Attempting to seize what a “queer music” seems like in 2022 is loads like attempting to clarify what the colour yellow is — all in all, it’s not attainable. That’s as a result of, merely put, songs by queer artists launched all through 2022 run the gamut of in style music, from thundering electro-pop, to sultry R&B, to funkwave, hip-hop, Latin, indie rock, disco and rather more. Gone are the times the place openly-LGBTQ folks — each artists and listeners — had been siloed off into one stereotypical style panorama, now changed by an viewers who are listening to a vast array of musical genres, and a bevy of artists prepared to point out off their expertise in almost each musical area.
The results of that evolution is just not solely a various panorama of music created by queer artists, however a brand new frontier of pathways towards success. Together with displaying off the musical flexibility of a neighborhood attempting to outlive amidst less-than-ideal circumstances, 2022 additionally proved that large mainstream success is just not unique to a single queer artist at a time. Whether or not it’s topping the Billboard Hot 100, charting for the very first time as a solo artist, and even efficiently reinventing your sound, 2022 was a 12 months outlined by queer artists pushing their limits to find new avenues towards the promised land of “making it” within the music trade.
However which of those songs managed to face out from the remaining this 12 months? Under, take a look at Billboard‘s picks for the 25 greatest songs launched by LGBTQ artists in 2022 (after which take a look at our picks for the 20 best Pride albums of the year).