Billie to Arca, Tinashe to Chappell, it truly was a queer woman’s world this year and weren’t we just lucky to be living in it?
We understand that top notch queer music was in such abundance these past twelve months that, as a listener, it can be hard to know where to begin. Allow us in that case, to take you through just a few of our absolute favourites as we count down our official Top 10 LGBTQ+ Songs of 2024…
10. Balloon – Tyler, The Creator (feat. Doechii)
Next year marks a decade since Tyler, The Creator was banned from entering the UK for three to five years due to lyrics which the government felt “encourages violence and intolerance of homosexuality” (among other things). In the years since, Tyler has continued to shock and intrigue fans with lyrics that seem to suggest that not only does he not hold homophobic views but he is, in fact, a bisexual man himself. Starting with 2017’s Flower Boy LP and continuing up right up to present day, Tyler has consistently kept fans guessing by largely refusing to discuss his sexuality in the press, instead letting his music do the talking.
‘Balloon’, a cartoonish cut from his seventh studio album, sees the rapper dropping yet more crumbs and, more importantly, having a whole lot of fun doing it. Teaming up with one of rap’s most promising ingenues Doechii, ‘Balloon’ is a braggadocious ditty in which Tyler expresses: “I don’t even like girls, bitch, I’m way up, too high.” Doechii, who is bisexual herself, echoes Tyler’s sentiment, spitting: “I’m a bi bitch, but I need that pussy now / If he is gay, then I am gay, and we are nouns.” Whatever Tyler’s sexual preferences, the track is a fantastic reminder that the rapper is at his best when he’s prioritising pleasure.
9. encore – Shygirl
Since her arrival on the scene, Shygirl has been one of the most exciting and intriguing artists releasing music. ‘encore’, a collaboration with PC Music’s Danny L Harle, is the perfect testament to what she’s all about – filthy lyrics spat out in her cool, unphazed South London drawl over skuzzy club beats. Keeping things simple, she talk sings her way through a hook up: “In the car, in my flat. Clothes come off, I’m so wet / Touch me, tease me, take me off. Fuck me up, repeat, encore.”
There is certainly something of a formula to what she does, but when it sounds this good who could complain?
8. Not My Fault – Reneé Rapp (feat. Megan Thee Stallion)
“Can a gay girl get an amen?” Reneé Rapp ponders on this single lifted from the soundtrack of the beleaguered Mean Girls musical film adaptation, in which she also starred as the villainous Regina George. And to that we say – absolutely!
Though the film left most viewers longing for the sight of Lindsay Lohan and Rachel McAdams, this infectious ode to self obsession which played as the credits rolled might have made the whole thing worth it.
The single’s lyrics are based on an audio sample from the 2004 original of Lohan’s Cady screaming “You know what, it’s not my fault you’re like in love with me or something!” to Janice, her friend about whom she’s perpetuated a rumour that she’s a lesbian. Rapp takes this tidbit and builds on it to create a breezy, disco-nodding floorfiller in which she sympathises with those who find themselves utterly transfixed by her.
Rapp, who has been at the forefront of the recent surge in ‘sapphic pop’, easily holds her own here with Megan Thee Stallion who joins for a killer verse in which she christens herself “the black Regina George.” The end result is a bratty, glittering earworm that leaves the listener suffering from a big, LESBIAN crush on both artists.
7. No Broke Boys – Tinashe
It’s hard to believe that when Tinashe came to dominate the internet and the airwaves this summer to ask “Is somebody gonna match my freak?” she had not scored a song on the Billboard Hot 100 as a lead artist since her breakout hit ‘2 On’, a whole ten years previously. In the decade that’s since passed, the singer, who came out as bisexual in 2020, has been one of the most consistent producers of cutting edge R’n’B and breathtaking visuals in the game. Although it was ‘Nasty’, the frenetic lead single from her 2024 album Quantum Baby that rewoke many people to her otherworldly talents, here we celebrate the album’s second single ‘No Broke Boys’.
