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LGBTQ Artist Spotlight (with DJ John Michael)
123 Plays10 days ago
In this special Pride episode, we're turning the volume all the way up to celebrate the incredible talent, legacy, and joy of LGBTQ+ artists we love and admire. From trailblazing icons like Sylvester, George Michael, Kevin Aviance, and Boy George, to modern-day powerhouses like Darren Hayes, Olly Alexander, Troye Sivan, MNEK, and Vincint—we're giving them all their flowers.
We also show big love to HOMOPHONIC favorites and friends of the pod ZEE MACHINE and Bentley Robles, and bow down to fierce forces like Rina Sawayama, Shygirl, Betty Who, Chappell Roan, and Michaela Jaé—plus so many more.
Whether you're dancing, crying, or just vibing, this playlist is a Pride-filled love letter to queer music and the artists who keep our spirits high.
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Transcript
Manifesting Wealth and Music Surprises
00:00:09
Speaker
Let's manifest. We're manifesting money. true We're manifesting peace and love. i think you're supposed to blow cinnamon through the door on the first of the month or something. I think that's supposed to like a good attract money or something. i Oh my God. but my My neighbor like is like, what the fuck are you doing?
00:00:24
Speaker
Why does it smell like cinnamon out here? We're manifesting. I'm trying to get out of this apartment. I need my name. Exactly. Oh my gosh. Yeah. So, okay.
00:00:37
Speaker
pride, pride, a deeper love, a deeper, a deeper love pride, which can I tell you? Okay. Can I tell you, this is so like, it's so funny. I feel like my, my,
00:00:49
Speaker
My knowledge of music just is like wild and crazy. But then there are certain things that I just don't know, like
Aretha Franklin and Debra Cooper's Musical Legacy
00:00:56
Speaker
random little things. So when i heard Aretha Franklin sing A Deeper Love, Pride, I was like, oh, the Anastasia song with Tiesto?
00:01:09
Speaker
oh no. Right? Oh, no. Right. How did that one get by you? I have no idea. It's one of those things where it's like growing up, my dad had such an eclectic taste, but there were certain things that were just not part of the zeitgeist in my house.
00:01:25
Speaker
and so And one of them was – it's not that he didn't like Aretha Franklin. mean, i knew I knew respect and things like that, but – I don't think the the heterosexual community probably looks at that as one of her big tracks.
00:01:36
Speaker
Right, right. and Just in general. It should be. No, it definitely is. I mean, it's on all her like her greatest hits albums. Yeah. It was a big hit for her, but she's actually not the original version either. Right. It was by Debra Cooper.
00:01:49
Speaker
Debra Cooper. CNC Music Factory featuring Debra Cooper. Yeah. Debra Cooper has had some incredible club tracks. She also has a track with Tony Moran called Live You All Over that I live for. she did a track with Victor Calderon, which is probably my favorite Victor Calderon track. Are you satisfied? i was to say, you said that to me, I think last year. Yes.
00:02:07
Speaker
And you were like, I think you're going to love this. And boy, were you right. like It is Because, and the, ugh. I actually, i believe I made Tommy Boy put that on streaming so that way I could see if I could get on Peloton. And it's so terrible because Debra Cooper, not that you're listening to this, but if that word ever gets out, I'm trying to take care of your publishing in a way that I can't describe because I do want to support you
Record Labels and Artist Struggles
00:02:28
Speaker
Oh my God. You're such an angel. Like, ah it isn't Tommy Boy records, they're kind of like, kind of shitty. Yeah.
00:02:34
Speaker
Or at least they were. At least they were. Yes. So they they Tommy Boy has now been absorbed by a company called, I believe it's Reservoir, that owns them. So it's a new company that sort of manages the catalog.
00:02:46
Speaker
And all of the people that Tommy Boy, I guess, was sort of famous for, famousme infamous for maybe, um are no longer part of it. So... Amber, if you follow, I guess we'll you know start talking about old gay club music.
00:02:58
Speaker
Amber, from back in the day, she was very famously on Tommy Boy Records and had a very big falling out with them and just like couldn't get the rights to her masters and just like all this other stuff and was in like a battle for quite some time. She had talked about this many, many times on her Instagram.
00:03:13
Speaker
So, ah yeah. And then it it was just, I want to say maybe a few years ago when i I was familiar with the company Reservoir that manages, I think, a few labels. Like, I'm not... There's so much...
00:03:24
Speaker
of who owns what now and like what record label gets absorbed under which catalog. It's so intense that I can't can't keep track of it all. Anyway, yeah but Tommy Boy got bought by another company and it's been really, really interesting because they've had a much more of greater social media presence and they have legendary catalog, a legendary catalog. There's nuts between the early hip hop and like the early dance stuff. It really is. It's great, but.
00:03:48
Speaker
Yeah, so that that was a Tommy Boy one, and I live for Are You Satisfied. If you do not know that, you should go to Spotify and stream that and give Victor Calderon Debra Cooper some coins. Give them some coins. It is such a good track. That is my sweet spot of dance music, is that late early Y2K. 13 Minutes.
00:04:07
Speaker
thirteen minutes 13 minutes of just bliss, in my opinion. Right, right, right. Could be longer. No, it's so wild.
00:04:18
Speaker
Oh my God. What's funny about Pride of Deeper Love is that I felt like you either knew it for one of two reasons. Like if you knew the Aretha version, you were more like the pop girl, but like the club kids always knew the
Dance Music Evolution
00:04:30
Speaker
Deborah Cooper version. So that was the one like Junior would play and like David Morales would play, like was always the the Deborah Cooper one.
00:04:35
Speaker
I love that. Mainstream always had the Aretha Franklin version. But I got to be honest, as much as I love them both, I probably play the Aretha one a little bit more. Yeah. i I'm only familiar with the Aretha... run ah Oh, wow. I can't even say that. Aretha one.
00:04:49
Speaker
I almost said Urethra. Oh, my God. So um so anyway, but... um But yeah, I want to hear the Deborah Cooper version. Are they? are Because it's both they're both produced by um CNC Music Factory.
00:05:02
Speaker
Yeah. Are they are they so very different sounding? Yeah, there are definitely different versions of it. I mean, they're similar. They're definitely similar for sure. But sure. There's definitely nuances and stuff that are different throughout.
00:05:14
Speaker
yeah But they would do that all the time. like but They had so many different studio projects that they were working on, C&C Music Factory. And actually, this is this is probably a good segue into this whole thing, because half of C&C Music Factory was, in fact, a very talented homosexual David Cole.
00:05:28
Speaker
That's right. That's right. Welcome back to Homophonic, everybody. That's a hell of an intro. That's a
Honoring LGBTQ Musical Contributions
00:05:34
Speaker
hell of an intro. We'll probably start with the cinnamon part. right The cinnamon cinnamon, you know, manifesting money and get out of the this apartment. um But we wanted to take a ah moment to really honor and just reflect on a bunch of LGBTQ queer artists, DJs,
00:05:52
Speaker
Because it's pride. and And why not? Why not? And I just feel like so many of these artists, you know, i feel like we're finally getting into a time where we're starting to revere more and more queer artists, but for so long they were unsung or there was a few, we had a handful, but you know, we saw their careers quote unquote decline, if you will, in the mainstream once they came out, things like that. yeah,
00:06:18
Speaker
Yeah, I mean. Well, and I think it's also like, it's important now more than ever, you know, to sort of like wrap arms around the community and give them a chance to celebrate because what I also noticed and I was saying this to my team at work today is that, you know, there's only so many like frontline LGBTQ identifying artists like when you think of like mainstream success, there really isn't like a very, very long list.
00:06:42
Speaker
The majority of these artists are independent artists or are with indie labels. So yeah I also love the idea of sort of like supporting that as well, because it's really, really hard out there when you're an independent artist and you're,
00:06:54
Speaker
that that you so You sort of walk this line of like self-sabotage all the time because you're not sure. I'm like, am I talking about it too much? Am I being too cringe? Am I being too this? And it's like, you're the one making all the decisions. It's a lot. It really, really is a lot.
00:07:05
Speaker
so ab Absolutely. And I mean, of obviously, Friends of the Pod, Z Machine, and ro Bentley Robles, they talk about that all the time. That's true. They have to do everything. I mean, Z was kind of talking about that a little bit when when we met back in Detroit. And I was just like, in my head, I was just like, I don't know how you do this. That's what I mean. like I have such a hard time like making content even for the things that I do that I'm like, i the idea, and I watch them every day on social media, killing it with some type of video concept, something, and I'm like, that, your brain, that it's it's spinning at that mile an hour is is wild to me.
00:07:39
Speaker
Right, yeah. But that seeing that much through, that's such an accomplishment. Yeah. Yeah. So where do we even begin? Because I feel like, I mean, we have like some LGBTQ artists of yesteryear. We've got the new kids these days. Right. where ah We've got we've got club artists. We've got pop artists. We've got disco R&B like we can go anywhere.
00:08:01
Speaker
And I'm waiting I'm down to go anywhere. Right, and I think that there's, the thing that I find about a lot of gay artists, at least in interviews that I watch, is that they are very sort of like respectful to the ones that came before. Like when you think of like the Sylvester's from the 70s, you know, that were sort of like owning such a queer space, especially as a black queer, you know, man, it it was really, really wild at the time.
00:08:24
Speaker
And to have such mainstream success as well, you know, yeah it was just nuts. And it's like, how many people that affected? Right. And now here's here's the other thing. Here's, what again, where my my I have a blind spot in my music history.
00:08:40
Speaker
I know I've heard the name Sylvester, and I've probably heard their music. Absolutely. But I could not tell you a single Sylvester song right now. but you know them. i you' would you know Give me one. you You Make Me Feel Mighty Real. Adam Lambert just did a cover of it few years ago.
