As we enter into the final weekend of Pride Month, it’s time to take one final look at your playlists and freshen them up with new music from your favorite queer artists. Billboard Pride is here to help with First Out, our weekly roundup of some of the best new music releases from LGBTQ artists.
From Greyson Chance’s long-awaited new album to Pabllo Vittar’s bop-filled celebration, check out just a few of our favorite releases from this week below.
Greyson Chance, Trophies
If Greyson Chance’s goal was to show off his range on Trophies, then consider this album a breakthrough. Throughout the eight-song project, Chance takes big swings with his musical stylings, practically abandoning the piano ballads that made him famous and replacing them with everything from dance-floor bangers (“Hellboy”), to lo-fi bedroom-pop musings (“Clothes,”), to dreamy synth-pop anthems (“High Waisted”). It’s all in the title: With an album this thought-out, Chance deserves a trophy of his own.
Pabllo Vittar, Batidão Tropical
Ever since bursting onto the scene back in 2017, Pabllo Vittar has made it abundantly clear that she’s here to represent Brazil, full stop. With Batidão Tropical, Vittar is taking that representation to a whole new level — specifically examining the music of Northern Brazil, Vittar does what she does best by offering some truly out-of-this-world over fusions of tecnobrega and forró. If you’re looking for an album’s worth of queer dance bangers, Vittar has you covered.
Lucy Dacus, Home Video
“Being back here makes me hot in the face,” Lucy Dacus opines in the opening lines of her new album. “Hot blood in my pulsing veins/ Heavy memories weighing on my brain.” The feeling expressed in those lines — nostalgia, but in a bad way — permeates the entirety of Dacus’ revealing new album, Home Video. Each track of the phenomenal new project explores a different experience from the singer-songwriter’s childhood, as though ripped directly from her emotional psyche and translated into breathtaking musical phrases. If you’re in need of some heartbreaking, but also deeply affirming, new music, look no further.
Jordy, “Better in My Head”
Have you ever built up the fantasy of being with someone in your mind, only to be utterly disappointed when you experience it in real life? Jordy certainly has, as he explores on his heartbreaking new single “Better in My Head.” The glitchy synth-pop track sees Jordy examining his own sense of expectation, dealing with the fact that he is lonely and in need of some TLC, while also being completely uninterested in the men that he eventually winds up with. Add some excellent pop production, along with his signature falsetto, and you get yet another crying-on-the-dance-floor bop courtesy of Jordy.
Fletcher, “Healing”
Fletcher has never been one to shy away from showing off her frustration and anger with everyone around her. But “Healing,” the hypnotic new single from the rising star, sees Fletcher taking some time to work on herself instead. With a steady guitar riff lining the background of the song, while the occasional 808 adds a heartbeat to the singer’s stark confessions, Fletcher makes it abundantly clear that she’s still figuring things out, no matter how put-together her sound is. “I’m finally breathing, the smoke ain’t gone, but it’s clearing,” she sings. “I ain’t there yet, but I’m healing.”
Ginger Minj, Gummy Bear
Ginger Minj is here for a good time, and a long time. The RuPaul’s Drag Race alum and All Stars 6 star made sure her fans had something to celebrate her return to TV with on Gummy Bear, her sweet, pop-inspired new album. Showing off her excellent vocal skills throughout the project, Minj embraces her status as a “Random Ru Girl” in the song’s opening track, while also coming into her own as a pop diva in her own right on the album’s titular track. No matter what you’re looking for from Ms. Minj, the Drag Race star is ready to give it all to you on this excellent album.