Channelling the spirit of TLC, on ‘No Broke Boys’ Tinashe makes it clear that she’s not wont to settle for less. For the video, the singer assembled a troupe of her “bad ass friends” to assist in a Bring It On-ispired cheerfest, a fantastic display of the artist’s impressive chops as a dancer. Tinashe succeeds, as she usually does, in feeling at once transported from a bygone golden era of pop and also like one of the most boundary-pushing, futuristic artists releasing music today.
6. HE KNOWS – Camila Cabello (feat. Lil Nas X)
2024 was something of a bumpy year for Lil Nas X. The ‘Old Town Road’ star’s entry into the popstar documentary canon Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero came and went without much fanfare, and his purported comeback single ‘J Christ’ failed to set tongues wagging, even with all of the controversy-baiting satanic imagery which helped his last lead single, ‘Call Me By Your Name’, reach groundbreaking heights for a black, gay artist in 2021.
However, though it may not have set the charts alight, his guest appearance on ‘HE KNOWS’, the second single from Camila Cabello‘s criminally underrated album C,XOXO, is a worthy reminder that the rapper should not be counted out just yet. Joining Cabello on this pulsating, heady club banger, he offers counter programming to her coy cooing about candy necklaces and butterflies with a verse that is straight up filth. “He drippin’ down on my bustier like ice cream,” he purrs, “… let it rain on me.” Later, as you hear him instruct his partner to “shoot in my mouth, shoot in my shit,” you’re struck by the thought of what a singular figure he is in the pop mainstream right now.
The single was accompanied by a balls to the wall, classic club video, complete with pinball formation dance offs, a record scratch pause for cheesy dialogue, and a hair-pulling, finely choreographed fight scene between Camila and Nas at which Britney and Madonna themselves wouldn’t turn their nose up. This is big pop girl energy (in everything but chart position).
5. Arcamarine – Addison Rae, Arca
It’s safe to say that a year ago, a collaboration between TikTok’s finest Addison Rae and the high priestess of genre-busting alternative pop Arca seemed fairly beyond the realm of possibility. And yet, here we are 12 months later celebrating the union of these two unlikely pop entities.
Here, the trans maestro works her magic remixing Rae’s most recent single, the slinky ‘Aquamarine’, turning it into an altogether more sinister sounding affair that wouldn’t sound out of place on an Bjork album. “The world is my oyster, baby come touch the pearl,” Rae tempts us over Arca’s glitching, industrial sounding instrumental. The end result is a thoroughly strange meeting of minds which somehow works, leaving you wondering – could Addison Rae be the next FKA Twigs? Stranger things are happening…
4. Talk talk – Charli xcx (feat. Troye Sivan)
Troye Sivan surely gets this year’s award for most canny knack of knowing what to jump on and when, having first joined his bestie Ariana Grande for a remix of ‘supernatural’ at the start of the year, and later serving as one of the many guests on his other BFF Charli xcx‘s brat remix extravaganza. You can hardly hold it against him when, astonishingly, he manages to more than hold his own with both pop powerhouses as he increasingly proves himself as a formidable contender in the Big Pop Girl realm.
On his ‘Talk talk’ remix, which truthfully ends up feeling more like Troye single featuring Charli than the other way around, he slides right into the brat-o-sphere with ease. After an intro that’s punctuated by a, quite literally, phoned in shout out from Dua Lipa, Troye gets straight to business, bleating for a lover who’s taking over his mind. The song is largely unrecognisable from its orginal, equally as catchy, form, climaxing to a much TikTok-ed crescendo in which Sivan lays down the blueprint for what he has in mind over a thundering 90s house piano beat. “‘Kay, here’s the plan, I wanna fly you out to Amsterdam, I got a good hotel to fuck you in,” he spells it out. Later, he takes the words out of nearly every gay man’s mouth in 2024 when he suggests: “We could pop our shit to Charli?”
