LGBTQ+ Music: The Best of 2021

By Laurine Payet, Music Journalist

With so many artists seeing their tours postponed for over a year since March 2020, the time they had was instead focused on song writing. This led to 2021 being a year with a massive catalogue of releases, queer artists included. We got offered albums, EPs and singles from our favorite artists. Here are our highlights of LGBTQ+ hits from 2021.

FLETCHER & Hayley Kiyoko

FLETCHER has been in the music industry since 2016, only releasing singles, an EP, and her mixtape ‘THE S(EX) TAPES’ in 2020. There was no need for an album for the artist who has been featured in the critically acclaimed movie ‘Promising Young Woman’, as well as the Netflix franchise ‘To All the Boys’. Last year was for FLETCHER the year of expressing her queerness. After releasing the explicitly queer anthem ‘girls girls girls’, sampling Katy Perry’s ‘I Kissed a Girl’, she came out as queer in her Instagram story at the end of the year. With ‘Girls like Girls’ being one of the biggest lesbian anthems since 2015, she had Hayley Kiyoko on her side, who has always been a figure in the LGBTQ+ music scene. Both artists collaborated and gave birth to ‘Cherry’, a hot Sapphic track with a hard beat to give some punch to the winter sadness.

Oscar and the Wolf

Oscar and the Wolf is the stage name for the Belgium solo artist Max Colombie. Following the release of his first single ‘Orange Sky’ in 2012, the performer received success almost straight away. His first two albums ‘Entity’ in 2014 and ‘Infinity’ in 2017 received the success deserved by the songwriter. It is after a long wait of four years that the openly gay singer came back with a third album ‘The Shimmer’. With soft glittery and vintage imagery, the sound of the record matches its aesthetic.

Andrea di Giovanni

We’ve talked about Andrea di Giovanni already but we cannot get enough of them. The genderqueer artist mixes electro and pop sounds to create purely queer anthems. Their career started took off with their 2018 single ‘Shame Resurrection’, which got played in the Netflix TV show ‘Tiny Pretty Things’. The Italian pop sensation gave us the pleasure of their debut album ‘Rebel’ in March 2021. The record features our personal favorite ‘Leave It’.

Ashnikko

One of the hottest albums of the year came from American songstress Ashton Casey, also known as Ashnikko. She moved to London six years ago to pursue her career in music. She spent a couple of years settling herself in the UK scene by supporting artists of her community, such as the pink icon GIRLI. It is in summer 2019 that her single ‘STUPID’, featuring Yung Baby Tate, blew up on Tiktok and elevated Ashnikko’s career to another level. She has led to the release of her debut album ‘DEMIDEVIL’ with the hit singles ‘Cry’ featuring Grimes, ‘Deal with It’, and the lesbian anthem and personal favorite ‘Slumber Party’ with Princess Nokia. The record has a big touch of humor as well as a storytelling aspect to it. In ‘L8r Boi’, Ashnikko writes her own version of Avril Lavigne’s ‘Sk8er Boi’ but adds to it her caricatural picture of cis straight relationships.

Snail Mail

Lindsey Erin Jordan is the 22-year-old American indie rock artist known with her stage name Snail Mail. She started performing at 15 and released a year later her debut EP ‘Habit’, which brought her the first attention she received. Jordan’s most famous piece of work is her first studio album ‘Lush’, which was released in 2018. Coming from a lot of lo-fi guitar sounds, Snail Mail’s second album ‘Valentine’, incorporates a much wider range of instruments, such as synthesizers and strings. The musician now embraces the use of samples as well. With her young age, Snail Mail is part of the ambassadors of the queer community within the New York City alternative scene.

KAYTRANADA

Originally performing as Kaytradamus, the DJ and producer KAYTRANADA has been a leader in his scene for almost a decade now. Before the release of his debut ‘99.9%’ in 2016, Louis Kelvin Celestin had already opened for one of the most influential pop stars: Madonna. The electronic record featured artists such as Syd and Anderson.Paak was highly acclaimed by major music critics. KAYTRANADA did not disappoint with his comeback LP ‘BUBBA’ in 2019. After the release of his remix of Dua Lipa’s ‘Don’t Start Now’, the producer gifted his fans with the EP ‘Intimidated’. The release is made of three tracks featuring Thundercat, H.E.R, and Mach-Hommy.

The year 2021 was the result of a lot of work and recording during the live break of two years due to the current pandemic. A lot of artists changed the path in terms of musicality while some took it as an opportunity to start their career and breakthrough. While music events are starting to take place again, 2022 seems to be as exciting as 2021 was.

We picked 30 of our favorite tracks from queer artists in 2021. You can find the playlist here: