Watch: 11 New Queer Music Videos to Check Out this Month
Welcoming a new year is a time of re-evaluating what's important to you and embracing new beginnings. From these new music videos, it's clear that some of our favorite queer artists have spent much of this time contemplating, confessing, and ultimately healing. There's a lot of emotional release in these songs, showcasing a true commitment to starting fresh and being boldly, beautifully ourselves, whatever we're feeling. We've got these videos on repeat to soak in the inspiration, and now you can too!
Rebecca Black - "Sick to My Stomach"
"Sick to My Stomach" opens with the lyric, "I told you to move on, and girl that's what you did." It feels like a video about breaking up with someone for the right reasons, and then hating it when you realize that you're not "winning the break-up" because they moved on from you too quickly. In the video, Rebecca Black is gorgeous and messy, feeling all the complicated feelings that come with getting what you thought you wanted and realizing it kinda sucks. She's in a disco outfit, pouring her heart out to an ex-girlfriend. It's heartbreak sung emotionally, full-body danced out all sweaty and sticky and sad. "Sick To My Stomach" is a song we'll all need at some time, and something lovely to listen to any time until then.
Miley Cyrus - "Flowers"
If you haven't yet seen the "Flowers" video —and then researched some of the outlandish but intriguing fan theories for every detail of its backstory— you need to get your house in order, and open a browser tab right now. "Flowers" is the embodiment of Miley Cyrus walking into her freedom, shaking off the past and pain of her marriage ending, and dancing into the beautiful future post-divorce. It's a fun song to dance your emotions out to, and Miss Miley looks phenomenal in (and out of) every chic outfit she wears. Fun fact: "Flowers" has some of our fave queer creatives behind the scenes, too: Brockhampton's Kevin Abstract executive produced this video, and Troye Sivan's ex-boyfriend, model Jacob Bixenman directed it beautifully.
Zolita - "Ashley"
The Zolita Cinematic Universe expands with another wonderful sapphic romance told in an extended music video format, filled with heart and home and history. "Ashley" is a love story fifteen years in the making, depicting a childhood friendship between Ashley and Zolita, two preteen girls with glitter on their faces. "If loving you kills me, I would die happy. Oh, Ashley, I'm yours if you'll have me," Zolita croons. Adult Ashley (first introduced in the prequel video, "Ruin My Life") is having second-thoughts hours before her wedding to a different woman, and her best friend Zolita is there to remind her that she's wanted this (and that there's always divorce). The whole video's got a kind of lovesick Taylor Swift 'stop the wedding!' "Speak Now" vibe to it. Of course they get the happy ending, running away from the wedding through vineyards to kiss and everything.
Måneskin ft. Tom Morello - "GOSSIP"
Italian rock band Måneskin uses this song and video to call out the false nature of Hollywood, filling an audition room with all kinds of characters and playing a concert for them behind a transparent screen. It's a chaotic, energetic exposé of a video for a song that reveals so much truth about the band's experience of the glitz and glam since being welcomed into American Showbiz. In classic Måneskin style, they end the video completely in the nude.
Arlo Parks - "Weightless"
A potted plant is on fire, a horse gallops through city streets, and Arlo Parks sings about that period of a relationship where a break up is imminent, but you're choosing to resist it: "Just give me a sign if you wanna stay." The whole video feels candlelit, passive, filled with almosts and just-not-rights. Arlo Parks is seen singing while sitting in the backseat of a car, which crashes into another car at high speed right before the song's bridge, ending "Weightless" calmly singing in the crashed car, surrounded by fire.
Sam Smith, Koffee, Jessie Reyez - "Gimme"
There's something special about the way this video features a club full of queer people feeling themselves and getting together joyfully. This is a sexy, confident song, focused on the singers' request of whoever they're singing to: "Gimme what I want". There's a rhythm you can't help but rock your body to, building a certainty that when "Gimme" plays at a club next, you'll be doing the same movements along to the beat, this time up against the person you're with. It's especially clear when Sam Smith, voice all sultry, lets us know that "Voyeurs are watching us... giving me such a rush."
FLETCHER and Kelsea Ballerini - "Better Version"
"Better Version" is a song about knowing that everything you went through in a relationship has made your ex into someone better for their next lover, and then later realizing that it's true of yourself, too. This warmly lit, emotional, sensual, romantic but aching video ends with hope when the two heartbroken women meet someone new: Each other, at just the right moment. This singer-songwriting duo nails all the longing, the wishing, and the wanting that comes with these feelings. It's a beautiful, compelling video telling two love stories in parallel.
Adam Lambert - "Holding Out for a Hero"
Adam Lambert's cover of this Bonnie Tyler song is phenomenal. His voice is killer; equal parts unstoppable and unbelievable. In the first part of this video, Adam is suited and so are his band members-slash-dancers, who are wearing disco ball motor helmets. In the second part, they lift their helmets to reveal stunning make-up and an outfit change that's much more revealing than the tailored suits we first see them in. This part of the video feels even more rebellious and free. Adam's now elaborate eye-makeup complements his sparkly outfit, a skirt and leather jacket. The song ends with the powerful lyric "Larger than life," reminding us of everything that Adam Lambert, his dancers, and a life of people living in liberated queerness certainly are.
JORDY "Story of a Boy"
Just like Mad Tsai's pop song "stacy's brother," which featured in our round-up of steamy sexy music videos, JORDY's latest video summons the spirit of a song we all had in our heads and iPods for years. The musician takes Nine Days' "Story of a Girl", queering it playfully, and creates an instant hit from a rock classic. Instead of the lyrics "she cried a river and drowned the whole world" JORDY has a more positive memory of his crush, and would absolutely love it "if he was mine." The video shows his band playing this upbeat bop in a garage, as all pop rock classics began (and inspired by the original song's video). It's also filled with flashbacks to an adorable home-video of a younger JORDY playing sweetly with another boy his age, who hands him a hand-painted heart at the end of their day together.
Rita Ora "You Only Love Me"
Newlywed pop singer-songwriter Rita Ora gets ready for her colorful (fictional) wedding in this video, while she worries that "You only love me when the whisky's pouring, four in the morning." It's a catchy love song that hits on all the truth of doubt behind committing to someone for life, while the video is quirky and silly, ultimately ending with Rita fainting in the street when she sees that the castle where she's presumedly getting married is on fire.
Taylor Swift - "Lavender Haze"
This is a bonus addition, because while the artist isn't queer, Taylor Swift cast trans actor Laith Ashley as her love interest in the video for this potentially queer-coded song (We know how much Lavender has meant to queer people throughout history). It's always awesome to see Taylor embracing her queer audience (and she sure does a lot of embracing Laith Ashley in this video!) and we want to support queer creatives when they get incredible roles like this one. So, stream the "Lavender Haze" video and give Laith Ashley some love!
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