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By Duncan Obermein<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Queer musicians have long been trailblazers in sound, style, and storytelling and today is no different. With artists like Chappell Roan, Ice Spice, Doechii, Boygenius and Troye Sivan breaking into the mainstream and topping charts, queer voices are more visible and celebrated than ever. Many brilliant but lesser-known talents are coming up through the ranks and giving their style and sound to the music scene. Contemporary gay artists, underground gems, newer superstars on the scene and some older gay musicians finally getting the recognition they deserve. Following is just a sprinkling of these talented up and comers to look out for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I. Jordan<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 2024 saw I. Jordan reclaim their artistry and identity through their debut album, \u2018I am Jordan.\u2019 The record is an unequivocal announcement by the British DJ\/producer about their self-discovery and transition as a transgender person. \u201cIt\u2019s about my joy as a trans person, and trans joy generally, working with trans people, making all this fun music together,\u201d said I. Jordan about their record. Paying homage to Northern sounds from the UK that Jordan grew up with, \u2018I am Jordan\u2019 punctuates lots of, bassline, rave, trance, hardstyle and house that emphasize their signature twists to the dancefloor bangers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wafia<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Wafia Al-Rikabi is a queer, Iraqi\u2013Syrian\u2013Australian artist known for her smooth blend of alt-R&B, electro-pop, and soul. Her music often navigates personal identity, heartbreak, empowerment, and family, infusing pop sounds with political and cultural nuance. Originally studying biomedicine, Wafia pivoted to music after her early SoundCloud uploads gained traction, and her breakout 2016 track \u201cHeartburn\u201d earned praise from Pharrell. She identifies as queer and frequently discusses both cultural and romantic identity in her work. Tracks like \u201cBodies\u201d were inspired by her family\u2019s refugee background and the Muslim ban, while others like \u201cI\u2019m Good\u201d and \u201cPick Me\u201d speak to queer heartbreak and resilience. She\u2019s collaborated with artists like<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ta-ku, Louis the Child, and G Flip. Wafia\u2019s voice is rich and emotive, and her storytelling is both personal and politically aware.<\/p>\n\n\n\n aleksiah<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n aleksiah (Alexia Damokas) is a queer indie-pop singer-songwriter from Adelaide whose diaristic lyricism and angsty guitar-driven sound have made her one of Australia\u2019s most promising new voices. Her songs explore growing pains, girlhood, sapphic crushes, and emotional vulnerability, all told through a lens of poetic honesty. She rose to prominence with her 2022 debut \u201cFern,\u201d a coming-of-age anthem about falling for a girl in high school, and continued with powerful singles like \u201cAnt Song,\u201d \u201cPretty Picture,\u201d and \u201cClothes Off.\u201d Her 2024 debut EP Who Are You When You\u2019re Not Performing? solidified her as a Triple J favorite and earned her a spot on Rolling Stone AU\u2019s \u201cArtists to Watch\u201d list. Inspired by Phoebe Bridgers and Julia Jacklin, aleksiah brings queer intimacy and feminist rage to a genre that thrives on authenticity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nxdia<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Nxdia (Nadia Ahmed) is a non-binary, Egyptian\u2011British alt-pop artist who has been praised for their ability to blend vulnerabilities, queer identity, and multicultural storytelling into their songwriting. They have an alt-pop with punk and New Wave flair that combines guitar-driven, energetic pop with gritty production. They have music that lets old\u2011school pop-punk meet modern attitude. Born in Cairo in 2000, of mixed Egyptian-Sudanese ancestry, they moved to Manchester at eight, and they frequently sing in both English and Arabic, letting mixed language use add depth and emotional texture. Their lyrics explore identity, queer love, dysphoria, and inner conflict. They have a 2023 EP In the Flesh and just released their Debut mixtape I Promise No One\u2019s Watching (June 2025). They\u2019re forging a space where marginalized identities feel seen, heard, and celebrated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Baths<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Will Wiesenfeld has been working in the industry \u2014 as Baths, Geotic, or even under his own name \u2014 for well over a decade. Yet with Baths\u2019 first new album in eight years Gut, it feels like the time has come for this experimental artist to get his due in mainstream circles. The two songs he\u2019s already shared off the project, \u201cSea of Men\u201d and \u201cEden,\u201d already sound completely different from the atmospheric dance aesthetics of his past works. Instead, Wiesenfeld\u2019s new music captures electronic, rock, folk and pop in a bottle and distills them through his evocative songwriting, dropping lines like \u201cCarnal is a normal mode, f\u2013king all the men in droves\/ Son of god is never home when I come knocking on that door.\u201d With Gut set to drop this February, there\u2019s never been a better time to become a Baths fan.