00:08:54
Speaker
I do. I know. like Okay. Right. dance Dance Dance Disco Heat would be another one that you might you probably know. And the background singers on almost all of his music are the Weather Girls. Oh, get out of here. Yeah. It's Isora Armstead and Martha Wash.
00:09:09
Speaker
Oh, my God. That's incredible. Yeah.
Historical LGBTQ Artists and Influence
00:09:11
Speaker
They were originally, before they were the Weather Girls, they were a group called Two Tons of Fun. Wow. That's who was the Sylvester's backup girls. If that ain't a pride miracle, then i don't know what is. Which then, Martha then went to C&C Music Factory and was working doing vocals for them and is the original voice on the Seduction Project, You're My One and Only True Love, which then Michelle Visage and the group later re-recorded.
00:09:31
Speaker
There's such like a thread through all of it. It's so wild. Yeah. Gays really, really were moving and shaking from the 70s through the 90s especially. and even Earlier, I mean, like, we don't typically talk about, like, music from, like, the 20s and 30s. But, like, I remember when I was doing, ah i have a minor in LGBTQ studies. And I don't remember. I didn't know that. I do. I love that. I know a historian. Yeah.
00:09:56
Speaker
She said I read books. I read books. the What's terrible, though, is that I don't recall a lot of the information because I don't use it. And so um I want to be better about that. But I remember reading about, like,
00:10:08
Speaker
Kind of back in the, I want to say it again, it was the nineteen twenty s or 30s that like kind of their LGBTQ people would have house parties yeah and music would be playing in the living room and people would dance. And it was like the only place where people could be themselves authentically. And that's kind of where the club scene quote unquote kind of began. Right. This is like the Cole Porter era.
00:10:31
Speaker
Yeah. You know, he was one of those people that was like, you know, having all these sort of parties and was, you know, with women, with men and just what ah what it was, what it was. Yeah.
00:10:41
Speaker
We were, we've always been around. We have always been around. Right. and Something that I like to tell people, and it's I don't always do the best way of articulating this, but like the word, the whole concept of sexuality didn't come about until the late 1800s. So obviously sexuality has been around since the dawn of time.
00:11:04
Speaker
Right. But the concept of it and the way that we understand it as it is today did not come about until the late eighteen hundreds so like when people try to use the word homosexual in the Bible, I'm like, babe, like that concept that we know of it as today did not exist back whenever that was, you know, did you see the, did you see the movie 1946?
00:11:29
Speaker
did I see 1946? ah It's not been like readily available everywhere, but it's like a whole thing about how the word homosexual actually did not appear in the Bible until the year 1946 when it was translated specifically to mean that with an agenda behind it.
00:11:46
Speaker
Right. Yeah. there I'm trying to remember. Was this a more recent documentary? Yeah. Yes, I want to say it it it kind of was a COVID thing, I feel, is when I became aware of it.
00:11:57
Speaker
And then it was like, they had like a couple of online screenings, which is where I saw it, but it was like you could only see it for like 24 hours. And then they've been sort of like shut shipping it around from like film festival to film festival. But they have an Instagram presence where they have clips from it and stuff. And it really is just, it was so crazy to watch them break it all down. But yeah. Yeah. I need to see. i have not seen it. There is another move or another documentary called, I think for the Bible tells me so. Oh, I might've seen that.
00:12:22
Speaker
Yeah. That used to be on Netflix, like, like 10 years ago. And I loved it. yeah I would like force anyone that would question me and and and you know my religion or whatever, I'd be like, you need to watch this. right And yeah, it they're people need to be educated on what the Bible says. but But the thing is, is that you look throughout the history of time and we have persevered through all of it. We have been there through all of it. We have been next to everybody hand in hand as humans through all of it.
00:12:53
Speaker
It's only like, I just don't get I don't get it. Whatever. We could go into that whole thing. But it's like, so I bring it all back just to say that to see somebody at the time in like the seventies when like the sexual revolution was, I mean, before then you had like Liberace on TV doing her thing and like, you know, flipping her coats around. And that's,
00:13:15
Speaker
I'm saying too much. I'm trying to say too many things at the same time. But it's like when I look at people like Liberace or I look at people like Sylvester, and I look at people like Boy George from the 80s and you hear people being like, had no idea.
00:13:27
Speaker
Did you? Right. Are you headless? Right. don't understand. What do you mean you had no idea? Like Boy George is like a kabuki doll. What are you talking about? Like what?
00:13:40
Speaker
Right. Yeah. Like Liberace, you thought that man was dating women. Right. And it kind of, it kind of, I feel like it, you know, cause people want to be like, well, I don't want to stereotype whatever, blah, blah, blah. And it's yeah, like get that.
00:13:53
Speaker
But there's a reason they exist too. Exactly. Like, it's like, come on. Like, right I don't know. And it's, yeah. So, I mean, shout out to these people.
00:14:05
Speaker
Right. forerunners right who were not afraid to be themselves in these public settings so totally you know so far back years and years ago well that's it because now it's like when i look at the list of artists that you sent me i'm looking and i'm like there are so many indie artists on here that are able to even do the thing that they love and are good at because by virtue of the internet now, because you can literally do everything yourself and it's not needed, you know, for, to have a big label or anything behind you anymore. Like it helps definitely. It absolutely helps, but it's like, it's not necessary. You can still put your art out and be celebrated. And I think that's the wonderful thing about today.
00:14:43
Speaker
Right. Who, who do you think is like the earliest openly gay artist that you can think of in terms of like pop music, club music?
00:14:56
Speaker
Well, Sylvester definitely comes to mind. um In the seventies. I don't know that he was open, but Johnny Mathis was, is definitely one. Barry Manilow, not open, I don't know, but I don't know when he sort of... Right. It's like there's that there's that era from like the 50s, 60s, 70s where things were sort of blending and in the Rock Hudson of it all and Montgomery Clift and all of these guys that were playing these like butch-butch men on TV that were secretly having these like, you know, closed door parties with tons of men. Like, and it's Sal Mineo and Marlon Brando and there was like, yo, always whispers about these guys. But I feel like it really wasn't until the 70s where you could in this sort of sexual revolution, which disco is the background music and soundtrack of, you know, have that moment where somebody like Sylvester could thrive. Because I feel like that that gave way to people like Boy George and et cetera, et cetera.
00:15:51
Speaker
Right. Yeah. Oh my gosh. It's crazy. It is crazy. yeah It is crazy. And then like, it and then, you know, so an artist that comes to mind, cause I mentioned earlier about, you know, there were whisperings, if you will, about their sexuality for quite some time, but it wasn't until they were essentially outed 1998 that,
00:16:14
Speaker
um when they came out and then they saw their career, at least here in America, take a huge nosedive in terms of commercial success and then talking about George Michael. Right.
00:16:25
Speaker
um And it's it's so crazy to me because it just goes to show you how much people can feel so strongly in one way, no matter how talented you actually are, because arguably,
00:16:36
Speaker
up there in the upper echelon, if there were like a vocal trinity for me of men, he's in there. Totally. You know, the songwriting, the the the instrumentation, the arrangement, like the man was just music on legs.
00:16:49
Speaker
Yeah. And stunning. Yeah. Stunning. Gorgeous. Gorgeous. My gor God, this man was gorgeous. Gorgeous, gorgeous man. And I have to say, the way he handled the situation, creating creating outside and making a music video and spoofing the whole incident. For those who for those listening that don't really know what we're talking about, George Michael was...
00:17:08
Speaker
ah essentially cruising in the bathroom and, but he was approached by an undercover police officer. right That's entrapment. It is entrapment. Right. And, um and he was arrested for public indecency or whatever. And then, um but yeah, but then he created the song outside, which is a fantastic disco song. Fantastic. And he looks incredible in the video.
00:17:30
Speaker
incredible in the video and i just love the way he sings so low in the song ah I think I'm done with the sofa I'm like I can't even get that low I'm like i too gay I'm 2k I'm so good but it's so good but I mean like i you know George Michael is one of those figures father figure father figure fantasy if you will um who i don't know like i grew up with his music my dad loved him right um and i don't remember really any whisperings about his sexuality because maybe i was just too young and right you know for people but but later i then learned that people had kind of wondered about him
00:18:14
Speaker
And I even think about Madonna giving him the ah the Vanguard Award back in like 89. And she was like the diva himself, George Michael. Right. I'm like, oh, she knew.
00:18:25
Speaker
shut Come on. Are you kidding me? They were kiki-ing. Like, come on. Right. Like, there is no way. i How fun would that have been to a party to go to a party with Madonna and George Michael?
00:18:38
Speaker
Okay, I think of that the same way I think of there is a photo set that exists from, i don't know if it's one party. I think it's one party. It might be a couple of parties of Freddie Mercury and Samantha Fox. Every time I see them and they're like singing together and they're like dancing at a party and I'm like,
00:18:53
Speaker
i would give my right arm to be in that room. I wouldn't even know what to do. ah Literally. Yeah, incredible. that That would be insane. But Freddie would be another one. like Yep.
00:19:05
Speaker
Out, not out. Elton John, out, not out. you know We're still sort of like bisexual and doing that sort of thing, which felt like it was probably necessary at the time. oh absolutely Oh, absolutely necessary, especially in the 80s. Right. But again, you look back at all of these men and it's like, there is no question.
00:19:23
Speaker
No question. You know? So it's like, it's, but I feel like, yeah, those are the ones because like, if you don't have Freddie Mercury, you don't really have Adam Lambert. You don't really have George Michael. You know, you don't really, there's a lot of that, like our, our gay ancestors.
Darren Hayes' Musical Journey
00:19:37
Speaker
Right. Yeah. Oh, gay ancestors. It's literally RIP boys. Right. Well, bringing the mood down. No, but then you get into like, when you get into the nineties and you get into people like Darren Hayes,
00:19:51
Speaker
Yes. Darren Hayes. We'll never, ever get enough flowers in this life as far as I am concerned. ah ah Completely agree. For those of you that don't know who Darren Hayes is Darren Hayes is the lead singer of Savage Garden, who had huge hits in the 90s like I Want You, Truly, Madly, Deeply, To the Moon and Back. That is my favorite.
00:20:09
Speaker
and love that one the moon and back i think is one of his most lyrical masterpieces i actually have to pull it up keep talking about him yeah it's so good one of my favorites from that album it's crazy it's crazy because like savage garden was such a global phenomenon they only have two albums right right two albums and one of my favorites from the first album uh is tears of pearls oh It's so fun. It's so good.
00:20:37
Speaker
It's so, so good. yeah um The way that Darren's voice, is that a falsetto? I'm not good at these like vocal terms, but like. think that she's a high tenor into a falsetto. Yeah. Like just the way his voice just, he's able to get so high and he's just.
00:20:54
Speaker
But it's the control. Yeah. The, the, the control between like head chest voice, like it's just, it's really, it's wonderful. It really is. And that, I mean, and i listening to that album, um it really is unique, I don't know, like growing up, I was like, oh, this is just, you know, this is just how music is made. But like looking back, I'm like, it's such a unique blend of pop, dance and rock music. Yep.
00:21:21
Speaker
And just sonically, like there's an ah there's a song that's not on the US version of the album called All Around Me um that was released as a single in Australia um that is very like, it that it's like Michael Jackson meets...
00:21:38
Speaker
David Bowie meets Darren, his own flair. Like it's just so yeah yeah, he's so good. and He's so good. And it's like, it's, it's not even just the Savage Garden, the solo stuff. If there's ever a catalog to like, really like spend some time in his solo catalog across the last two decades really is, is just full of incredible, like bright spots.
00:21:59
Speaker
Yes, absolutely. Especially. So one of my personal favorites, I loved popular. I love it popular. That came out back in like 2000. It was like somewhere like 2003, 2004. Incredible. Guido from Razor and Guido did mixes of that.
00:22:13
Speaker
He sure did. And it's, those are so good. RIP. We love you. He died. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Many, many years ago. Really? Yeah. that's so sad. I know. Sorry, everybody.
00:22:26
Speaker
We love, we love. We love. um But also, I mean, Darren's latest album, Homosexual. Love. fantastic love Also, fucking love the title. Right, like just own it Just owning it yeah And every song on the album is like six minutes or longer yeah um There was a song oh it was one of the It was one of the singles from the album ah That was a tribute to the Pulse Nightclub victims Oh, hold on Shoot, I am looking it up It is homosexual Darren Hayes
00:23:02
Speaker
Is it All You Pretty Things? All You Pretty Things. Yeah. All You Pretty Things. And very much inspired by I Feel Love by Donna Summer. It's like a nine minute song. It's fantastic.
00:23:13
Speaker
And I feel like he's good at that when it comes to referencing. Oh, first of all, I just have to say his album from 2007, This Delicate Thing We've Made. i that is one, like, I actually, like, I ordered the DVD from, like, Australia and had that shit imported. I was like, I need to see this. like i Same! Like, obsessed. Like, I still own it. I live. But, like, Casey, Oh, my God.
00:23:36
Speaker
Like, okay, so there are currently 340,025 streams of Casey on Spotify. I'm at least forty thousand of them if not more i and i would have no other way like that is such an incredible album, such an incredible song. yep In fact,
00:23:54
Speaker
in my personal opinion, it's probably one of my favorite albums of all time. Oh yeah. The whole thing from start to finish is just this sonic atmospheric perfection that he really dives into like electronic music. Like the yeah opening number is so good. The way that with all like the vocal stutterings that like kind of build and build and build. And then, oh my gosh. Oh yeah. But I will say, I think that Darren hit his pop stride for me at Secret Codes and Battleships.
00:24:26
Speaker
Oh my God. What a great album. It is like incredible pop song after incredible pop song. Like there just, it is, there are so many, like you want to talk about songs we don't talk about enough. This album is full of them.
00:24:39
Speaker
Yes. God walking into the room, which I will forever say is like, is, is inspired by like a prayer. ah hu hundred percent. Which, which there is an incredible mashup done by Wayne g um who mashes up like a prayer with God walking into the room.
00:25:00
Speaker
And it, and he, it's his take on the sticky and sweet tour version, which mashes up like a prayer with, with Mac feels like home, which is my favorite. And it's just, so it's essentially this like three way mashup that is, oh my God, I put me in that threesome. Like it's so good. yeah And I think if I, if I remember correctly, this could be salacious gossip. So Darren, forgive me.
00:25:26
Speaker
ah Um, ma brit come on the show and we'll talk about it. But I think Wayne G might have been, they might've been dating at one point. oh that I don't know. Yeah, I don't. It would make sense because I feel like he did a bunch of remixes. He did a yeah bunch of remixes for Darren. So I want to say starting with popular.
00:25:43
Speaker
yeah And then he did darkness. He did an unreleased remix for i like um I like the way um he did. yeah And he did stuff through the ah this delicate thing we've made.
00:25:56
Speaker
So, yeah. But like, don't give up. Incredible. Talk, talk, talk. Black out the sun. Bloodstained heart. Incredible. Hurt. I can make you hurt. Oh my God. i Stupid mistake. I can't, like, I'm going to, Darren, if you ever hear this, I will be listening to this, like on repeat after this episode. Literally. There's also a song. I want to say it was a B-side to one of the singles. Cause Darren loves B-side. He loves B-side.
00:26:20
Speaker
Um, I want to say it's called Wrecking Ball. It has nothing to do with Miley's Wrecking Ball. Great song as well. like So, so good.
00:26:31
Speaker
um God, and ah he's also a huge Madonna fan. Oh, yeah i mean, clearly. Clearly. huge madonna fan i mean he's done several covers he's done a cover of angel he's done ah cover he did a cover of dress you up that was stylized like the reinvention tour version demo that leaked and so when i heard that i was like baby homosexual homosexual homosexual right yeah um I love.
00:27:02
Speaker
It's so good. Right. um I would love a documentary on him. Absolutely. i would i I hope he's ah into that because I would love to like hear his story because I know he just came a book. I haven't read the book yet, Unlovable.
00:27:15
Speaker
Yeah, no, I haven't read it either. um Which is named after one of his songs from The Tension and the Spark. um But, I mean, i think that it would translate – I feel like his story would translate really well to a documentary. Absolutely. Maybe a docuseries or something because yeah it's fascinating. He's a brilliant songwriter and – ah Insatiable.
00:27:35
Speaker
Another Victor Calderon remix, which is fantastic. Fantastic. Yes. In fact, I like the Victor Calderon remix better than the original version. Work. Ooh. And another song from that from that album. Say it. Crush.
00:27:47
Speaker
Yes. 1980 Me. Yes. I knew you were going to say that. Oh my God. So good. And that song, ah one of the single versions, ah there was a popular mashup at the time that mashed it up with Holiday, Madonna's Holiday. Oh yeah.
00:28:01
Speaker
You know who would kill a version of Crush? Who? Z Machine. Oh my God. I'm just saying if there's a covers project. Z, if you don't know this song, Crush, 1980 Me, you need to look it up.
00:28:16
Speaker
Tell us your thoughts. Get back on the pod. Tell us your thoughts. We'll help produce. Exactly. no problem. it would be right That would be really good. Yeah, I'm into it. Yeah. Yeah. jar because And then I feel like from Darren, like we go there's like a line that you can thread to Ali Alexander and that that generation and the Troye Savans and like
Modern LGBTQ Artists: Challenges and Contributions
00:28:35
Speaker
that sort of stuff. like that's it's like it's It's all the ones before leading up to today, the girls from today.
00:28:40
Speaker
Yes. and Ali Alexander is so talented. So talented and does not get the flowers. No, not at all. Especially Night Call, specifically that album that came out.
00:28:51
Speaker
um Watch that that came out what two, three years ago now? What is time? And it's so of the community. Of the community. I mean, the song Night Call itself is all about, you know, hooking up when you're feeling horny late at night, which I'm like, I don't know anything about. is she?
00:29:07
Speaker
don't know anything about. Who is she? um But there was a song called Muscle that is super, super cunty that I love. um He also did, what was that that? That was the album with Starstruck, which got a remix with Kylie Minogue. Yep.
00:29:21
Speaker
Which we love. We love, we obviously love Kylie. i Honorary gay man, if you will. I mean, at this point, at this point. But like, I, I, what was it? Dizzy? I have been obsessed.
00:29:34
Speaker
um Since this album came out. Polari? Obsessed. Yes. I wish the title track was longer. I know that say it every time. no But like, it's such a, such a, cause Danny L. Har, what is it again? a Harley? har Harl?
00:29:49
Speaker
Danny L. Harl. Denny L. Harl, he's the producer of that album. Yes. And so... But yeah, I mean, such an experimental track. And...
00:30:00
Speaker
Yeah, he's just so good. And he was also in that movie, or not so not the movie, ah the HBO series It's a it's a Sin, which I bawled my eyes out. Like dry heave.
00:30:11
Speaker
yeah Yeah. Like I have it somewhere in my Snapchat memories. Like me, like snot running out of my nose. My eye looks like I like just lost a family member. right but But he was so good in it. So good.
00:30:26
Speaker
Yeah. so So good. And I love it. and always has good remixes. Yes. Always has good remix. The Jody Harsh mix of When We Kiss, I love. Big fam. Yeah. Yeah. um And I'm glad that he's like doing stuff on his own now because I know that he, and know that, so he was part of Years and Years.
