If you're looking for a Valentine's Day playlist, there's an endless supply of songs about love from out LGBT artists worth a listen. As a sampling, here are fourteen great songs about love from LGBT musicians for every mood. Presented in alphabetical order:
GLAAD Media Award nominee Adam Lambert made history last year when he became the first openly gay man to claim the number one spot on the US Billboard 200 chart with his newest album Trespassing. The album includes the track "Outlaws of Love" where Lambert sings about holding on to love in the face of intolerance: "Tears all fall the same/ we all feel the rain/ we can't change/ everywhere we go/ we're looking for the sun/ nowhere to grow old and always on the run/ they say we'll rot in hell/ but I don't think we will/ they've branded us enough/ outlaws of love." Listen to the track below.
Bisexual folk rock singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco released the track "If It Isn't Her" on her third studio album Imperfectly in 1992 with the soulful lyrics "I didn't really notice/ when everything else disappeared/ but as far as I'm concerned/ if it isn't her/ it isn't here." Listen to "If It Isn't Her" below.
Antony and the Johnson's mournful love song "Aeon" from their 2009 album The Crying Light is a hauntingly beautiful dedication. Lead singer Antony Hegarty implores "Hold that man in your tender clutch/ hold that man I love so much." Listen to "Aeon" below.
The Cliks 2007 track "Nobody Else Will" reads as a 'thank you' for love received and a confirmation of those feelings being returned. "When love is lying still/ I'll be there for you/ to hold you tight/ be there for you/ when nobody else will," transgender frontman Lucas Silviera sings. Listen below.
Elton John released "Your Song" in 1970 which launched his career in the U.S. and the track has since been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, placed on Rolling Stone's "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" list and been certified gold and platinum. The sentimental but real message of "It's a little bit funny this feeling inside / I'm not one of those who can easily hide / I don't have much money but boy if I did / I'd buy a big house where we both could live" lives on and John still performs the song in concerts today.
GLAAD Media Award nominee and Grammy winner Frank Ocean posted an emotional letter on Tumblr last year in which he revealed that his first love was a man. He received great support from the hip hop community and his love song, "Thinkin Bout You," peaked at 32 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America. Check out Ocean performing the song on Saturday Night Live below.
The smooth acoustic guitar-driven Indigo Girls romantic 1994 single "Power of Two" is about the power and comfort of a long-lasting love. The Girls sing "The closer I'm bound in love to you/ the closer I am to free […] Adding up the total of a love that's true/ multiply life by the power of two." Watch the "Power of Two" music video which follows the love stories of both LGBT and straight couples below.
k.d. lang's ode to longing, "Constant Craving," remains her most famous song over 20 years after its release. The single reached number 2 on the Billboard adult contemporary chart and netted Lang a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 1992 as well as an MTV Video Music Award for Best Female Video. "Constant Craving" was recently covered on the "I Kissed a Girl" episode of Glee by Naya Rivera, Chris Colfer and Idina Menzel. Check out the "Constant Craving" video below.
British indie group Bloc Party's track "I Still Remember" is a love story about two school boys with one longing for someone he can't have. Openly gay frontman Kele Okereke sings, "You should have asked me for it/ I would have been brave […] I kept your tie/ I'd have gone wherever you wanted/ I still remember." Bloc Party recently returned from a hiatus that allowed Okereke to put out two solo albums. Watch the "I Still Remember" music video below.
Anyone mourning a lost love connection this Valentine's Day will want to queue up The Magnetic Fields' single "Grand Canyon," from volume two of their 1999 three disc concept album 69 Love Songs (all of which were penned by openly gay frontman Stephin Merritt). "If I was the Grand Canyon, I'd echo everything you say/ But I'm just me, I'm only me and you used to love me that way," Merritt laments over a haunting track. Check out "Grand Canyon" below, and pick up 69 Love Songs for 68 other good ones.
Melissa Etheridge's 1994 single "Come to My Window," her first release after coming out, earned Etheridge a Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. The song has Etheridge promising her lover she will stay no matter what: "I don't care what they think/ I don't care what they say/ what do they know about this love, anyway?" Watch the "Come to My Window" video below.
GLAAD Media Award winner Scissor Sisters' upbeat single "Might Tell You Tonight" helps take some of the fear out of the idea of confessing your feelings to that special someone. "I just might tell you tonight/ that I love you/ and you should stay all my life," Shears croons over the poppy beat. Listen to "Might Tell You Tonight" below.
Rufus Wainwright was the Stephen F. Kolzak Award recipient at the 19th Annual GLAAD Media Awards, and his 2010 soft-piano track "What Would I Ever Do With a Rose?" is a haunting lament to loneliness. "What would I ever do with a rose?/ How would it ever get me by?/ How would it ever get the guy?/ What would I ever do/ What would I ever do with you?" Wainwright serenades. Listen below.
Tegan and Sara have charted many times since their first release 14 years ago, but their energetic new single "Closer" earned the duo their first entry on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart and the Heartthrob album debuted at 3 on the Billboard 200 chart. The bouncy song has the twins purring "All I want to get is a little closer/ All I want to know is, can you come a little closer?" Check out the music video for "Closer" below.
What are some of your favorite songs about love from LGBT artists? Blaine serenading Kurt with "Teenage Dream" on Glee? Catie Curtis' sweet "Kiss That Counted"? Queen's "Somebody to Love"? Share some in the comments below!
