With just a few weeks left in 2022, make sure you’re spending them well with some new jams from your favorite queer artists. Billboard Pride is proud to present the latest edition of First Out, our weekly roundup of some of the best new music releases from LGBTQ artists.
From Troye Sivan’s new team-up with PNAU to Saucy Santana’s latest club-ready banger, check out just a few of our favorite releases from this week below:
PNAU & Troye Sivan, “You Know What I Need”
After their breakthrough team-up with Dua Lipa and Elton John on “Cold Heart,” Australian trio PNAU were looking for their next big collaboration — and they found fellow down-under indie-pop jammer Troye Sivan. The new track “You Know What I Need” proves what a match made in heaven the two artists are; PNAU’s slinky disco-meets-dance-pop production elevates Sivan’s crisp tenor vocals for this feel-good anthem. By the time you reach the euphoric chorus, where the Sivan’s voice blasts into an otherworldly falsetto, you’ll have already added this to your favorite playlist for future spins.
Saucy Santana, “Bop Bop”
With year-end celebrations set to start any day now, rising rapper Saucy Santana just delivered the perfect turn-up banger. “Bop Bop,” much like the other romps in Santana’s ouevre, is nothing but pure fun bottled into two and a half minutes. The infectious beat shoots the song forward on all cylinders, while the rapper’s impeccable — and often hilarious — turns of phrase keep you guessing about what’s coming next. As Saucy eloquently puts it, he’s got “the sauce and the boys, McLovin’.”
Joy Oladokun, “Power”
It’s not hard to see why Joy Oladokun is quickly becoming the industry go-to for uplifting ballads. Take one listen to “Power,” her new song for the Al Sharpton documentary Loudmouth, and you’ll hear what everyone else does — a singer-songwriter with a pen so sharp it could cut through glass, and a profound voice that refuses to be quieted. More than perhaps any other song that Oladokun has written, “Power” refuses to lean all the way into despair or hope, because it knows that a healthy balance of both will only give that much more weight to its impactful message of perseverance.
Carlie Hanson, “Pretender”
Carlie Hanson has never shied away from the uglier side of self-talk. “Pretender,” though, is the singer at her most uneasy. With a very simple acoustic guitar and drum combo, Hanson lets her raw vocals do most of the heavy lifting on a self-effacing single about the disconnect between expectations and reality. Her words become hard to hear sometimes, only buffeted by the passion and verve being poured into the lyrics by an emotionally exposed Hanson.
Abisha, “I Think I Love You”
Who doesn’t love a good old-fashioned love song? Abisha’s “I Think I Love You” takes after a long line of dance anthems extolling the virtues of romance, as she employs some house and EDM production staples to amplify the flirtatious, adorable lyrics. Add onto that the overt queer themes explored throughout the track, and “I Think I Love You” quietly becomes an LGBTQ anthem of empowerment and love.
