She’s been working in pop music for the last three years, but Siena Liggins is here to prove she knows how to make an entrance.
On Ms. Out Tonight, the Detroit-born singer’s debut album (out now), Liggins oozes a calm, bossed-up confidence you’d expect from an artist with double her experience. Throughout the sleek, sexy album, Liggins holds nothing back as she lets listeners know that she is not one to be messed with. “I’m right here, I’m fire, I’m buzzing,” she croons on “Thicc,” as a skittering trap beat underlines her sentence. “Lightyears ahead of these girls/ Ahead of the curve, I put in the work.”
But the album also serves as a seminar on representing queer sexuality in music. Throughout the album, Liggins makes no effort to hide her lust, her desire and especially not the girls she has her eye on — in fact, she highlights it for everyone to see. On sexed-up anthems like “Dirty Girl” feat. Yung Baby Tate, “No Valet,” “Girlfriend” and more, Liggins leaves no room for interpretation; she’s going to write songs about her authentic experience as a queer woman, and those songs are going to make you want to dance.
To celebrate the long-awaited release of her debut album, Liggins took Billboard’s LGBTQuestionnaire — a series of questions, fill-in-the-blanks, multiple choice answers and so forth — to help the world get to know its next pop obsession.
I look at my phone:
Rarely
Occasionally
Constantly
I’m looking at it right now
How important is social media to your music career?
Not remotely important
I do it but I don’t love it
Important, but I have mixed feelings about it
Essential and I mostly love it
Would you rather be:
At home
On the town
In nature
Asleep
Rate how strongly you agree/disagree with the following statements (Answers are in italics):
2021 is going to be way better than 2020.
No way
I guess
Who can tell?
Yeah, probably
Absolutely 100%
LGBTQ representation is improving in the music industry.
No way
I guess
Who can tell?
Yeah, probably
Absolutely 100%
Coming out was easy.
Hell no.
It was complicated
It wasn’t terrible
Thankfully, yes.
Fill in the blank (Answers in bold font)
Growing up LGBTQ was taboo for me but also my mom had to know why I always wanted to watch Love Don’t Cost A Thing.
Brockhampton is an LGBTQ artist whose music really inspires me.
The last thing I purchased online was the We’re Not Really Strangers Self Love pack.
One word to describe my music is smutty.
Open answer:
What inspired Ms. Out Tonight?
Initially I wrote the album title track “Ms. Out Tonight” about a girl I was dating who wasn’t sure if she was ready to be out in public with me. At the same time I was dealing with my reality that there seems to be a part of “the industry” that I am missing out on because the machine that makes pop stars hasn’t had an upgrade since the ’90s. Ms. Out Tonight is about being faced with an option of authenticity at the cost of missing out on all life has to offer when you opt for the real you.
What was the hardest song to perfect on the album?
There’s a song on the album called “First Time” that we went back and forth on a lot. It barely made the deadline, but it has one of my favorite verses on the album.
You have always unapologetically sung about queer romance — why is that important to you?
It’s important to me because while I was growing up I idolized a lot of teeny bopper romance in entertainment, and as I got older there was a sort of dissonance when it came to queer romance specifically. I really started writing songs about and for and to the girls I was romantically involved with out of necessity– because nobody else was capturing my total experience otherwise.
What was the first song you ever wrote? What was it about?
LOL. The first song I ever wrote was called “Poppin” and I was eleven. The opening bar was “walk through the door, all eyes on me and fly’s definition is what they all see.” I wanted everyone in my sixth grade class to know they could never compete where they didn’t compare, respectfully.
You’re trapped on a desert island — what three albums did you bring with you?
CTRL by SZA.
K, Bye For Now by Ariana Grande.
Ms. Out Tonight by Siena Liggins.
Future Nostalgia by the iconic Miss Dula Peeps (Dua Lipa) as an honorable mention.
Name a Twitter/Instagram/TikTok account you’re obsessed with.
@mrgrandeofficial on TikTok is literally one of the greatest minds of our time.
What’s your astrological sign? Do you care about astrology?
I am an April Taurus with a Sagittarius moon and Libra rising. I’m no Galileo but whenever I’m binge watching a new Netflix docuseries I’m like “hehe my Pluto in Scorpio is going crazy,” but truthfully, I don’t actually know anything about astrology.
What’s something that you’ve always wanted to learn how to do, but still haven’t gotten around to?
I really want to learn how to make my own tequila and become a master mixologist.
What accomplishment in your career are you proudest of?
At this moment, I’m most proud of this album I’ve made. It was not easy all of the time especially during a hot panini pressed pandemic, but she’s here and I could not be more proud to finally share it with my fans and friends and supporters.
Tell us two truths and a lie about yourself, but don’t tell us which is the lie.
I do not have a belly button.
I have 4 tattoos.
I’m a music school drop-out.