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Gigi Perez<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Among a stacked field of louder, more explosive breakthroughs in 2024, singer-songwriter Gigi Perez managed to secure a viral hit that still flew under the radar for much of the year. Denizens of queer TikTok sent \u201cSailor Song\u201d into the top 40 of the Hot 100, where it has remained at the start of 2025. Meanwhile, as the rest of the alternative star\u2019s catalog picked up steam, Perez signed to Island Records, home of fellow 2024 breakout stars Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter. With a yet-to-be-announced album on its way and plenty of goodwill in the bank, Perez is on the precipice of having an even bigger breakthrough in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Catty<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Catty is your answer to angsty and emotionally fraught music from a female and queer perspective, and the Welsh singer-songwriter\u2019s latest pop-rock EP \u2018Healing Out of Spite\u2019 delivers just that. Filled with indignant, anguishing and tongue-in-cheek lyricism, Catty aka Catrin Hopkins dons her lesbian Welsh witch persona to speak up on heartbreak and emotional turmoil in same sex relationships. Influenced by the likes of Fleetwood Mac, AC\/DC and The Rolling Stones, and having already opened for Stevie Nicks at BST Hyde Park, Catty is the one to watch to garner powerful pop bangers<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yadam<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n From being an up-and-coming openly gay Latin popstar to having his song featured on the Oscar-nominated film \u2018Emilia Perez,\u2019 Venuezlan artist Yadam is coming in full force this year! His velvety vocals and overt narratives of love and heartbreak as a queer person cascade gloriously over pop-forward sonics with a tinge of European-Latin influences. Yadam already has his best foot forward for 2025, as the singer-songwriter announced the first single of the year, \u2018OREN POR MI,\u2019 from his new era.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Zora<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n If you\u2019re not yet familiar with Zora, allow us to introduce you. A rapper, singer, lyricist and producer from Minneapolis, Zora is bringing Black trans stories to her music with reckless abandon. Perhaps there is no better example of that than her recently released sophomore album Belladonna \u2014 over the course of 16 songs, the multi-hyphenate embraces chaotic production and cutting lyrics to tell the story of a woman out for revenge for all the harms she\u2019s endured. It\u2019s equal parts scary and stunning, making for one of the most unique projects we\u2019re likely to hear in 2025. Take this as your sign to get into Zora\u2019s music ASAP, because her inventive style and specific point-of-view are two things we need badly this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Torres<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Indie rock singer-songwriter Torres is leaning into the idea of community in 2025. On the heels of her excellent 2024 project What an Enormous Room, the Florida-born artist decided to team up with queer rock hero Julien Baker for a new project of duets. The first glimpses at the pair\u2019s album show two individuals finding something completely different from their own respective careers, with the classic country bombast of \u201cSugar in the Tank\u201d perfectly balancing the spare, quiet ruminations of \u201cSylvia.\u201d But with Baker\u2019s renewed profile as a queer icon (thanks in no small part to her world-dominating success with Boygenius in 2023), Torres is set to reap some long-deserved benefits with Send a Prayer My Way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jordan Suaste<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n If we learned anything from 2024, it is that release schedules no longer dictate the likelihood of global success. Jordan Suaste may have debuted his last album in September, but we\u2019re not ready to say goodbye just yet. Maybe I Already Am was an excellent debut LP, and the indie pop singer left plenty on the table for potential gains in 2025. Maybe his stunning queer anthem \u201cLove Who You Want To\u201d becomes a pertinent anthem in a time of chaos and goes viral. Maybe his sensual banger \u201cThe Devil\u201d gets a prominent sync for a movie or TV show. Maybe people will just come around to his heartbreaking coming-of-age story told on \u201cCharlie\u201d and stream the hell out of it. Anything could happen, and we hope Suaste\u2019s top-tier talent gets some more love this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jasmine.4.t<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s rare that you get to watch a young artist make a generational statement on their debut album. It\u2019s even rarer when that artist is a trans woman breaking into the music scene. Yet Jasmine.4.t has done just that with You Are the Morning, her stellar new project out via Saddest Factory Records. Telling the story of her own experiences transitioning, Jasmine Cruickshank explores a vast array of genres and styles, all while encapsulating her specific experience in radically honest lyrics. It\u2019s no wonder that she got all three members of Boygenius to produce her album; Jasmine.4.t could very well become the next queer femme star speaking directly to her community on massive stages around the globe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mrbstyles<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n While not a household name, Mrbstyles (Moises Baez) is a Puerto Rican, LGBTQ+ salsa singer known for being one of the first openly gay male salsa singers. He’s released a single and video called “Ay! Que Bueno,” and is also a professional salsa dancer and choreographer. He’s also been recognized for his unique style and has created a salsa dance program for the gay community in Boston.<\/p>\n\n\n\n