00:30:42
Speaker
They had success with a couple albums. And then I think that was with Night Call. Um... that he was He was still using the Years and Years moniker, but I believe he was solo at that point. Right.
00:30:54
Speaker
and so and Which I get. like You're you know trying to maintain a brand. and Absolutely. and what I'm sure there's probably label stuff too with you know legal and whatnot. Right. by um Yeah, but I mean, he's he's a great counterpart to Troye Sivan, as you just mentioned.
00:31:09
Speaker
Right. Which Troye has seen really cool transformation in his sound, because when he first started, was very different than the music that he makes now. it was Very.
00:31:21
Speaker
the Blue Neighborhood, though? really really good have a hard time listening to it yeah i have a hard time listening to it because i was in a little bit of a depressed state of mind in in life at that time so i listened to that album a lot because it helped get me through some of it but now when i go back to listen to it um it's not that it's yeah i guess it is a little hard like no absolutely i i think we all have the and this is the most random one and it's probably the gayest example ever but i actually have that with dido's no angel
00:31:52
Speaker
I love that. It's so random, but it's like such a very specific time in my life with very specific people involved that are like, it's it's it's truly a moment in time.
00:32:04
Speaker
Yeah. yeah But you know what song I love from Blue Neighborhood? Which? It is his song with Betty Who, Helen. Always. It's so good. It's so good. A Jack Antonoff produced track kind of before he became the Jack Antonoff that we know. Right, right.
00:32:21
Speaker
um That song, for those of that don't know the song, it's ah it's in like an electro pop ballad about um basically like wondering if he needs to give up who he is in order to go to heaven.
00:32:36
Speaker
Yeah. And which I think that the LGBT community knows all too well. Absolutely. There's so much spiritual violence thrown against us all the time. Right. um And it's always, you know, there's obviously a lot of direct spiritual violence in terms of, you know, pray the gay away, yada, yada, yada.
00:32:54
Speaker
a lot of indirect, though, too. and i will say absolutely. I would argue that that's probably what we experience more, and that's why it gets so ingrained in us and why there's so much internalized homophobia in our communities and things like that, because...
00:33:11
Speaker
these things are so woven into our brains about like what we're supposed to act like and be and, and be, our you know, how we need to be for God and yada, yada, yada.
Spirituality in LGBTQ Art
00:33:21
Speaker
Well, and I think it's also, it's, a I don't, I think that there's something to be said for having faith versus being part of a religion. And I think that it's the conflating of those two that generally leads to trouble because it's like,
00:33:35
Speaker
i have absolutely no problem with anybody having faith, and I think that you should have faith in something, whether it's a God you believe in or whatever it is. I don't really care. But you should have faith. It should be something that keeps you afloat. So whatever that is, you can...
00:33:47
Speaker
inner being, whatever. But it's the organized religion because once you have something that is made by men, it is now not infallible. And you you know it's there it's bound to be corrupted, which we have seen time and time again, especially with religion. So it's like you're doing all these terrible things in the name of a God that is supposed to be whatever. I don't have to explain this. you know Everybody knows this.
00:34:10
Speaker
But it really is just kind of nuts and like how we're sort of demonized throughout all of this while not acting like demons. is just crazy. yeah but But I also think that it has informed so much incredible queer art.
00:34:24
Speaker
Yes. Oh, absolutely. You know, so it's like, I don't think that we would have so many of the artists or so many of the songs, whatever that we have now, even like somebody like David Archuleta, which I want to say, and i'm i i was I was upset at myself that I didn't mention it last episode for World Pride because I saw him.
00:34:39
Speaker
And let me tell you, Give it to me. Not only can this man, say im first of all, he's adorable. He's absolutely adorable. And I love that for him. And whoever is styling him and doing the whole, like, the hair, what the hair looks like and what the clothes look like, you're killing it dead on.
00:34:55
Speaker
Love it. But, like, he did a cover of George Michael's Freedom. Stop. It was so good. i was like, there has to be a version of this. And I ah very particular about this song.
00:35:07
Speaker
Yeah. I do not like to hear many people do George Michael at all. I'm not interested for the most part. But his was so good and it was so good live. And he was just hitting it. And it felt so like, I think what I realized watching him perform Freedom was that what a lot of people are lacking in it is the trueness to what is behind this song is the actual opinion and feeling of the gay man that wrote this and what he was feeling in his lived experience going through this.
00:35:38
Speaker
yeah And JLo also did it at her show for World Pride and Lord love her. You know, I love me some JLo. We love JLo. It was cute, but it was cute and I loved it and I think it's great. And thank you so much. And I'm i'm totally here for it. But, Yeah, it was the tone was completely different hearing it from David. And I felt it for the first time where I was like, this is why it never really made sense with other people.
00:36:01
Speaker
Yeah, because I feel like you have to be something innate to our community to really truly understand where George was coming from. Right.
David Archuleta's Personal and Musical Growth
00:36:09
Speaker
That's my soapbox. Right. i I love that soapbox. No, you're you're spot on. And David Archuleta's journey is so... I just remember, because I remember when he was on American Idol. First of all, I love David Archuleta.
00:36:21
Speaker
tom His song, Touch My Hand, is an absolute banger. Should have been a huge hit, like Crush. um And also his version of Joy to the World. Love. I love Mariah's version. They're just both very different than his version.
00:36:35
Speaker
I will always try to sing like him in the car, especially where the the part really, really belts at the end. Right. And I'm like, we're almost there. And I'm like, maybe not actually. i It's so good.
00:36:49
Speaker
um Oh my God. Wait, am I just noticing that he has released it? Oh my God. He has released it this year. Oh, perfect. Oh my god I had no idea. Look at me. I'm a bad fan. Let's celebrate that. Yes. I'm excited.
00:37:00
Speaker
But i just remember on American Idol, I remember like as as early as his like days where he was you know trying to win on the show, there were conversations about him being potentially gay.
00:37:11
Speaker
And this is a young kid. gene Right. Yeah. Like when I look at his first album cover, I'm like, this is a child. A child. A child. This is a child. With his like red it looked looked like one of those like affliction shirts. And oh my gosh. The Ed Hardy of it all.
00:37:27
Speaker
There was a song on that album called My Hands, think. I don't know if I remember it. And the lyrics do not make sense. Stop.
00:37:39
Speaker
um i'm in ah my hands david archuleta i'm looking at the lyrics right now um because i need the listeners to hear this because it's hysterical so okay this is the first verse accidentally on purpose i dropped my watch behind the tire through my alarm clock inside the fireplace yeah and i put the parental control on on the news on the weather channel i'm outside in my robe i'm looking for you What? What? This is this is this is a closeted gay boy trying to talk about a girl.
00:38:14
Speaker
Wait, hold on. Let me view the credits. Hold on. Okay, so he did not write this. No, right not at all. I don't know whoever, Emmanuel Kirikou and James Fauntleroy, i know that name, and Zucon Bay.
00:38:25
Speaker
Yeah. This sounds like some stuff that wasn't written in English first. Right. You know what I mean? Maybe. right Maybe. Maybe they were like writing it in Swedish or something like that. That's what I mean. like that's tren Yeah. Right. It could veryary very, very well be that.
00:38:37
Speaker
The melodies, though, of this song is incredible. Yeah. Incredible. So it kind of doesn't matter. It's kind of like ah one of those, like, I want it that way things where like, when you listen to the lyrics, you're like, oh, this doesn't really make sense. But the melody is great.
00:38:48
Speaker
Even Britney Stronger when she says, you know, you're not my property I'm not your property as from today. Right. What? As from today. I'm like, that you wouldn't say that. That's little weird. Meanwhile, I have darn Darren Hayes writing lyrics. Like, wait, I'm going to read you my favorite lyrics.
00:39:05
Speaker
Give it to me. this is The second verse, and I wanted to say this before, the second verse into the bridge of To the Moon and Back, I think is so brilliant because he's such an incredible storyteller. And this song specifically, how it lays out, I don't know who he's talking about. I've never looked it up.
00:39:21
Speaker
but it's about some person or a girl. And the verse is, she can't remember a time when she felt needed. If love was red, then she was colorblind. All her friends, well, they've been tried for treason and crimes that were never defined.
00:39:33
Speaker
She's saying love is like a barren place and reaching out for human faith is like a journey I just don't have a map for. Come on. She had a pen and a dream.
00:39:45
Speaker
I was like, what? Darren, like, oh my God. Like, it's so good. Yeah. Oh my God. We don't get lyrics like that anymore. We don't. And we don't appreciate them when we had them.
00:39:56
Speaker
No, not at all. No. Goddamn. Right. Wow. But going back to David Archuleta, she's in a very different place now. Right. Yes. Very different place. And she is out. She's open.
00:40:08
Speaker
ah you know, they're a few years back when he did come out, I had made a meme about... What was this? It was about...
00:40:21
Speaker
shoot. Oh, no, it wasn't about him coming out. It was about no it was just me like realizing that there was a time in life where David Archuleta was more famous than Lady Gaga because they had performed at the kiss something or other jingle ball yes it was right at right before no it was right after just dance was released i think right before poker face was released as a single um and she's into that that white origami outfit that she would wear and they're meeting and they're very having a very cute interaction and so i had posted it and he's clearly very awkward and very like shy um but i was but i thought it was funny
00:41:01
Speaker
and went viral and it to the point where it reached him stock and and he commented on it and he was like oh no that's not what I meant whatever like thinking that like I was implying that he thought he was more famous or whatever than her and i was like no I was like no I was like that's not that's not what I meant but that's I mean that's what happens with memes right that you you make it and then people interpret it all sorts of different ways all that to be said David Archuleta I would love to marry you right And i he was he announced while at World Pride that he's going on tour.
00:41:33
Speaker
Fun! He's got an album coming out, and I think it's called Earthly Delights, and he's going on tour for the album. And I'm like, you know what? I am 100% down for this. I will absolutely come see you when you come to New York. You know who else has an album called Earthly Delights? Uh-oh.
00:41:47
Speaker
Savage Garden. and it was a remix album of their first album. I'm just saying. i did The gays are gaying. The gays are gay. They were like, i love it. I'm an earthly delight. God damn it.
00:41:58
Speaker
Right. Like, wow. five Catch it.
00:42:03
Speaker
Wow. I mean, hey, if if let's put this into the universe into the universe now, David Archuleta and Darren Hayes do a collaboration. Hear for it. Hear it. That would be sick. Yeah.
Vincent and Collaborations in LGBTQ Music
00:42:14
Speaker
I mean, honestly, get all of them. Get all of them. Get Andy Bell from Erasure. Get all of them.
00:42:18
Speaker
His voice hasn't aged in 40 years. Get them into a room and just gay out. Do it. Do it. Call Dave Audet and produce it. ah Because Dave Audet, honorary gay man also. Honorary gay man. He'd love that. and then, you know what? Throw Vincent in there. 100% speaking of someone who doesn't even get enough credit.
00:42:37
Speaker
Yeah. Vincent's voice is insane. Insane. i mean, obviously, I feel like most people know him from his Creep cover originally when he was on. Was it The Voice? I think it was The Voice. Yeah. Voice. Yeah. um Which was obviously how I first heard of him. But like since, like the music has been so good and such quality.
00:42:53
Speaker
And I know it's not crazy. Wait, keep going. I was going to say, I've been listening to his song Lean a lot lately. um He, they, actually recently came out as non-binary. Oh, missed that.
00:43:06
Speaker
And so I believe that he uses both he and they. So you you might hear me interchange them. um But Lean is about that experience of coming out as non-binary, which I thought was really interesting.
00:43:19
Speaker
Oh, work. I don't even know if I've heard that. Yeah, but it's a beautiful dance song that I put it on my summer playlist because it just gives me that those like summer vibes. I think that I had said to him that it sounds like what I would envision a sunset to sound like. 100%.
00:43:35
Speaker
ah hundred percent Yeah. And so, yeah, I love songs like that. I would, I would also liken um Kylie Minogue and Sagala's What You Waiting For in a similar sense. Like also sounds like a sunset to me. I can't explain it. That's just, i I'm here. I'm sticking to it.
00:43:52
Speaker
You're outside. We're outside for these songs and that's it. We're outside. Well, and Vincent also another tie in and see, and and this is another, i feel like we could do a whole nother podcast about this because it's a thread of the women who have been standing by us as well, which is a whole nother episode, but also has a song with Betty who?
00:44:11
Speaker
Yes. Yes. I feel like she's just our Australian, like fairy angel. Who's just going to come down and bless all the gays. She really is. is fantastic. It's fantastic. She's like, she's like, let me collaborate with all y'all. Right. Which she's collecting us like Thanos with the and the the infinity stones.
00:44:28
Speaker
Yeah. ah ah
Kevin Aviance's Club Music Legacy
00:44:31
Speaker
Gladly. Collect my infinity zone. 100%. Because I need it. I need it. um And, you know, not to, like, completely pivot, but, like, speaking of club music and, like, you know, LGBTQ artists, I mean, we need to acknowledge Kevin Avianz.
00:44:45
Speaker
I mean, who I also just saw at World Pride and was like, I will, the first time i ever laid eyes on Kevin Avianz, I was walking into the club Twilo in New York City. It was, i think the first time I was going there to see Junior at Twilo, Junior Vasquez.
00:45:01
Speaker
And as I was walking in through the main hallway, Kevin Avianz was having a photo shoot with the local magazine, HX Magazine. And they were taking his photo in the hallway. And so he's leaned up against the wall. He's got his leg out with the huge high heel on across the other wall with one leg up, one leg on the floor and was just serving in a way that I at like age 19, 20, whatever I was with my fake ID was not prepared for. And I just stood there like so like,
00:45:31
Speaker
mouth agape that I was like, you you take your time, I'll wait, I'll wait. I was like, I really, and they did the whole thing and then I walked in and I was like, holy shit, fierce, fierce. And I don't use that word, but Kevin Avianz is fierce and a legend. I mean, the house of Avianz.
00:45:48
Speaker
Right, yeah. the and and i'm I only started getting into Kevin Avianz's music I think it was last year right i guess ah because I was going down this like again this big rabbit hole of just dance music from the late 90s and early 2000s that I had not discovered before right and um I think it was you that introduced me to his song Alive love another great Tony Moran incredible specifically the seven minute version yeah is so fun yeah the tribalist remix also so fun that whole album yeah give it up is my favorite give it up is incredible it's so so good but then you if you want to go even deeper and darker there are ah songs like with victor calderon like rhythm is my bitch yes um yes uh dance for love with uh hex hector's mix with dez rock incredible
00:46:40
Speaker
in incredible yeah like give this shower this man in so many flowers so many and then as we mentioned in the last episode like his song cunty is probably what he's most well known for that was sampled by beyonce on pure honey on renaissance um and there was a recently uh re-recorded uh remix done with honey d'jean And it's so good. and It's very good. It's really, really good. no i'm just i Kevin has been such a staple in my life for club scene because when he went from being like this mythical creature that I used to see to actually like becoming someone that I would see. I have a photo with him at one of the black parties that Junior was spinning and we were just like sort of like having like a silly like Vogue off moment and there's like a moment where somebody caught us and he's in this like
00:47:26
Speaker
crazy like one piece bodysuit and I'm like voguing and he's voguing and it's just like so it's so but and it's like a photo photo like an actual developed photograph I love that oh my god it's so good but like he's what an artifact right and just an incredible incredible person and it's just always yeah just great and it's now doing well and DJing and doing all the things and I'm just thrilled for the resurgence for her because she truly deserves it Yeah, she ah he threw an after party at the Renaissance, after Renaissance, when I saw Renaissance in Atlanta, and I attempted to go. we were there for about 30 minutes.
00:48:01
Speaker
um It was underground. I forget the name of the place that it was in Atlanta. but It was downtown Atlanta. I mean, Atlanta's hot. Yeah. And I was wearing these metallic pants. metallic but silver or pink pants that did not breathe right and we were there for about 30 minutes and i was like i might faint so let's leave yeah yeah we might leave we were gonna have to leave um but yeah and also i just want to mention to you that kavin aviance is in the audience you know that episode of the tyra banks show with the westboro baptist church but oh yeah
00:48:33
Speaker
He was in the audience of that. Oh, yeah. As she should have been. Yeah. And so because I remember him, like, standing up and when Tyra had said something and ah he, like, stood up and was, like, being all fierce and stuff. And I was just, like, living. That whole episode is wild.
00:48:48
Speaker
Yeah. No. Incredible. Get the... Get the fag off the TV. I'm not watching that. Right. Famous, famous line from that show. It's so crazy. It's it's crazy. But wait, so turning back a little bit to Vincent, and I know this is like the most random thing and probably not the highlight of his own catalog, even though it's got an incredible amount of streams.
00:49:06
Speaker
But the song he did for that cannabis drink, Tastes So Good. Tastes So Good. The Cannes song. Yeah, with Hayley Kiyoko and Kesha and MNEK, which we'll get to him in a minute because I live for MNEK.
00:49:18
Speaker
But like I love this song. It is such an incredible collaboration. And I'm glad it has a lot of streams because I feel like we definitely don't talk about it enough. And at 235, it's probably too short. But yeah I live.
00:49:30
Speaker
I absolutely live. And seriously, give me Vincent and MNEK on one track. Oh, my God. Like make that ah seriously MNEK. If you want to produce for someone, Oh, how do we get that to happen? Oh my God.
00:49:42
Speaker
Like i seriously, anything that that man has touched. It's just, it's, it's unbelievable. yeah For those that that are listening who might not know who M&EK is, he's says a use a singer, songwriter, producer out of the UK.
00:49:57
Speaker
He has worked with Little Mix, Jade. He's worked with Zara Larson. um um'm I'm pulling it up now. and just like it's You've got the Saturdays, Gorgon City, um ah Madonna, MK, Becky Hill, Beyonce, Jax Jones, Zara Larson, Little Mix, Dua Lipa, It Don't Stop.
00:50:18
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Julia Michaels. Yeah. Yeah. You know what song of his that I love that's like a solo song of his? What? Tongue. Oh, it's so good. Isn't there a Riton mix of that too?
00:50:30
Speaker
There sure is. Yeah. It's good. I love that. Name another person bringing up a Riton remix in 2025. i live. the The one that hooked me, I mean, I love his cover of Queen's Don't Stop Me Now, which is – So good because, ah do you know it?
00:50:46
Speaker
i don't think I've heard that. Oh my God, the production is so good because like it's such a rock song originally and such like a stadium rock song. How he was able to translate it into like current pop is so brilliant to me.
00:50:56
Speaker
And it's just it's a wonderful, and his voice is just, if anybody could really handle Freddie, it's M&E K. But his song, um At Night, I Think About You, ae easily, one of my favorite pop songs of all time.
00:51:12
Speaker
I love that. It is so like, if when when we talk about our mythical top hundred, like that whole thing, it is yeah absolutely in there because it is, yeah it is such a brilliant pop song and it's just the, the runs, the whole, like the, the, the ad libs that he does in the second half of it are incredible, incredible.
00:51:30
Speaker
He does a really good job of blending like R&B, pop and dance melodies together yeah um and and making them sound fresh, yet also nostalgic.
Celebrating Leading LGBTQ Artists
00:51:41
Speaker
Yep. um A good example of this is No Time for Tears, which is a song that he worked on with Little Mix and Nathan Daw. Yep.