Released shortly before the pair embarked on their iconic joint Sweat Tour, ‘Talk talk’ is hopefully an indicator of where Sivan plans to take his sound in the future – away from the shmaltzy bedroom pop he cut his teeth with and straight back to the sweaty, heaving dancefloor he left us panting for more on with ‘Rush’ and ‘Got Me Started’.
3. Reason Why – SOPHIE (feat. Kim Petras & BC Kingdom)
Fans of electronic music rejoiced this year at the prospect of another full body of work from the pioneering producer and trans icon SOPHIE. After her untimely death in 2021, it was unclear as to whether we’d ever be so lucky as to hear anything from the treasure trove of her vault. Until, in June of this year, an announcement came from her family that her second album would be posthomously released under the supervision of her brother and longtime collaborator Ben Long. From first listen of ‘Reason Why’, the album’s lead single, it was evident the trailblazer was moving into new sounds and territories.
The track summons a somewhat sombre feeling – perhaps through its combination of friend and frequent collaborator Kim Petras‘s bored, woozy vocal performance, full of hollow bravado and lyrics about “gettin’ money like a DJ” paired with SOPHIE’s mellow, lilting production. Or perhaps it’s due to the fact that its mere existence is a painful reminder of the loss the world suffered when this once-in-a-generation artist left us almost four years ago.
2. Lunch – Billie Eilish
When you inhabit the queer friendly bubbles many of us do, it’s easy to not bat an eyelid at another popstar coming out. But take a step back for a moment and you’ll realise that Billie Eilish, arguably the biggest popstar of her generation, coming out as bisexual is a hugely important milestone for queer representation in the mainstream. Although she has since said she regrets ever speaking about her sexuality in public, and even blasted Variety for what she says was “outing” her, in her music at least, she has embraced her sexuality with open arms.
The release of the star’s third album HIT ME HARD AND SOFT in March heralded the arrival of Billie Eilish, sapphic pop siren. On ‘LUNCH’, one of the standout tracks from the new collection, Eilish strips things back on this sultry, innuendo-laden number in celebration of her desire to “have a vagina in my face” (to quote the woman herself). Eilish spends the track lusting over a clear-skinned sweetie named Claire and her yearning to, well, “eat that girl lunch”.
The thing about progress is, sometimes it happens without you even realising. And then one day you simply turn on the radio and hear the pop princess du jour singing: “Tell her, ‘Bring that over here’ / You need a seat? I’ll volunteer,” and you recognise that there has been a seismic shift.
1. Good Luck, Babe! – Chappell Roan
“It’s fine,” Chappell Roan croons on the opening bars of ‘Good Luck, Babe!’. “It’s cool.” It’s quite a bit more than fine and cool actually – it’s the indisuputable queer anthem of the year is what it is. After initially flying under the radar last year following the release of her debut album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, a combination of Roan’s clear artistic vision, sharp lyricism and her once small but always loud fandom slowly but surely helped the singer creep closer and closer to the top of the charts in the months that followed.
But it was ‘Good Luck, Babe!’, the lead single from Roan’s as-yet-untitled second LP that truly set the world, and the VMAs stage, on fire. The track tells the story of Roan and a female lover she once shared a beautiful dalliance with, only for her partner to retreat to a life of comfortable heteronormativity, writing the pair’s “sexually explicit kind of love affair” off as merely a phase. On the verses, Roan softly laments her lover’s denial before soaring to an exquisite falsetto on the chorus as she laughs at her attempts to forget what they had, telling her squarely: “You’d have to stop the world just to stop the feeling.”
The single builds to an oh-so-satisfying crescendo as Roan revels in the thought of her lover’s unfulfiled life, blasting her future as “nothing more than his wife” before ensuring she gets the last word with the release of an almighty battle cry, wailing “I TOLD YOU SO!” to incredible effect. The song is successful on many metrics but it’s near universal appeal comes thanks in part to it’s telling of tale as old as time, especially in the queer community. It’s marriage of melancholy storytelling over a euphoric instrumental is a tried and tested recipe for a pop classic and yet Roan makes it sound so good, you’d swear she’s breaking the mould.