Carly Rae Jepsen, “Cut to the Feeling” (2017) Robyn gave us a chance to channel our pain and heartbreak on the dance floor in one of the catchiest pop songs of recent memory and for that we’ll always make sure that she’ll never have to dance on her own either.ĩ. If you’ve ever seen Robyn live and have heard the entire theater or arena singing the chorus of the song to her, it gives you goosebumps and really gives you comfort in knowing that we’re never truly dancing on our own. “I’m in the corner, watching you kiss her” (or him, or they or whomever). Whether you’ve been the person in the club watching the person you love dance with someone else or the LGBTQ person with feelings for your straight friend, many in our community have been in the very relatable situation that Robyn sings about.
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“Dancing On My Own” was the lead single from her celebrated Body Talk series of albums. She founded her own record label, Konichiwa Records, in 2004, and after that she totally reinvented her image and sound. Her artistic journey in itself is inspirational for any underdog. Who would have thought that Swedish pop star Robyn, whose 1997 hit “Show Me Love” came out when she was just 18, would become a gay icon a little more than a decade later. And of course the Joseph Kahn-directed video featuring Spears’ ‘chair-ography,’ a concept she decided on herself, just made the song even more iconic. Max Martin and Rami were both the writers and producers, giving us lines like, “You might think that I won’t make it on my own/But now I’m stronger than yesterday” that really empowered the LGBTQ community to face our own hardships as well.
A self-empowering post-breakup anthem sung by a fresh faced pop diva? Sign me up! Whether we were getting over a bad breakup ourselves or looking for inspiration to stand up to the bigots and homophobes, the lyrics of “Stronger” and Spears’ conviction delivering them really hit home. There are quite a few Britney songs to choose from that can be considered LGBTQ anthems but “Stronger” is, well, the strongest. Here’s hoping that in our list of next decade’s LGBTQ anthems that there are more songs representing the trans community!
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The EP cover for “True Trans” featured “Buffalo Bill” from Silence of the Lambs, a serial killer character who many wrongly describe as transgender.
The song was also the lead single from Against Me!’s 2014 album Transgender Dysphoria Blues, which did actually make it to number 23 on the Billboard 200 chart. Against Me! lead singer and guitarist Laura Jane Grace came out as a transgender woman in 2012, just before she released True Trans.
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OK maybe not glaring, the EP didn’t exactly crack any of the Billboard charts, but a recognizable exception for our community nonetheless. One glaring exception is “True Trans Soul Rebel” by punk rock band Against Me! from the True Trans EP.
I wish that more songs on our list were about the T in LGBTQ, but unfortunately the most marginalized group in our community doesn’t have enough representation in popular music. Against Me!, “True Trans Soul Rebel” (2013) In honor of the end of this decade, below we have our top 12 list of LGBTQ anthems from the 2000s and 2010s:ġ2. We’ve broken it down into three lists: pre-1980, the ’80s and ’90s, and the 2000s. Many are by LGBTQ artists others have been adopted by the LGBTQ community from straight, cisgender artists whose song was either inspired by our community or spoke to us at a time when we really needed it. While some have looked on it with a critical eye, we’ve decided to celebrate it, along with all the gay anthems that came before it. Back in June, Taylor Swift released her single, “You Need to Calm Down,” which served as her take on making an LGBTQ anthem for 2019.