May is here, which means Pride Month is just around the corner — so start prepping your playlists with some new tunes from your favorite queer artists. Billboard Pride is proud to present the latest edition of Queer Jams of the Week, our roundup of some of the best new music releases from LGBTQ+ artists.
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From Dove Cameron‘s flirtatious new pop song to Blondshell’s much-anticipated new album, check out just a few of our favorite releases from this week below:
Dove Cameron, “French Girls”
Dove Cameron knows people are watching her closely — now, she’s giving them something to look at. On “French Girls,” the singer’s stunning new dance single, Cameron invites her fans to make like Jack from Titanic and paint her like one of the song’s titular Parisian women, all while promising to give them lots to work with. A thundering beat accompanies the star’s voice as she lets a campy affectation take over. “Everything I do,” she assures her audience, “I do it for you.”
Blondshell, If You Asked For a Picture
Sabrina Teitelbaum is ready to have a conversation about boundaries. If You Asked For a Picture, the singer-songwriter’s latest album as Blondshell, takes a life’s worth of questions about existing in the public eye and expertly examines what it means to let people see you. Whether she’s exploring emotional burnout (on album standout “Event of a Fire”) or her own perceptions of sexual identity (“Model Rockets”), Teitelbaum never flinches with her lyrics or her well-curated production, making If You Asked For a Picture an immediate classic in Blondshell’s growing sonic universe.
Model/Actriz, Pirouette
The world is in desperate need of some excellent new rock music, and Model/Actriz is more than happy to fill in that gap. With its newest album Pirouette, the band levels up their sound in scale, scope and standing, making for a winning 11-track project that paints a portrait of a group ready for an even bigger breakthrough. From the staccato guitar lines of “Vespers” to the delirious beats of “Poppy,” Model/Actriz leaves no desire unfulfilled on this excellent new album.
Brooke Eden, “Giddy Up!”
“I don’t care where you come from,” Brooke Eden offers in the opening moments of her new song. “Just listen to the sound of the kick drum.” With just a few words, Eden delivers a thesis statement on “Giddy Up,” her queer-inclusive new country single. A proper hoedown ensues throughout the rest of the track, as Eden commands the listeners to scoot their boots onto the dance floor, while never letting them forget that this song — and even this genre at large — can be for everyone, not just those who’ve historically benefitted from it.
KiNG MALA, And You Who Drowned In the Grief of a Golden Thing
If Lady Gaga incited chaos upon the release of her critically-lauded album Mayhem in March, then KiNG MALA is here to keep that bedlam going with her debut album. Throughout And You Who Drowned, MALA self-destructs (“Ode to a Black Hole”), rebuilds (“Garden”) and deconstructs (“GøD”) just about everything that she can get her hands on, all while exploring some of her biggest and best sounds to date.
Maddie Zahm, “Mothers & Daughters”
With Mother’s Day coming up in just over a week, Maddie Zahm decided to share an early tribute to her own mom with “Mothers & Daughters.” Throughout the touching new track, the singer-songwriter doesn’t shy away from some of the harder truths about the familial dynamic, including the times she found herself “screaming ‘I hate you, and you’re ruining my life.’” But the gorgeously composed track comes around to the conclusion that, as difficult as the relationship can sometimes be, it doesn’t change the immense love shared between Zahm and her mom.
Check out all of our picks on Billboard’s Queer Jams of the Week playlist below:
