“Keep On Dancing” - A Pride Playlist of Journey, Hope, & Love
Every year, I’ve been listening to the same classic Pride pop dance songs like “YMCA” over and over again. This year, I craved something different. I challenged myself to create a Pride playlist with a full narrative structure, telling the story of queer and trans resilience in times of fascism, conservatism and religious nationalism. The title of the playlist, “Keep On Dancing,” comes from a lyric in Chappell Roan’s queer/trans anthem “Pink Pony Club,” which encompasses the themes of hope, adversity, and rebellion that this playlist is all about.
The playlist is meant to be listened to in order, as it takes you on an auditory journey, divided into 6 parts: “This Is Tradition,” “Be Perfect Or Die!”, “Something I’m Made For,” “Do You Know Who You Are?”, “Call Their Bluff,” and “So Strong, Make You Start Sweating.” Each section is named after one of the lyrics from a song within it, spanning multiple genres.
This playlist explores 2SLGBTQIA+ experiences through the voices of artists who are predominantly part of this community. I decided to add artists from various queer and trans identities as there is no one way to be queer or trans. How each artist identifies has been verified by using a reliable source, so as not to speculate about their identities.
Just a heads up before we start, though: many of the songs in this playlist touch on some heavy topics like homophobia, transphobia, racism, misogyny, ableism, religious trauma, domestic abuse, mental illness, substance use, suicide, and bullying, so keep this in mind while listening to the playlist and/or when reading this article.
Onto the playlist we go!
Listen to the playlist here:
Part A - “This Is Tradition”
The songs in “This Is Tradition” (taken from a lyric from Halsey’s song) introduce the loose narrative of the playlist. This section is about dealing with the shame that is imposed on queer and trans people, all in the name of tradition.
- “The Tradition” - Halsey (Bisexual)
“Take what you want, take what you can/Take what you please, don’t give a damn/Ask for forgiveness, never permission… It’s in the blood and this is tradition”
These crosses all over my body
Remind me of who I used to be
And Christ forgive these bones I’ve been hiding
Oh, and the bones I’m about to leave
And take me down to the river
And bathe me clean
Put me on the back of your white horse to ride
All the way to the chapel, let you wash all over me
- “Dear God” - Shawnee Kish (Two-Spirit)
“Plagued by my godforsaken love… The only thing that I’m doing on Sundays/Screaming her name/And I said dear God, dear God”
- “HEAVEN” - Demi Lovato (Pansexual and Non-Binary)
“Crucified for the life I’m living/Oh my God hope I’m forgiven/Going to hell ‘cause it feels like heaven”
- “Forgiven” - Alanis Morissette (Primarily Heterosexual, but has also gone out with women)
“In the name of the Father, the Skeptic and the Son/I had one more stupid question… We all had delusions in our heads/We all had our minds made up for us/We had to believe in something/So we did”
- “confession” - girl in red (Queer)
“I don’t know if I can wake up tomorrow morning and face my soul”
Part B - “Be Perfect Or Die!”
“Be Perfect Or Die!” (taken from CJ the X’s lyrics) is about feeling the need to be perfect to get by in this society, or feeling like you have to lie, hold yourself back, or put up a mask just to exist. These are songs about longing to be normal, to just fit in, but no matter what, being unable to conform to an ideal that has been pushed onto you since birth.
- “all-american bitch” - Olivia Rodrigo (Has not stated her sexuality)
“Forgive and I forget/I know my age and I act like it/Got what you can’t resist/I’m a perfect all-American bitch… I don’t get angry when I’m pissed/I’m the eternal optimist/I scream inside to deal with it”
- “<Coping Mechanism>” - WILLOW (Bisexual and Polyamorous)
“Fun fact, some days I just cry on the couch/Put my whole life away on a shelf/I try to feel something, that’s why I break everything… I’ve wasted so much time hating myself for trying/Accepting that this fate is our demise, hating myself for lying”
- “This Is Not Me” - From In Pieces, performed by George Salazar (Gay) & Joey Contreras (Has a Husband)
“Out looking in and I run into him and it's haunting/So drawing/But this is not me… They all think they know/Putting on the show… Don't accuse me/Don't push me/Don't touch me/Don’t love me”
- “Family Line” - Conan Gray (Doesn’t label himself)
I say they’re just the ones who gave me life
But I truly am my parents’ child
Scattered ‘cross my family line
I’m so good at telling lies
That came from my mother’s side
Told a million to survive
- “SUN GOES DOWN” - Lil Nas X (Bisexual)
Since ten I’ve been feelin’ lonely
Had friends but they was pickin’ on me
Always thinkin’, “why my lips so big?”
Was I too dark? Can they sense my fears?
