Every June, Pride Month invites us to honor the LGBTQ+ community—not just its triumphs and ongoing struggles, but its wildly varied voices. This playlist, drawn from over six decades of music, is less a neat collection than a vibrant mix of statements, emotions, and identities. From Sylvester’s ecstatic disco classic “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)” to Billie Eilish’s “LUNCH,” the selections aren’t organized by genre, time period, or even theme. That’s fitting. The LGBTQ+ experience is too broad and multifaceted to be summed up by any single sound.
Some tracks speak directly to queerness, like Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side,” which namechecks drag queens and trans women, or Bronski Beat’s spiritual descendants, the Scissor Sisters, with their cheeky, loving anthem “Take Your Mama.” Others, like “Rocket Man” or “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me,” resonated with queer audiences before the artists behind them publicly came out—or even if they never did. There’s a history of coded expression here, of lyrics that offered solace to those reading between the lines.
Then there are the songs that became anthems of empowerment by sheer force of feeling: Christina Aguilera’s “Beautiful” offered a lifeline to LGBTQ+ youth when it first aired on MTV, while Madonna’s “Vogue” gave a global spotlight to a ballroom culture that had long gone ignored by the mainstream. Judy Garland’s “Over the Rainbow” might seem quaint next to Chappell Roan’s “Good Luck, Babe!,” but both songs capture longing, whether for love, acceptance, or the audacity to want more.
What unites these artists isn’t a single identity but a shared defiance—sometimes quiet, sometimes flamboyant—against what’s expected. Whether it’s the punkish ache of Buzzcocks’ “Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t’ve)” or the glossy Pet Shop Boys cover of “Go West,” the throughline is the refusal to shrink. Pride, in this sense, isn’t about perfection or performance. It’s about visibility, honesty, and a community that keeps evolving, note by note.
So, while this playlist won’t tell a single story, that’s exactly the point. Pride has never been about uniformity. It’s about claiming your truth, however it sounds—and blasting it through the speakers so someone else knows they’re not alone.
Hear last year’s Pride playlist here.
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