Beyoncé, Billie Eilish, & Chappell Roan: Your Pride Weekend Playlist

I’m calling it now: the typically verdant hue on this year’s Pride flag will now be lime-green Brat-colored. On an album that spans party sonics, “365” feels specifically crafted by Charli XCX to foster a Pride-friendly level of carelessness and fun. Honorable mention goes to “The girl, so confusing version with lorde,” which established harmony in Girl World (and finally reunited the New Zealand singer with heavy synths).

Before anyone tries to argue that the popper fumes have worn off from Troye Sivan’s sweaty house-pop magnum opus “Rush,” let me remind you the song dropped in July 2023 — specifically, two weeks after last year’s Pride Month. For the first time ever, the dance floor anthem can be used to soundtrack endless parties, and I will be feeling the rush accordingly.

This 2002 disco-pop jam finally earned its flowers thanks to a Saltburn sync, but with its Robyn-esque insistence on dance floor commitment and campy, choreographed music video, we’re not letting it go anytime soon.

Tove Lo and SG Lewis dropped their collaborative new EP HEAT as a “thank you to [their fans] in the [LGBTQ+] community.” While every track is a banger, there’s something particularly affirming about thumping girlboss bop “Busy Girl” with its chant-ready chorus: “I got skills, I got power, every second, minute, hour / I am good at what I do, b*tch, I’m better than you.”

This slice of heaven from LGBTQ+ disco trailblazer Sylvester feels just as otherworldly today as it did in 1978. It’s a shimmering ode to authentic feelings that has not only inspired generations of disco-pop creators, but also continues to speak to Pride Month’s intangible energy of love and acceptance.

This flirty and innuendo-laden cut from Billie Eilish’s latest album Hit Me Hard and Soft is as sonically outrageous as it is lyrically. With crunchy guitars, an undeniable bassline, and an insatiable appetite, it’s a rare sapphic-sighted anthem that even the cool crowd can’t deny.

There’s something both fresh and nostalgic about Omar Apollo’s new breakup ballad, which leans heavily into vocoder, frantic synths, and Depeche Mode references. Not only is the queer singer-songwriter crying on the dance floor, he’s inviting us to join him with open arms.

The Queen of Pop has no shortage of Pride anthems, but there’s an authoritative knowingness to this single from 1989’s Like a Prayer. Harnessing her romantic history, Madonna spells out her recipe for a perfect relationship, starting with unabashedly expressing one’s self.

Before the “Good Luck, Babe” singer was pop music’s Chosen One, she was celebrating her first-ever Pride Weekend with NYLON’s Avery Stone at West Village’s Holy Ground gay bar Pieces. At the time, only a handful of people were acquainted with this track’s choreographed arm dance, and my boyfriend wormed his way through the jam-packed crowd to beg Roan to release it soon. Flash forward a year later, and not only is this bop out in the world, but it’s a Billboard Hot 100 hit. Isn’t that H-O-T-T-O-G-O?

The entirety of Beyoncé’s house-drenched and queer-celebrating album Renaissance would fit on a Pride playlist, but there’s something exceptionally “yummy” about this five-minute ballroom-inspired odyssey. You have not lived until you’ve stood in a crowd of fan-clapping strangers and yelled, “Miss Honey!”