These gay thoughts would always haunt me
I prayed God would take it from me
- “Problematic” - CJ The X (Non-Binary)
“Demons in disguise/Enemies on all sides/And my own fucking mind screaming/‘Be perfect or die!’”
- “Love, Me Normally” - Will Wood (Pansexual)
I’d rather be normal, yes so normal
I suggest that we keep this informal
‘Cause a normal human being wouldn’t need, no
To pretend to be normal, to be normal
Well I guess that’s the least that I owe ya
To be normal, in a way that I could never be
Part C - “Something I’m Made For”
“Something I’m Made For” (taken from Billie Eilish’s lyrics) is a collection of songs that are not traditionally happy or sad songs: they are somewhere in between. These angst-ridden anthems begin to embrace hope as the only way forward.
- “Hello Heaven, Hello” - YUNGBLUD (Pansexual)
“So tell me, are you gonna die with the lies that they force inside your head?/Or are you gonna live by the thorns in what you said?… One step into heaven/But first you’ll go to hell and back… Don’t give a damn about what they said”
- “Famous Last Words” - My Chemical Romance (Vocalist Gerard Way uses he/they pronouns)
“I am not afraid to keep on living/I am not afraid to walk this world alone”
“Keep coming up with love, but it’s so slashed and torn… Love dares you to care for people on the edge of the night/And love dares you to change our way of caring about ourselves/This is our last dance, this is our last dance, this is ourselves/Under pressure”
- “What Was I Made For?” - Billie Eilish (Queer)
“Think I forgot how to be happy/Somethin’ I’m not, but somethin’ I can be/Somethin’ I wait for/Somethin’ I’m made for”
Part D - “Do You Know Who You Are?”
These songs send the listener on a journey of self discovery, to find an answer to the title question asked by Harry Styles: “Do You Know Who You Are?”
- “This Is Home” - Cavetown (Trans and on the Aromantic/Asexual Spectrum)
“Often I am upset/That I cannot fall in love but I guess/This avoids the stress of falling out of it… I’ll hide my chest and I’ll figure out a way to get us out of here… His hair’s a mess and he doesn’t know who he is yet/But little do we we know the stars/Welcome him with open arms”
- “All That’s Known” - From Spring Awakening, Performed by Jonathan Groff (Gay)
“Thought is suspect, and money is their idol/And nothing is okay unless it’s scripted in their Bible/But I know there’s so much more to find/Just in looking through myself and not at them”
- “Blurring Time” - Bells Larsen (Trans)
“Rigid dichotomy, complex identity/It’s not as simple as either or, I’m both and I’m more/Most of all I’m unsure… Maleficent social construct/If it is all made up, why do I give a fuck?”
- “Lights Up” - Harry Styles (Doesn’t label himself)
“All the lights couldn’t put out the dark/Running through my heart/Lights up and they know who you are, know who you are/Do you know who you are?"
- “Girls Like Girls” - Hayley Kiyoko (Lesbian)
“Don’t tell me, tell me what I feel/I’m real and I don’t feel like boys… Girls like girls like boys do, nothing new”
- “Pink Pony Club” - Chappell Roan (Lesbian)
“I heard that there’s a special place/Where boys and girls can all be queens every single day/ I’m having wicked dreams of leaving Tennessee… Won’t make my mama proud, it’s gonna cause a scene… Oh, mama I’m just having fun/On the stage in my heels, it’s where I belong, down at the/Pink Pony Club…”
- “Chosen Family” - Rina Sawayama (Pansexual)
“We don’t need to be related to relate/We don’t need to share genes or a surname/You are, you are/My chosen, chosen family”
- “She’s My Religion” - Pale Waves (Singer Heather Baron-Gracie is Gay)
She's cold, she's dark, she's cynical
She's forever angry at the world
She's no angel, but she is my religion
Always finding ways to numb the pain
She's mad and she will never change
She's no angel, but she is my religion, religion
- “Wig In A Box” - From Hedwig and the Angry Inch, performed by John Cameron Mitchell (Non-Binary) and Stephen Trask (Non-Binary)
“I put on some makeup/Turn on the tape deck/And put the wig back on my head/Suddenly I’m Miss Midwest Midnight checkout queen… I look back on where I’m from/Look at the woman I’ve become… And I ain’t never/I’m never turning back”
Part E - “Call Their Bluff”
In “Call Their Bluff” (taken from lyrics from the RENT song) devastation takes hold at the realization that what was once believed to be true is all a horrible lie. Fully rejecting hateful beliefs, propaganda, and the fascist world around us, these songs speak up for what’s right, even if that means becoming an outcast.
