As the Pride Month knocks at the door and the clouds shift, the rainbow shines for the queer community. From time immemorial, people from the LGBTQIA+ community have been denied their basic rights, and deprived of their identity, expressions and sexuality. However, there stood a few artistes who remained headstrong and expressed themselves to the fullest with their appearances and art. With only a day to go for Pride Month, t2 lists some musicians who’ve come out of the closet, been bold about their identity and embraced their sexuality.
SOPHIE
The Scottish DJ, singer and music producer had remained anonymous until 2017’s single It’s Okay to Cry, when for the very first time her voice and image were shared online. The singer best known for her avant-garde pop-rock numbers and for producing music for artistes like Madonna (who courted her to co-write Bitch I’m Madonna), Vince Staples and Lady Gaga, among others, has always had a loyal fan base but she came to the forefront only in 2017 with It’s Okay to Cry and that was the song she used to come out as a trans woman. In 2019, at the 61st Grammy Awards, Sophie became one of the first openly transgender artiste to be nominated under the category for Best Dance/Electronic Album. Since then things turned different for her and little did we know that she’d leave the world at a tender age of 34, in 2021, when she met with an accident at her residence.
The avant-garde pop producer was well-known for her creative prowess and bold expressions. Her UK label Transgressive was another expression of her openly embracing her queer identity. Her red lipstick and avant-garde attire for all her music videos symbolised how strongly she identified as a transwoman and how fearlessly she spilt it into her hyperpop productions. “Transness is taking control to bring your body more in line with your soul and spirit so the two aren’t fighting against each other and struggling to survive…. It means you’re not a mother or a father, you’re an individual who’s looking at the world and feeling the world,” she had said in an interview in 2018.
JAMIE BARTON
Jamie Barton, the American mezzo-soprano has by now established herself as one of opera’s most intriguing young artistes. Her commanding presence makes her a role model for many young artistes who struggle with body shaming and sexuality. She identifies as bisexual and her spirit seems undefiable. Once in an interview with The Guardian, the artiste shared, “I came out later in life, not because I was in the closet but because I didn’t know. I was doing Rheingold in Houston, Texas, in 2014 when I realised I was attracted to a woman. Six months later I came out fully. Bisexuality is too often seen as fake. Dearest friends said maybe you’re really a lesbian. And if you date someone of the opposite sex, it’s as if you’re straight again. Neither is the case for me. It’s so important to speak out.” Jamie’s excerpt of Rule, Britannia during BBC Proms 2019 saw her flashing the Pride flag out loud. It was when she did so that the audience roared back, all cheering, responding to her free spirit.
SIR ELTON JOHN
It was an unforgettable moment, and back in 1976, an audacious move by Sir Elton John, the legendary musician who came out as bisexual in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine. Previously engaged to a woman (Linda Woodrow), he broke off his wedding just two weeks back, and since then he’s stood firm as an advocate for LGBTQIA+ rights and queer identity. The stark example of his queer identity came through his 1975 track, Someone Saved My Life Tonight, where he referred to his friend Long John Baldry who primarily convinced him not to marry a woman. “There’s nothing wrong with going to bed with somebody of your own sex. I think everybody’s bisexual to a certain degree. I don’t think it’s just me. It’s not a bad thing to be. I think you’re bisexual. I think everybody is,” he shared in the spectacle of an interview with Rolling Stone.
The piano man officially declared being gay in 1992 and expressed that he was “quite comfortable being gay”. His marriage to filmmaker David Furnish was much talked about, and they share two sons, Zachary Jackson Furnish-John and Elijah Joseph Daniel Furnish-John. The couple have advocated LGBTQIA+ rights for years. The pair were among the very first queer couples to have a civil partnership in the UK and got hitched on December 21, 2005, when the Civil Partnership Act was enacted.
HALSEY
The American electropop hitmaker well-known for her parody of Taylor Swift’s I Knew You Were Trouble, has already made millions from some of her chart-topping albums but what catches our eyes is the bold expression of her sexuality, which she weaves into her songs. The singer who uses the pronouns she/they shared in her speech at GLAAD Media Awards in 2018, “I’m a young, bisexual woman, and I’ve spent a large part of my life trying to validate myself — to my friends, to my family, to myself — trying to prove that who I love and how I feel is not a phase. It’s not part of some confusion that’s going to change or could be manipulated.” Her song Bad at Love from the 2017 album Hopeless Fountain Kingdom, which she once feared wouldn’t be played on the radio due to its references to bisexuality, explores the patterns of relationships with both sexes. The song begins with “Got a boy back home in Michigan” and then by the crescendo it talks of a woman as the lyrics go “Got a girl with California eyes”. Halsey has been open about her sexuality since she got popular in 2015 and there’s no turning back!
Janelle Monáe
Her energy is infectious, her fashion vibrant and her numbers hit the dance floor notes right! It’s Janelle Monáe — a singer-songwriter, actor, activist and model! The pansexual artiste’s Dirty Computer has some strong queer references. The R&B icon belted out nine numbers which echoed her sexuality and identity. She broke down her alter ego and revealed her truest self, embracing her womanhood, blackness and queerness, all that she stands for. About the third studio album, Dirty Computer, she revealed on a Spotify release party: “When I was writing this album, I had to decide who I was comfortable pissing off and who I wanted to celebrate. To my LGBTQ family, I see you.”
Among the tracks, PYNK has to be the strongest. The intones of a woman’s genitalia in the lyrics as well as the pants she wore in a desert for a shot in the video expressed her queerness and how she embraced her womanhood to the fullest. Once in a cover story on Rolling Stone, the artiste had shared, “Being a queer Black woman in America… Someone who has been in relationships with both men and women, I consider myself to be a free-a** mother***er.” “If you listen to my albums, it’s there,” she said and referred to her tracks like Mushrooms & Roses, which exemplified her sexual freedom and even revealed how her song Q.U.E.E.N was initially “Q.U.E.E.R” and if you listen closely you can hear the word “queer” throughout in the background score.
Rob Halford
The frontman of a heavy metal band, Judas Priest surprised the world when he came out as gay during an interview with MTV. A versatile musician, Rob Halford has also appeared in performances with Black Sabbath, Metallica and Pantera. The frontman embraces his queerness as much as he’s embraced the diversity in music and his myriad talents. The Breaking the Law singer documented his struggle with his sexuality in an autobiography called Confess where he called his unplanned announcement of his identity to the world a “glorious moment”. His announcement in the ‘80s in itself was a jawbreaker and the way he documented it all exemplifies how he embraced himself with an open arm.
Ice Spice
The artiste who’s best known for his bold style and drill-styled hip-hop came out in 2023, and only two years before that she had tweeted, “What’s it called when you’re attracted to masculinity in women and femininity in men.” The rap princess broke down heteronormativity by giving a big shoutout to her queerness in the number Bikini Bottom. She dished out her running thoughts through her exhilarating speed and seamlessness in what she wanted to convey. Confidence grew wings in her bold and raspy tongue twisters and the lyrics of the number. “I wouldn’t say girls, specifically, because the gays love me and I love the gays,” said Ice Spice about who she made the song for, in an interview. She’s openly bisexual and doesn’t ever shy away from her queerness.
