Billie Eilish is bewildered she even had to come out in the first place after she shared her sexuality in a revelatory interview. The pop star confirmed that she had unintentionally come out in an interview for Variety’s Power of Women issue – but only because she thought her sexuality was already “obvious”. “I kind of thought, ‘Wasn’t it obvious?’ I didn’t realise people didn’t know,” she told press at Variety’s Hitmakers event on Saturday (2 December). “I just don’t really believe in it. I’m just like, ‘Why can’t we just exist?’ “I’ve been doing this for a long time, and I just didn’t talk a ..read more

If you’re a dedicated Disney gay, you’re probably familiar with renowned lyricist Howard Ashman. Alongside composer Alan Menken, the gay songwriter was responsible for penning some of the catchiest musical hits of the iconic Disney Renaissance period, contributing lyrics for the songs of The Little Mermaid, Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast. Sadly, in contrast to the fairytale endings of the Disney films he worked on, Howard Ashman’s story was tragically cut short during the AIDS pandemic.  Howard Ashman and Alan Menken were long-time collaborators, having previously teamed up for comedy r ..read more

Trans and non-binary musicians have to battle to carve a space in the notoriously inaccessible music industry. On the surface, it has been a great year for trans and non-binary artists. Sam Smith and Kim Petras made history by topping the Billboard Hot 100 with “Unholy”, then by becoming the first trans duo to win a Grammy in February. Meanwhile, singer-songwriter Ethel Cain has found a cult following that enabled her to tour the world, and Christine and the Queens and Anohni and the Johnsons released albums to critical acclaim. So, against a backdrop of rising anti-LGBTQ+ hostility, the music ..read more

At this point, George Michael and Wham!’s pop hit “Last Christmas” is as essential to the festive season as tinsel and turkey. Nearly forty years on from the track’s release in December 1984 and it remains regarded as one of the very best Christmas songs of all time. In the 2023 Netflix documentary film Wham!, vintage audio clips from the late, great George Michael and his Wham! bandmate Andrew Ridgeley revealed more about how the iconic tune came to be, and how it has continued to soundtrack the holiday season for nearly four decades. As Christmas nears and the song hits the radio rotation in ..read more

Kathryn Ferguson, the director behind Nothing Compares, the award-winning Sinéad O’Connor documentary, has told PinkNews why the Irish singer will always be seen as an LGBTQ+ icon. Ferguson’s documentary, which was released in January 2022 – 18 months before O’Connor’s death at age 56 this July – traces the Grammy-Award-winning artist and activist’s life between 1987 and 1993. Between those years, O’Connor released her critically acclaimed debut album The Lion and the Cobra, but was ultimately exiled from mainstream pop stardom after ripping up a photo of Pope John Paul II on Saturday Night Li ..read more

Rapper Lil Nas X has teased that he’ll be taking his songs in a very different direction, revealing that he’s working on queer Christian music. The “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” hit–maker used X, formerly Twitter, to share a snippet of a new song, seemingly titled “Angels”. In the caption of the video, he asked: “Y’all mind if I enter my Christian era?” He is seen with long hair, singing in the middle of a road. “Free from all this envy in me, I don’t want these feelings,” he declares in the mid-tempo track. In response, some of his followers questioned how the chart topper could go from gi ..read more

It’s that time of year again – no, we’re not talking about filling our homes with gaudy Christmas decorations and watching endless reruns of Nigella’s Christmas cookery shows and every version of A Christmas Carol ever made. What we are talking about is the “Fairytale of New York” homophobia discourse, which this year coincides with the death of The Pogues lead singer Shane MacGowan at the age of 65. People say Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year, but for queer people, the slow march towards December has come to represent a return to a tired, exhausting debate about homophobic slu ..read more

The Pogues singer Shane MacGowan, famed for 1988 Christmas hit “Fairytale of New York”, has died aged 65. Shane MacGowan, from Tunbridge Wells in Kent, had recently been admitted to hospital after being diagnosed with encephalitis last year. According to the NHS, encephalitis is a “life-threatening” condition that causes the brain to swell. He had been released from hospital on 22 November, and celebrated his wedding anniversary with his wife Victoria Mary Clarke on 26 November, remarking how grateful they were to be “still alive”. Clarke confirmed his death in an Instagram post earlier today ..read more

Spotify Wrapped 2023 is finally here and all over social media, users are showing off (or, in some cases, hiding) their top songs and artists of the year. But there’s one new feature in particular in this year’s Wrapped that has sparked people’s interest – and the memes are exquisite. While guiding users through their 2023 Wrapped, Spotify will this year tell people their “sound town”, which is essentially the city that best matches their music taste. It wasn’t long before LGBTQ+ users noticed they were all being recommended one of the same three places: Cambridge, Massachusetts, Burlington, V ..read more

Sabrina Carpenter has finally broken her silence on the controversy surrounding the music video for her hit single “Feather” – and it was nothing short of iconic. The Disney Channel alum made headlines this month following the release of her music video, rather controversially shot inside the Church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Brooklyn, New York. Not only did local Bishop Robert Brennan state publicly that he was “appalled” that the church was used to shoot the music video, but just this week it was announced that the priest who approved the shoot has since been “relieved ..read more