New Music Friday: Songs You Should Listen to This Weekend (Aug. 26)

The LGBTQ+ jams for your weekend!

Queer artists, allies, and references have been dominating the music industry as of late – from Beyoncé’s entire Renaissance to Lizzo’s “Everybody’s Gay” anthem to Omar Apollo’s delicate Ivory (Marfil) debut album to artists like Saucy Santana and Big Freedia having huge moments in mainstream music. Overall, the music industry – and music lovers – are more open than ever to queer singers, rappers, songwriters, producers, lyrics, and sounds, which is great news for our community.

As August comes to an end next week, we’re starting to look forward to some of the new releases scheduled to drop in September 2022. For example, music fans are excited about upcoming albums from LGBTQ+ artists and allies such as Fletcher’s Girl of My Dreams, Rina Sawayama’s Hold the Girl, and Willow Smith’s <COPINGMECHANISM>, to name a few.

Thankfully, things haven’t been that different this week, with queer musicians and allies still delivering bops that will rule our weekends and beyond. For one, there’s the long-awaited return of Britney Spears in the form of her collaboration with Elton John on “Hold Me Closer.” There are also plenty of new releases from artists such as Bronze Avery, Kaleena Zanders, and Bentley Robles, among others.

Scroll through to listen to the best new songs from LGBTQ+ musicians and allies released this week.

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Elton John & Britney Spears - “Hold Me Closer”

Kaleena Zanders - “ME WITHOUT U”

Grace Gaustad - “Old Ways”

Bronze Avery - “FIGURE IT OUT”

Bentley Robles - “kim kardashian”

Johnny Manuel - “Again”