00:51:48
Speaker
um which was it kind of a minor hit in my personal opinion it's probably my favorite little mix song like i it's just so good and that song i remember when i heard it i was like this is like giving me fresh today yet 90s yet also 80s and i was like i don't know how they did it but yeah it's incredible right no it's so I have nothing but to say, nothing good but things, nothing that, let's try that again, back it up, nothing but good things to say about M&EK.
00:52:18
Speaker
No, truly, like it's so, so, so talented. um We made this huge list, and we've been heading through, like, maybe half of them. Right, and we haven't even talked about women. we haven't we haven't talked about any women except for pity who right which you know what though which like like rare us very rare very rare because you all we talk about is women all we always talk about women um i mean we mentioned them earlier we want to give obviously shout outs to z machine bentley robles like you know huge fans uh huge fans of theirs but also friends of the podcast and then super super talented we talk about them all the time
00:52:52
Speaker
Also, I would arguably say like they're they're two of the people that are like leading the charge for LGBTQ artists right now, whether or not they realize it. I feel like at least from the knowledge of things that I've seen, they seem to be on the forefront. It could be my closeness to the situation, but right it does seem like I'm watching something continue to build.
00:53:10
Speaker
Yeah. Like there's nothing that seems stagnant. And there's something about, and again, like, you know, like you just said, like, you know, we might just be like close with them, but the quality of music, and this is what specifically with Z when you introduced me to him, when I heard Habit for the first time, and I was like, because when I heard Habit, I thought this was like a fully formed, like, artist that I had just never heard of before they had been putting out music for years. Right.
00:53:42
Speaker
Signed to a major label. And when I learned that this was an an independent artist funding his own music, the I was like, how is this human being right putting out this like such high quality of pop music without the backing of a label?
00:53:59
Speaker
It's nuts. It blew my fucking mind. And Bentley is right there with him. Like they are just putting out the melodies, the production, and they're hustling.
00:54:12
Speaker
We love you boys. if we if that has if we If that has not been clear, we we love you. today Did I introduce you to Jason Walker? Like the his music?
00:54:23
Speaker
I don't know if I did. i feel feel like I remember the name being brought up. I don't know if I've listened to it yet. I'm going to text you his album because I feel like you would love it because it was mostly it was produced by Junior, i like the the album that I would most feel familiar with. But hes his voice is unbelievable. if If there was a male Christine W., it's him.
00:54:41
Speaker
Oh, yes. i remember that I remember you saying that now. Yes. Okay. That's always how I feel like I have to preface it. And i think I think he's owned that too. but Hey, let's celebrate that. Right. But like, as much as I know him from Clubland, like his voice is like atmospheric. And it's just, he really could sing the phone book and it's unbelievable. There was a performance, I think, during COVID that I watched with him and another incredible club singer, Anaya Day, that they were performing together. And it was just, I mean, like, of that there's so many talented artists out there.
00:55:11
Speaker
Anaya Day. I've seen that name before. She's saying, I'm honey, honey, honey, honey. Okay. I mean, she's done so many things. Like I could give you like her catalog is incredible. Love. Yeah. yeah But that's probably her most famous.
00:55:25
Speaker
I'm sure one of her songs is on like Queer as Folk or something, right? I'm sure. Yeah. It might have been her cover of Nasty Girl. Okay. Like I think she, because she did a very good like Vanity Six, um Nasty Girl.
00:55:36
Speaker
I love that. good You go an eye a day. Right, right. I'm going to text you this album now, actually. Perfect. um One more boy I wanted to bring up is Bright Light, Bright Light.
00:55:48
Speaker
um Love her. DJ, singer. um I think originally based on out of London, but it might live in New York or something. I think he lives in New York, yeah. Yeah. I see him everywhere. Do you? Yeah. like he's i I know how much we have similar tastes in music because we're always at the same shows.
00:56:04
Speaker
I love that. He's so talented. um He's done a song with Nikki Harris, I believe. Oh, yeah. um Who is a Madonna's one of the I cannot speak tonight was one of Madonna's famous backup singers like in the late 80s and early 90s and also did a remix for Darren Hayes. Yes. From the.
00:56:28
Speaker
Secret Codes and Battleships. He did Stupid Mistake. Yes. This is yes. Which I, again, that's a remix that I prefer better than the original. all Oh, wow.
00:56:39
Speaker
Yeah. I love it. I'm here for that. It's so good. But I got his 2012 album, Make Me Believe and Hope. That's how I first heard from him. I want to say it was the remix of, it was either the remix of Feel It or Waiting for the Feeling.
00:56:52
Speaker
one of the two and i think it was i don't remember but there was remix i think it was like vinnie vero and and somebody else i can't remember off the top of my head but feel it featured uh michael kilgore which if you don't know michael um i want to say they're maybe mostly known on broadway possibly so maybe not like super in the pop space maybe more r&b i don't know a ton about him he's friends with some people that i know but um Yeah, like they did, they they were featured on Feel It and like does like these soaring,
Rina Sawayama's Musical Innovation
00:57:23
Speaker
soaring vocals. And it's it's really, that's my favorite Bright Light, Bright Light song.
00:57:26
Speaker
I love that. love. So, so talented. So talented. um Now to the girls. Where do we even start? I mean, can we talk about Reina Sawayama?
00:57:37
Speaker
Till the day is done. Because Reena Samoyama is, this is a pop girl that I thought was really going to explode kind of the way that Chapel Roan did. Yeah. And and has not yet, unfortunately, but she's done some really big things. And again, talk about an artist whose music is quality. Unbelievable.
00:57:58
Speaker
From the get. From the get, like both albums, um Sawayama and Hold the Girl, fantastic top to bottom. yep Her vocals are insane. She's really good at doing very different style songs sonically while still maintaining a cohesive project, which is really difficult to do. Excess is crazy to me. Like how like hard, like it like edgy like with the rock bits and the guitar, but then like how the verses are so like pure pop.
00:58:29
Speaker
Pure pop. Yeah. yeah like Specifically like Y2K pop. Right. like right Straight up. And then um Shut the Fuck Up. Incredible. A new metal song. Yep.
00:58:39
Speaker
And then Tokyo Love Hotel, which is like this electro R&B song. And then Combe de Garcon, which is your gay runway track. Oh my God. And then the remix with Pablo Vittar. Yep. Dynasty, which was just like the most insane album opener. Uh-huh. But like the vocals.
00:58:55
Speaker
Yep. Wild. And then Snakeskin. Was that the closer? Mm-hmm.
00:59:01
Speaker
Rena. Right. i i mean but But then you also have Chosen Family on there, which is like an incredible ballad. Yes. Right. and you And you know you're doing something good when you get endorsed by Elton John. Elton John endorsed Rena and did a duet remix of Chosen Family with her. Yeah. um You know what song I love on that album too is Bad Friend. Yes.
00:59:20
Speaker
Love Bad Friend. um There's also an interlude on the album. I'm forgetting the title of it. Fuck This World. fuck this world which i mean she wasn't wrong relatable content right that's only 2020 only 20 right and but that song that interlude is like longer than most pop songs that are released these days it's 245 let's celebrate that right let's celebrate that ah but you know what else i'd like to celebrate from her is right after that album when she did the cover of dance in the dark
00:59:52
Speaker
Oh, my God. For Spotify singles. Love that. So good. oh my God. I forgot about that. And i now I have Spotify. so Right. do it Oh, should just look up Spotify singles. You'll have a ball.
01:00:04
Speaker
I will have a ball. Oh, my God. That's so fun. and That's how I thought. I mean, when Jade released her cover of Frozen on Apple Music first, I was like, hee hee. I was like, I get this. right But then Lucid.
01:00:15
Speaker
lucid another incredible dance pop produced by blood pop yep um and then i mean like the hold the girl album uh another song about like religion and and coming to terms with your sexuality and and i think hers is a little bit more about like kind of growing up in the church but um growing up in the church Well, I was gonna say, I think like things with her parents, like, because I think what I've heard her talk about this was that the album was sort of like she had gone through reparenting therapy.
01:00:45
Speaker
Yeah. And this was sort of like her way of healing through this was like the opener minor feelings. h i have cried to that song so many times and it's only two minutes long and it is absolutely not long enough.
01:00:58
Speaker
Right. Oh my God. Like lyrically that, that song is just absolutely, I mean, lyrically on this album specifically, i feel like she really like up the game. She really did. Yeah. Yeah.
01:01:09
Speaker
This hell is like everything you would want in like a perfect pop single, which I live for, but like hold the girl forgiveness, catch me in the air. Holy till you let me go. Holy Till You Let Me Go is such an incredible song. Oh my God. Frankenstein? Uh-huh.
01:01:28
Speaker
Frankenstein? Oh, I live. And then when she, every time I've seen her do Send My Love to John, i am just bawling live. yeah It is so beautiful.
01:01:39
Speaker
I want to see her so bad. ah I really, I need, like, I know she's in her acting bag right now. Like, and I'm totally like, do it girl. Like she was so good in John Wick. She was so good. She just posted a photo of herself in the studio with Sarah Hudson and zone.
01:01:54
Speaker
And if you don't know Sarah Hudson, one of the best pop songwriters right now and zone who also just co-wrote most of the things on Kesha's album. Right. Yep. And I think also did a lot of stuff on Troye Sivan's last album yes as well.
01:02:06
Speaker
Yes. But then also Rina, and i she's had she's got really good like um features too. Like she was on Paris Hilton's album with I'm Free, and then she did the Charlie XCX,
LGBTQ Women Artists' Impact
01:02:17
Speaker
Beg For You. I thought that was going to lead to more for her.
01:02:19
Speaker
I thought so too. yeah I thought so too. yeah so I mean, I know that she had like a late some label drama because she's on an independent label, which I think is like somehow tied to Maddie Healy and there was like stuff there. yeah Yeah. yeah um Also her remix of Free Woman. So good.
