With lyrics like, “I don’t care what they think/I don’t care what they say/What do they know about this love, anyway?” the song inspired the LGBTQ community and their allies to make numerous call-in requests to radio stations, resulting in the song reaching number 25 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart. Similar to “Constant Craving,” “Come to My Window” was Melissa Etheridge’s first release after she also came out as lesbian in 1993. Some of the song’s lyrics, separate from the video concept, have also been used by many LGBTQ fans to apply to their sexuality, such as: “Even through the darkest phase/Be it thick or thin/Always someone marches brave/Here beneath my skin.” While there’s nothing explicitly homosexual in the play, many believe that the main characters Vladimir and Estragon are an ageing homosexual couple, who are worn out and not engaging sexually any longer. The black-and-white video, which won the Best Female Video award at the 1993 MTV Video Music Awards, was a recreation of the premiere of Samuel Beckett’s play Waiting for Godot. Since then, she’s championed many LGBTQ causes, including HIV/AIDS care and research. Only months after the song was released, Lang came out as a lesbian to The Advocate in June 1992. Lang, which hit number 38 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart. The first song is “Constant Craving” by k.d.
#Best gay pride songs cracked
The early ’90s was a great time for lesbian singer/songwriters, as two out lesbian artists both cracked the Billboard Top 40. Lang “Constant Craving” (1992) and Melissa Etheridge “Come to My Window” (1993) Basically, embrace who you are, including your sexuality, and be yourself! What else could you want in an LGBTQ anthem?ġ1. Boy George once described the song as being about “the terrible fear of alienation that people have, the fear of standing up for one thing.” He said that if you don’t act true to yourself then you’ll get karma, which is nature’s way of paying back. The song may not be explicitly about being LGBTQ, but its themes still apply.
That same year, Culture Club released one of the biggest singles of their career, “Karma Chameleon,” which reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart. As early as 1983 he spoke about being bisexual in interviews (he now identifies as gay). It’s pretty hard to explain how an androgynous, openly LGBTQ man had as much success in the Reagan-era ’80s as Boy George did with his band Culture Club. Beautiful, larger-than-life women lip-syncing to a pop song? Sounds awfully like a drag show to me! Inspired by the January 1990 cover of British Vogue, which featured supermodels Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista, Tatjana Patitz and Christy Turlington, Michael asked the women to appear in the music video lip-syncing to his song. The music video for the song, which Michael doesn’t appear in at all, made it even more of an iconic LGBTQ anthem. 1, “Freedom! ‘90” finds Michael singing, “There’s something deep inside of me/There’s someone else I’ve got to be,” not so implicitly referencing his closeted sexuality. Released as the first single from his aptly titled second solo album Listen Without Prejudice Vol. Rumors had been swirling for years around Michael’s sexuality but nothing was ever confirmed by him prior to this song’s release (shortly thereafter he came out as bisexual, before coming out as gay further down the line). We kick off our list with two iconic ones, George Michael and Boy George of Culture Club. The ’80s may not have been the best time to be living as an out LGBTQ person, except apparently for English pop stars.
TIE: George Michael “Freedom! ‘90” (1990) and Culture Club “Karma Chameleon” Below we have our top 12 list of LGBTQ anthems from the 1980s and 1990s:ġ2. We’ve broken it down into 3 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. It also just won the Video of the Year Award at this year’s MTV Video Music Awards last week. 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.