NEXT WAVE OF STARS POPS OUT
LGBTQ artists finding success with messages of inclusion
It’s #20GayTeen, and LGBTQ artists are thriving in the spotlight.
At last week’s MTV Music Video Awards, pop newcomer Hayley Kiyoko tearfully accepted Push Artist of the Year, which is chosen from MTV’s monthly featured “push artists.” She dedicated it to her fellow queer women of color and shouted out the above hashtag in her speech. Bisexual singer Halsey scored a top-5 hit in January with “Bad at Love,” which references male and female lovers, while Troye Sivan is currently climbing the charts with latest single “Bloom,” which is less than subtle in its allusions to gay sex.
And with other queer up-and-comers including Kehlani, King Princess and Years & Years’ Olly Alexander cultivating huge fan bases on social media, there’s never been a better time to be out and proud in music.
“There’s always been LGBTQ people making music, but they just have not been able to be out,” says Jeffrey Masters, host of podcast LGBTQ&A. “This is the first crop of musicians who are openly queer and paving the way for younger kids to come up, because people like Hayley Kiyoko are leading the charge.”
Kiyoko, 27, first broke out in 2015 with viral hit “Girls Like Girls,” whose video depicts a girl stealing a guy’s girlfriend. She released her debut album, “Expectations,” in March, which explores LGBTQ themes on songs such as “Curious” – a deceptively bouncy anthem about gay individuals who stay in straight relationships to mask their true feelings – and “Wanna Be Missed,” in which she questions a female lover’s devotion and uses same-sex pronouns throughout.
Having grown up with few queer role models, save for sister duo Tegan and Sara, Kiyoko says that she feels a responsibility to show her mostly young fans someone who is comfortable in their own skin, earning her the nickname “Lesbian Jesus.”
Starting out in the industry, “I went through a lot of experiences of performing in front of straight male executives and them needing to be attracted to me, or this and that, to be interested in my art,” Kiyoko says. Even now, “media outlets are like, ‘Oh, you’re going to do a video about a girl again?’ And it’s like, ‘Yeah, that’s my story, and that’s never going to change.’ So that’s always been a fight for me, to normalize these feelings and let people know that it’s not a concept – it’s my life.”
Sivan, 23, also strives for authenticity on his critically acclaimed second album, “Bloom,” out Friday, which is largely inspired by his relationship with model boyfriend Jacob Bixenman. Pairing diary-like lyrics with dreamy electro-pop hooks, standouts “My My My!” and “Lucky Strike” are unabashedly gay love songs. Album opener “Seventeen,” meanwhile, finds Sivan reflecting on his teen years, when he was struggling with his identity and meeting older men from dating app Grindr.
“My whole goal for this album was to be honest and write songs that are accurately depicting experiences of mine, no matter how specific or queer they are,” Sivan says. “With my first album (“Blue Neighbourhood”), I was really conscious of the fact that I was putting out this album to so many people who maybe wouldn’t understand. I wanted to hold people’s hand a little bit, and this time around, I wasn’t as concerned with that.”
Sivan also embraces femininity in his gender-bending “Bloom” video, in which he writhes and struts in a twopiece floral gown and full makeup. The experience, he says, felt radical, “just letting myself be (me).”