01:02:39
Speaker
The remix album of Chromatica. yeahp We love you, Rina. We can't wait for for new music. um Let's see. Other girls. Shy Girl. incredible love yeah i feel like she's she's still bubbling but it's it's everything she's doing seems right she love the way that she blends hip-hop and club music yep very very good and i i feel like it's it's very very this generation specifically like there's a lot of artists that i feel a lot of the mostly coming out of like london in the uk but
01:03:11
Speaker
They're really, really good at doing just that. But her Club Shy Room 2 EP? Yeah. Love. Love. The track with Bambi? Love. It's so good. Yeah. It's so good. And also, I love the song Thick.
01:03:23
Speaker
Yes. Also, her song BDE. Let me tell you what. I'm all about BDE. e So... ah Let's celebrate that. right um But if I was going to think like for the girls, like who would be the earliest that I could imagine?
01:03:38
Speaker
Like you obviously you've got Melissa Etheridge, you've got Katie Lang, but that's like ninety s Right. It was definitely, it's definitely been lesbians before that. Tracy Chapman. Sure. That's But, but yeah, but I was going to say, like late 80s, right? So you're still kind of getting, yeah.
01:03:55
Speaker
I don't even know like 70s. I'm probably drawing a blank, but I don't, Yeah. Ethel Merman. I don't even know that is. like
01:04:07
Speaker
I'm just the oldest person ever. Ethel Merman is an extremely old Broadway actress from like the fifties and sixties, um, who I believe was a lesbian. Um, Oh, Dusty Springfield.
01:04:19
Speaker
Oh really? Yeah. I don't know when she came out. I feel like maybe she wasn't out for most of her career, most likely, but yeah definitely a lesbian. And yeah, she was around the sixties. So not out. Um, Leslie Gore. I'm really, really aging myself. The girl that's saying it's my party and I'll cry if I want to.
01:04:34
Speaker
Also a lesbian. I did not know that. Samantha Fox from the 80s. Also a lesbian. Okay. Yes. Well, let's celebrate these ladies. Yes. Yes. I love that. I don't really hear enough about the ladies during Pride, I feel.
01:04:46
Speaker
You don't. And, you know, it's definitely, obviously, there's, you know, a lot of allies that we look up to. Right. um I mean, we have Cynthia Erivo today. Yep. We have Cynthia Erivo. We have Chapel Rhone. We have Renee Rapp.
01:04:59
Speaker
We've got Jojo Siwa. Well, what's left of it? I saw that photo with that man. I was like, I'm like, not during Pride Month. I know you know. You know what? At work today, we were talking about Fletcher. She's another one.
01:05:14
Speaker
Like apparently is now dating a boy. Yes. And my coworker was like, what are your thoughts on Fletcher dating a boy? And I literally said, I was like, I am like no disrespect to Fletcher, but like I do not pay attention to her whatsoever. Could not tell you a single song that she sings. Oh, she's really, really good though.
01:05:29
Speaker
Is she? Yeah. I think you would actually like her if you spent the time. okay, maybe I'll try to spend the time. But I was like, she is interchangeable. And I did it twice when we were talking about her. I kept calling her Slater. So i I was like, Fletcher Slater. i was like, I can't tie apart. but And I actually feel like they do very, very different things.
01:05:49
Speaker
Very different things. The only thing I really know about Fletcher is, ah didn't she sample I Kissed a Girl or interpolate it in one of her songs? yeah Like one of her earlier songs? That's the only thing I know about her. yeah so No, she really is she's good.
01:06:02
Speaker
Okay. ah You're like, sure, that's fine.
Celebrating Unique LGBTQ Voices
01:06:07
Speaker
another one and another Another girl I want to shout out that whose album I was absolutely obsessed with. Hold on. going to pull it up now.
01:06:14
Speaker
Is Miss Michaela jy I'm so glad you brought her 33. I'm telling you, this album deserves so much more. It's so good. It's to so good. Specifically the song Greenlight. I love Greenlight. I also love Wasting My Time is my favorite.
01:06:31
Speaker
I need to revisit that ah song because have only listened to the album once. Yeah. But it was specifically Green Light was the one that. Incredible. That stuck out to me and is, I remember like, I think that you had mentioned that you guys like saw out at a club or something or. I think I saw the music video being played at That, yes, yes.
01:06:50
Speaker
And the video is amazing. Incredible. Again, another song, where another video where i'm like, we should be celebrating this more. Yes. yeah it She is so talented. um i remember the first song I heard of hers was, what's it called? I Got Something to Say. I love that song. I was so obsessed with that.
01:07:07
Speaker
Yeah, it was so good. is so good. She's so talented. i had like no idea that she could sing like that. Oh, like I take that back. Well, I knew Pose. From Pose, right yeah. But I don't know if I imagine like what Michaela J, the pop star, would be.
01:07:23
Speaker
You know who i didn't even put on this list that I just thought of right now? Alex Newell. Oh my God. Another voice from the heavens. From the fucking heavens. Holy crap. I'm so excited for all their success.
01:07:36
Speaker
and Literally. yeah like Have you ever seen them come out during the Gay Men's Chorus about Laura Dern? ah Yes! Oh my god. Maybe one of my favorite things in pop culture from the last like seven years. yeah yeah For those that don't know what we're talking about, I forget where it's at, but it's the Gay Men's Chorus. They're coming out and they start singing about... It an award show?
01:07:59
Speaker
It was an award show and they were singing about... Something. And then it turns to, or no, it was gay things in movies. Yes. It was gay things in movies is what they were singing about. And then all of sudden there was just like talking about Laura Dern, yeah Laura Dern and everything about Laura Dern is like, just, you know, reeks gayness. And then it comes out, Alex Newell just wailing. What a moment.
01:08:23
Speaker
Unbelievable. So now when I, when I think of Alex, like 10 years ago, when I first started working at Peloton and I started kind of getting into like the fitness music side of it all, Blonde had just released a single, All Cried Out, featuring Alex Newell. And that's the first time that I heard their voice. I'd never heard them before. And I was so obsessed with that song. And that that song sort of dominated the early years of Peloton. Like when I think of my journey from there, like that first year, there's a few songs that stand out. All Cried Out is one of them. Blonde actually posted about this recently on their social media.
01:08:54
Speaker
um And Clean Bandits Rather Be is another one. They were all sort of happening around the same time. Yeah. and but i just Is the Bland song a ah cover of the Allure song?
01:09:05
Speaker
No. Okay. It's completely like just very like it feels like very bright UK dance music. Love. You would love it. And then after that, Alex put out their EP Power, which This Ain't Over was another song that Peloton used a lot. and not Not that's the name, but basically Over You, B-O-Y.
01:09:21
Speaker
Yeah. I'm basically over you. Live. Yeah. The Todd Terry remix. Live. Yes. Then DJ Cassidy came with Nile Rogers and they did kill the lights.
01:09:34
Speaker
Obsessed. Yes. Obsessed. It's so good. Jess Flynn, Alex Newell. Come on. Beautiful. I live. Come on. Yeah.
01:09:45
Speaker
Give them their flowers. Yes. Tony award winner. Yes. Yes. And Tony award winner. So good. Got all their flowers for Shucked on Broadway. um But then in 2020, my other favorite, Boy, You Can Keep It.
01:09:59
Speaker
Yes. The Choose and Ceballos remix of that. oh It's so dark and dirty. I live for it. And Mama Told Me yeah one of my favorites as well. Lost and Done remix. ah Yeah.
01:10:12
Speaker
Great music. We need more more Alex Newell in our lives, everyone. 100%. Everyone. Yeah. everyone yeah Did we cover everyone on the list? I don't think so. No, we still, we, we had lot. I mean, like we we had a lot. du We didn't do a lot of the girls. I feel like, I feel like we didn't, maybe we need to do a part two.
01:10:29
Speaker
We might need to do a part two. Yeah. what like One more mention. i want to mention though, because she has been around for a while, but like is, is finally starting to get her flowers as a solo artist. Is she open for Kylie Romy? Yeah.
01:10:43
Speaker
ah i just want the most for her career because yeah ah she opened for you guys too? Let me tell you something. And so this is why i actually, i think I was talking to her record label not too long ago and I was talking about this this, the tour and how she opened.
01:11:00
Speaker
I said, there are there are people that you see that are performers that are going up there and have the stage presence and are killing it like a Beyonce and are just perfection and are nailing it. And it's very sort of like that diva personality.
01:11:12
Speaker
And then there's people like Romy who looks like she is having the most fun in her life every time she is on stage. yeah It is so infectious. The way she ran around Madison Square Garden, and like it was so it was one of my favorite parts. it was the perfect She was the perfect opener for Kylie.
01:11:28
Speaker
Perfect opener. I mean, I love all her stuff with the XX and you know all that other stuff, of course, but like her solo album was fantastic. Yeah, fantastic. Her work with Stuart Price. I mean, Stuart Price, I mean, can do no wrong in my book, but yeah, out brilliant set list. I was so excited when I saw her open because i when I went to go see Kylie, I thought that she, I thought that there wasn't an opener. I just i just didn't remember. I was like, I don't remember who was opening. And so when she like came on stage, I was like, oh, we're in for a treat. Right. And she did not disappoint.
01:12:01
Speaker
Yeah. Cause like, I love what's her Fred again, um, collaboration to lights out. I love and strong that one. Yeah. song With Fred again. i love that song. Enjoy your life is probably been my favorite.
01:12:13
Speaker
Um, no, not enjoy your life. What is it? Um, she's on my mind. oh Do I love that song. Oh my God. It's such a good pop song and it's a good lesbian pop song. Oh my God.
