Everyone loves their party anthems. Last year many a gay danced in the club to “Let’s Have a Kiki” by The Scissor Sisters, catapulting the song to “anthem” status for the summer. This year, there are quite a few options as to what your personal summer anthem could be. Here, we profile four possible choices.
ONE OF THESE FOUR SONGS JUST MIGHT BE IT!
By Mike Halterman
Everyone loves their party anthems. Last year many a gay danced in the club to “Let’s Have a Kiki” by The Scissor Sisters, catapulting the song to “anthem” status for the summer. This year, there are quite a few options as to what your personal summer anthem could be. Here, we profile four possible choices.
by Lady Bunny
The RuPaul’s Drag U fixture has released a single she wrote herself, officially throwing her hat off her perfectly-coiffed wig and into the ring and fighting it out for ultimate summer anthem status with mainstream artists. First off, can she sing? Not every drag queen should release a single. Second off, is the song good?
I am happy to report that the answers to both of those questions are “yes.” Lady Bunny’s voice holds up over a team of remixers from across the globe (four different edits were released for your dancing pleasure!), and not only is the song good, it’s incredibly catchy. By the third time you hear it, it reaches “earworm” status, and then you’ll find yourself having heard it eight more times without noticing the time elapsing! Yes, Bunny, I’m “loving this feeling!”
“I Love It”
by Icona Pop featuring Charli XCX
Swedish singers Caroline Hjelt and Aino Jawo make up the synthpop duo Icona Pop, and with the help of the lyrics of Charli XCX (real name Charlotte Aitchison), their song “I Love It” reached the top five of the pop charts and topped the dance chart. Hjelt and Jawo say their goal is to produce “music you can laugh and cry to,” although this song is more something you can dance to, and dance to all night if you wanted.
High-energy, “I Love It” implores everyone to just let go of the stress and drama of today (I mean, come on, how many of you have wanted to — figuratively — crash your car into the bridge and then watch it burn?). I’ve heard many remixes of this song but I have to say I prefer the original to dance to. Who knew that in 2013 it would be most fashionable to be a “’90s b—h?”
by Cher
The blogosphere may label this an influental feminist anthem, but it’s the website So So Gay that gets it right: Cher’s gay male fans are going to be the ones who enjoy this song the most. Since we’ve made “Believe” and “Strong Enough” anthems of summers past, why not elevate this song to the highest of the high DJ booths this summer? Paul Oakenfold produced this hit for Cher, which gives us shades of synth, house, and Europop.
I think everyone can read between the lines while listening to the lyrics: we’ve loved and lost, feeling like we’ve hit rock bottom with our broken hearts (we’ve all been there). Forget about him and forget about the hurt, because it’s our inner strength — and the call of the dance floor — that will repair us and make us whole again. All the pieces are there for this song to be a summer anthem.
“Q.U.E.E.N.”
by Janelle Monáe featuring Erykah Badu
Janelle Monáe burst on the scene three years ago with the release of her debut album The ArchAndroid, but it wasn’t until her participation on fun.’s single “We Are Young” skyrocketed to #1 and became the New Year’s anthem of 2012 that she received mainstream notice. Erykah Badu has been a R&B and neo-soul diva since the mid-’90s, when she was urging us to “call Tyrone.”
Their collaboration proves to be nothing short of faint-inducing. The lyrics are definitely fierce, and I think many drag queens will be helping this song get airplay on the dance floors before the DJs get to it, which is a shame in its own right because it can and does stand just fine on its own. But like Ms. Monáe, drag queens “serve face” and many have been the victims of “shade”, so this song will be heard throughout the summer; it’s just a matter of how it gets put on the speakers.