- “Rent” - From RENT, performed by the Cast of the Motion Picture RENT (Featured singer Anthony Rapp is Queer)
“How can you connect in an age when strangers, landlords, lovers/Your own blood cells betray?/What binds the fabric together when the raging, shifting winds of change/Keep ripping away… When they act tough, you call their bluff”
- “American Idiot” - Green Day (Vocalist Billie Joe Armstrong is Bisexual)
“Well maybe I’m the faggot, America/I’m not a part of a redneck agenda/Now everybody do the propaganda/And sing along to the age of paranoia”
- “What You Want” - Dear Evangeline (Prim is Lesbian, Kiki is uses the Double Venus Lesbian symbol in their Instagram bio, and Robyn uses they/them pronouns)
“Since you’re so disgusted by everything you see/I cannot be free/Horrified by me/And you sexualize me…I won’t be what you want”
- “HOSTAGE (they will not erase us)” - TX2 (Vocalist Timothy Evan Thomas is Bisexual)
“They can try to erase us/They feed lies to the nameless/It's so fucked up how they portray us/I'm exhausted, living like a hostage… I refuse to bow down, I'll stand until my legs break”
- “Defying Gravity” - From Wicked, performed by Cynthia Erivo (Queer & Bisexual) & Ariana Grande (Doesn’t label herself)
So if you care to find me
Look to the western sky
As someone told me lately
"Everyone deserves the chance to fly"
And if I'm flying solo
At least I'm flying free
To those who'd ground me
Take a message back from me
Tell them how I am defying gravity
Part F - “So Strong, Make You Start Sweating”
“So Strong, Make You Start Sweating” (taken from the lyrics of Bobby Sanchez) celebrates queer/trans joy! This section is about fully embracing who you are and not caring what others may say.
- “Loser, Baby” - From Hazbin Hotel, performed by Keith David and Blake Roman (Bisexual)
“You’re a power bottom at rock bottom/But you got company… It’s time to lose your self-loathing and excuse yourself/Let hope in, baby/Play your card, be who you are/A loser just like me”
- “Kool Kids” - Måneskin (Vocalist Damiano David is Straight but Curious, the Bassist Victoria De Angelis is Lesbian, and the Drummer Ethan Torchio is Sexually Free)
“But cool kids, they do not vomit/Or, at least, not in front of Vic/I know you think she’s a hot chick/But I’m sorry she prefers hot chicks… Well cool kids, they do not like rock… But I don’t give a fuck about being a cool kid”
- “Androgynous” - Joan Jett and the Blackhearts (Joan Jett hasn’t declared her sexuality but she has "dykes rule," leather pride, and woman-loving-woman stickers on her guitar), Laura Jane Grace (Trans), and Miley Cyrus (Pansexual and Gender Fluid)
“Here comes Dick/He’s wearing a dress/Here comes Jane/You know she’s sporting a chain… And she don’t need advice that they send her/She’s happy the way she looks/She’s happy with her gender/And they love each other so androgynous”
- “I’m Still Standing” - Elton John (Gay)
“Don’t you know that I’m still standing better than I ever did?/Looking like a true survivor, feeling like a little kid/But I’m still standing after all this time/Picking up the pieces of my life without you on my mind”
- “I’m Not Here To Make Friends” - Sam Smith (Non-Binary), Jessie Reyez, and Calvin Harris
I could fill you up with life
I could ease your appetite
Know you've never been this high
Don’t be scared if you like it
Cause I’m not here to make friends
“Kiss a blonde, kiss a friend/Can a gay girl get an amen… I run shit, to be a bad bitch is a sport… Don’t care about no rules ‘cause I always get my way/It’s not my fault you came with her, but she might leave with me… It’s not my fault you’re like in love with me”
- “t4t (4s)” - Bobby Sanchez (Two Spirit and Trans)
“This song's for the trans baddies worldwide/Yeah, I'm t4t… I'm not a gender-bender I'm a transgender woman/So strong make you start sweating/You're offended cause my presence getting way more recognition using ancient methods”
- “Balloon” - Tyler, The Creator (In a sexuality grey area) and Doechii (Bisexual)
“Like bells during December, I (sleigh/slay)/I don't even like girls, bitch, I'm way up too high/Bitch, I'm on my own dick, I don't need your box… I’m a bi bitch but I need that pussy now/If he is gay then I am gay and we are nouns/Me and Tyler finna take your bitch down"
- “Marry The Night” - Lady Gaga (Bisexual)
“I’m gonna marry the night/I won’t give up on my life/I’m a warrior queen/Live passionately tonight… I’m gonna lace up my boots/Throw on some leather and cruise/Down the street that I love/In my fishnet gloves, I’m a sinner”
- “Adam & Steve” - Dorian Electra (Gender Fluid)
“Say I’m an abomination/But I’m God’s creation… And God made me/And he loves me, and he loves me/God made me and Adam and Steve… God made me and Madam and Eve”
Happy Pride!