01:12:26
Speaker
It's And love Weightless. Yes. Love her. wait She's it's just wonderful. cool She really, really is. So I want nothing but good things for her. yeah um and then i i also want to mention bonnie mckee really quick is she a lesbian she's bisexual i didn't know that yeah and she is the woman behind know all of katie perry's biggest hits right where do we even yeah tau cruises dynamite um britney spears hold it against me i'm pulling up the written by bonnie mckee playlist Please. She is incredible songwriter. Her...
01:13:03
Speaker
readable songwriter and her album, Hot City, was finally released last year. She had recorded this album in 2013, I believe. And after she'd released a couple singles and then her her label like shelved it.
01:13:22
Speaker
And so she was finally able to release it last year. And it's an incredible pop album from top to bottom. And it's feel-good, bombastic, fun music. Don't Get Mad, Get Famous is an incredible song.
01:13:35
Speaker
um i i i will always be forever thanking bonnie mckee for the femme fatale era for britney literally that's my favorite britney era and like as she co-wrote inside out that's a done deal for me that's a wrap like that song that's one of my favorite britney songs of all time it's so good it's i mean so is hold a against me but did she also co-write um gasoline i think how i roll uh i think so yes yes yeah gasoline how i roll inside out hold it against me is that all of it maybe wow yeah but i mean that what i don't have to slip she did one of my favorite so one of my favorite share albums of recent years which i feel like again doesn't get enough love is the closer to the truth album and some of i think shares best dance pop songs are on there my love
01:14:26
Speaker
is the most incredible song I think that Cher has done with the team from Metro who did Believe since Believe.
Cher, George Michael, and LGBTQ Pride
01:14:33
Speaker
And it's, I think it's, it's for me, it's Cher's Eurovision song, but Bonnie McKee did co-wrote, um I Don't Have to Sleep to Dream, which I love. It's so good. It's such an underrated bop on the album. And just, I mean,
01:14:47
Speaker
I wouldn't even know what to do if Cher was singing my song. I would be freaking out. I was just going to say, like, no big deal. Cher is just singing my song. No big deal. Same with Sarah Hudson. Yeah. Incredible.
01:14:58
Speaker
But yeah. Absolutely incredible. I mean, we covered a lot of ground with this list. I mean, we could go on and on. Oh, yeah. We have to do the girls because I need to have my moment to talk about Melissa Etheridge. We need to do that. Yeah. um But it has come to the time in the show, John Michael, where we love to highlight a song we don't talk about enough, deep cut, album track, remix, what have you.
01:15:23
Speaker
Dost thou have a gay song we don't talk about enough? I don't, actually, you know what? i'm I'm not even prepared. How about that? i How about this? can go first. Go first because originally I was going to pull a Darren Hayes song and we already talked about it. So now I'm like, I was like, i don't know what to pick.
01:15:39
Speaker
I know, right? I hate when I do that. so'll I'll do that. um So mine is really fun. So ah la i think it was last year. might've been the year before.
01:15:49
Speaker
um There was a special anniversary edition of George Michael's Older that was released. okay and it's on streaming. There's like 40 some tracks. It's incredible. Tons of remixes and things like that.
01:16:03
Speaker
And one of the super rare... songs that he did for the album was actually a b-side it was a remix of his song from wham called i'm your man and the remix it's a re-recording and it's a remix done by john douglas um it is app absolutely phenomenal it's like pure 90s hip-hop r&b I don't know if it's it's it's necessarily new Jack swing, but it has kind of that flair to it.
01:16:32
Speaker
um It's incredible. And what I love about this track is that it was first kind of introduced by it being part of the extended mix of Fast Love.
01:16:43
Speaker
o So there is like a nine minute version of Fast Love that goes into the I'm Your Man remix and then back into Fast Love. And so that's how it kind of debuted. And then on ah on one of the versions of the singles for Fast Love somewhere, I don't know if it was in America or elsewhere, but I'm Your Man was its own separate track.
01:17:03
Speaker
And so was super rare. And um i love that it's finally on streaming because it's incredible. Is there anything sexier than Fast Love? No. I mean, there's not from like the minute it starts. I'm like, George, just take me away. And actually, know what, I'm going to keep it George and I'm going to pull another deep cut from George because I actually I while I don't generally like when estates just randomly give people like just I don't know. I don't know. Like, I mean, I've done remixes of of stuff, but like.
01:17:34
Speaker
sometimes I feel like it hasn't been so successful where you try to give like an unreleased vocal or like a deep cut. Like it just doesn't, I don't know. It doesn't always translate well. um But the version of fantasy that Niall Rogers did.
01:17:48
Speaker
Yes. i love it. So for the deluxe of listen, listen without prejudice. It's so good. It's such a great, I mean, it's so Niall Rogers, but it's such a great, like,
01:18:01
Speaker
reproduction of the track the the guitar that he puts in the it really is just like a fun song and it's like the original was fun too and I love the original but like this version like it just really I felt like it deserved a little bit more yeah it's so it's so good it's so good you know it's fun about that track too I mean that for being a b-side I mean it has seen three different versions right because it had the original version that came out in like 92 or something like that And then there was the 1998 remix that was put on, i want to say it was a B-side to Outside. And then the most recent remix with Niall Rogers. Yeah.
01:18:40
Speaker
Yeah. I love. great song. Yeah. Yeah. I wish i wish his estate did more. Yeah. you know I wonder, i know, I wonder what they could, you know, I mean, they did a great job with the older re-release. They did. That that was was really, really great. I would love to see, yeah I would love to see more from them because George, and also and with his documentary, I mean, his documentary is on, I think it's on Apple Music now.
01:19:05
Speaker
or Apple TV, but it was kind of hard to find. It's not look it's not like it's just on any you know of the regular streaming services, right um but it's a fantastic documentary. Right. But like in 2024, the estate gave us like the sped up and slowed down versions of Careless Whisperer.
01:19:22
Speaker
was like, i don't why are we doing this? I don't want it. I don't want it. Take it back. Take it back. Take it back. Take it back. Instead, give me the Freemasons remix of I Want Your Sex, which you already gave us. Right. Give it to me again.
01:19:36
Speaker
Right. But older, they did include the, which I love, um the Spinning the Wheel remix, the Forthright remix, the club mix. Yeah. It's so good. Yeah. So good. And I love Spinning the Wheel. Yeah. And Star People. Oh, God. You have been loved.
01:19:51
Speaker
Dear God, this man. ah know. Seriously. Talk about the soundtrack of my childhood. Gone too soon. I will just say before we wrap up, I have a very, very, and I've said this a few times on social media, I was not allowed because I was raised somewhat religious, pretty religious. I mean, I was raised pretty religious. um I was not allowed to listen to George Michael's I Want Your Sex. I didn't understand why, and I didn't really get it at the time. I mean, I was very, very young, so i I guess I do understand now.
01:20:17
Speaker
Even though he wasn't saying anything bad, except my parents just didn't want me to hear the word sex, I'm sure. Right, yeah. And... I had my cousin Christina also lived in Staten Island at the time and I,
01:20:30
Speaker
was saving like literal change whenever I would find it around the house as a child. So that way I could sneak away when I was in the mall with my mother in the record store and I would buy my own version of the 45 of George Michael's I Want Your Sex, and which I did.
01:20:43
Speaker
And then I brought it home and I would sit there with my little Fisher Price record player with my headphones on with my cousin Christina and she would take one earbud and I would take the other. And we would just sit there and listen to the song. And we were both so young.
01:20:54
Speaker
We had no idea what the song was about except that it was taboo and we were not supposed to be listening to it. right It was literally one of my favorite songs of all time now, but it's, I just will always think of that. And it's just so crazy because like, I love that. Yeah. He's just, it's always been like, he's just been like a a North star, if you will.
01:21:11
Speaker
He has. Yeah. And what, I mean, I want your sex was kind of like a very controversial song. Oh yeah. Very controversial. And like, it wasn't the vi music video. Like it was like one of those after midnight only videos types of things. Totally. Yeah.
01:21:23
Speaker
Yeah. um The doors he knocked down. He really did. Sex is natural. Sex is good. Not everybody does it. But everybody should. should by right I agree.
01:21:35
Speaker
right I agree. Well, this was fun. Oh, yeah. We have to do part two because I really want to get into the girls. We really do. We have to do a part two. So stay tuned, everyone. Happy Pride. pride We know that times are a little dark right now, but queer joy is an act of his resilience. Right. It's an act of resistance. Yeah.
01:21:53
Speaker
yeah You have to have it more than ever because it's going to be the thing that community and being with your people, it's really going to get us through this because I will say there was a moment and Brian, my husband, actually posted a story which I thought sort of encapsulated it.
01:22:07
Speaker
We went to go eat dinner at one of these places outside and It was just outside in the middle of this block party. And people were dancing. And it was just such a sea of just so many different types of diverse, just LGBTQ people that I was like, I love gay people.
01:22:26
Speaker
I just yeah do. Like, I just love us. Like, I'm sorry. Like, you get it or you don't, but... We're the shit. was We are the shit. We're the poop. So take a big whiff. So take big whiff.
01:22:39
Speaker
I saw that. I saw that you had posted on on or in your story that someone had a hat with it said, like, yes I transferred from Los Angeles. Your school has no gymnastics. This is the last resort. i literally was like, girl, I need to take a photo of you. i was like, this is the best hat I've ever seen.
01:22:54
Speaker
So fucking good. yeah My coworker, Hannah, sorry, Hannah, I'm putting you on blast has never seen bring it on. Oh, Hannah, we have to change this. We've got to change it. yes She's not a movie girl, but I get that.
01:23:06
Speaker
She needs to see it This one. yes Yeah. Yeah. yeah For sure. For sure. Well, thank you everyone for listening to this really special, fun, LGBTQ episode of our favorite queer pop stars. yeah They're incredible. We need to support them. Stay tuned for a part two. And until then, peace out. Bye.