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12 (beautiful) queer music videos to celebrate Pride Month
As Pride Month kicked off on Sunday, June 1st, here is a highlight at 12 recent queer music videos that combine LGBTQIA+ visibility, visual prowess, and thrilling sounds.
By Violaine Schütz,
and Jordan Bako.
Leave Me Alone (2025) by Reneé Rapp among the best queer music videos
For Pride Month, Numéro revisits some of the most beautiful queer music videos of recent years, starting with a new release. Two years after her intimate and hectic debut album Snow Angel, singer and actress Reneé Rapp is teasing her upcoming record. Known for her outspoken nature and rock’n’roll attitude, the artist who came out as a lesbian on Saturday Night Live sheds her polished image with her new single Leave Me Alone. The video features a hedonistic, defiant anthem showcasing a group of young women engaging in a pillow fight. A seemingly innocent battle that ends with blood splatters on those pristine sheets.
Orlando in Love (2025) by Japanese Breakfast
While working on their song Orlando in Love, the musicians of Japanese Breakfast likely had one of the greatest queer icons in contemporary literature in mind. In the music video, lead singer Zauner embodies Orlando, the protagonist of Virginia Woolf’s novel of the same name. Directed by Michelle Zauner herself, the video plunges viewers in a period romance that’s both transgressive and poetic. The soft strings of the track enhance the visual, enveloping viewers in a dreamy, romantic atmosphere.
Winter Baby / New Jersey Blues (2024) by rapper 070 Shake
In 2022, the romantic music video for American R’n’B singer Kehlani’s song Melt, shot in Brazil, captured her sensual love story with rapper 070 Shake. It was a way to officially confirm, at the time, the relationship rumors surrounding the two musically and visually bold artists.
Now in a relationship with actress Lily-Rose Depp, rapper 070 Shake delivers another cinematic statement with the music video for her track Winter Baby / New Jersey Blues. Her partner is invited to sing and dance in this enchanting video, offering a beautiful lesson in sensuality, away from the male gaze.
Rush (2023) by Troye Sivan
Australian singer-songwriter, actor, and former YouTuber Troye Sivan – star of the provocative series The Idol – caresses and kisses several men in the sultry music video for Angel Baby. The short film is poetic, hedonistic and provocative with its culinary visual metaphors, contrasting with the song’s title – a tour de force of aesthetics and eroticism, which the singer replicates in other videos. For instance, naked male bodies frolic freely in the hedonistic Rush (2023), and One of Your Girls (2023) shows Troye Sivan both as himself and into full drag.
Marathon (2023) by Bilal Hassani
François Sagat, who had already appeared in Sevdaliza’s Bluecid video in 2017 and in Christophe Honoré’s feature film Man at Bath (2020), stars in the music video for Marathon, a song by Bilal Hassani, the author of the brilliant Théorème (2022). This choice is no coincidence, since the actor was one of the singer’s first teenage crushes.
Directed by Alexis Langlois, a French queer filmmaker whose acclaimed short films recall the trashy aesthetic of Gregg Araki and John Waters, this short film plunges us into a night of love between Bilal Hassani and the gay porn actor. Although the dreamy, very hot video portrays a sexual marathon, alternating positions in sync with Bilal Hassani’s poetic, sultry lyrics, everything is delivered with softness and tenderness.
It Must Change (2023) by Anohni and the Johnsons
Anohni, the brilliant transgender soul priestess previously known as Antony and the Johnsons, made her grand comeback in 2023. Performing as Anohni and the Johnsons, she released the enchanting It Must Change, a lush soul single that followed in the footsteps of Marvin Gaye and Al Green, while adding a profound weight with her raw, angelic voice.
This gem heralded a new album, My Back Was a Bridge For You to Cross, released in July 2023. The cherry on top? The song came out along with a music video starring and elevating Munroe Bergdorf in close-up, the British model and activist who became the first transgender model to sign a contract with L’Oréal UK.
The ultra-sexy Lipstick Lover (2023) by Janelle Monáe
In 2023, singer Janelle Monáe makes a powerful statement by creating a lesbian paradise for the music video of her hedonistic and sultry song Lipstick Lover. Among naked bodies, kisses, orgy, caresses, cigars, high-heel licking, female-sex metaphors, and (s)explicit lyrics, the artist lines up daring and aesthetic scenes bathed in sunlight and enhanced by a retro grain.
This Hell (2022) by Rina Sawayama: among the most beautiful queer music video
Nippon-British pop star, model, and Charli XCX collaborator Rina Sawayama, who identifies as bisexual and pansexual, places her love life at the heart of her playful pop songs. In the colorful, fun, and rock’n’roll video for This Hell, she marries both a man and a woman at once, then throws a big celebration. The country-pop track addresses the attacks on the LGBTQ community by conservative figures, particularly those with religious convictions.
Fruit (2022) by Oliver Sim
Singer Oliver Sim, member of the synthpop trio The xx, is now pursuing a solo career. In this exquisite music video directed by French filmmaker Yann Gonzalez (Knife + Heart, You and the Night), he flirts with and kisses another man. Both elegant, sexy, and moving, the short video tells the story of the gay singer who, as a child, dreamed of becoming a pop star, under the loving eyes of his mother.
Montero (Call Me By Your Name) (2021) by Lil Nas X
It’s hard to find a more iconic queer music video. American singer and rapper Lil Nas X conceived Montero as a response to the homophobic comments he’s faced since his early days in the music industry. Since some self-righteous Republicans and religious conservatives branded him a “servant of Satan,” he chose to provoke them with a hot lap dance scene with the devil himself. This iconic music video caused quite a stir and some conservative viewers almost had a stroke when it was released on YouTube.
Crave (2021) by Years & Years
Almost all music videos by Olly Alexander, aka Years & Years, celebrate a sexy and dreamy queer aesthetic. In Crave, the queer electro-pop icon – applauded by Kylie Minogue, Elton John, and Gaspar Noé – stages himself surrounded by men in a sultry atmosphere that’s half-angelic and half-devilish. The video is filled with highly symbolic shots, including a scene featuring a snake with religious and sexual connotations.
Die 4 You (2017) by Perfume Genius
American singer-songwriter Mike Hadreas, aka Perfume Genius, accompanies his baroque, intimate pop-folk music with sumptuous, physical videos. In the music video for Die 4 You, the singer invites us into a decadent theater set, where he delivers a lascivious dance performance reminiscent of Liza Minnelli’s in Cabaret (1972). Throughout the performance, the artist blurs the boundaries between genders with his full make-up on and the “masculine” and “feminine” looks he sports with equal elegance.
