6 Transgender and Non-Binary Acts to Add to Your Playlists
Trans and non-binary actors—such as Asia Kate Dillon (Billions), Elliot Fletcher (Shameless), Lachlan Watson (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina), Bex Taylor-Klaus (Arrow), MJ Rodriguez (Pose), and, of course, Laverne Cox—have made major waves in film and TV. Could 2019 could be a breakout year for non-binary and transgender musicians?
While we trust your digital music library already includes talented trailblazers like ANOHNI, Kim Petras, and Nomi Ruiz (Jessica 6), here are six incredible artists you should know before all of your friends find out about them.
Blend Solange Knowles, Frank Ocean, MNEK, Theophilus London, and Toro Y Moi and you’ll get a sense of the fierce, genre-busting genius that is Ah-Mer-Ah-Su’s 2018 debut album, Star. Having gender transitioned while a teen, and holding strong beliefs in magic, mysticism, and spirituality, the Oakland-based collaborated with producer/writer/director Vice Cooler to "make something similar to SZA’s album CTRL, Solange Knowles’ A Seat at the Table, and Lauryn Hill’s Miseducation of Lauren Hill, [but with] a transgender, black woman’s narrative,” she told Billboard
Multi-layered harmonies saturate L.A.-based, non-binary singer/songwriter Grayson’s “Brother” (and its ethereal, pulsing Knights of Zion remix), which dropped last fall. Juggling careers as makeup artist, stylist, and model, Grayson—who grew up Mormon—made their musical debut as one-half of Seattle-born synthpop group Neu Yeuth, and is currently at work on a debut solo EP.
A transgender woman from the UK, Billie Lloyd teamed up with New Yorker Harrison Scott to form this NYC-based duo. A follow-up to debut single “2Different,” November’s animated music video for “Safe”—a chilly, brooding electropop track written post-transition—touches directly on “a feeling of safety and freedom with a lover who truly accepts you and sees you as you are,” Lloyd says.
Thailand’s Gene Kasidit started out as the frontman of punky Bangkok electroclash outfit Futon in the early 2000s but publicly came out as transgender with the release of her second solo album, 2014’s Blonde. She also radically changed things up sonically, with melodic 80s-inspired electropop/disco (“ONS,” short for “One Night Stand”) and hook-laden ballads, including beauteous recent single, “Ex.” And yes, you can find everything on iTunes in the U.S.!
Toronto folk-pop singer/songwriter Shawnee, a Canadian of Mohawk First Nation background who identifies as Two Spirit, got her start as a Shania Twain impersonator and in the band She King. Making a big impression with empowering single “Mirror Me," Shawnee recently released a lush folk-rock single and video, “Haunted,” which would make Twain and fellow Canuck Sarah McLachlan proud.
Going by the pronoun “they/them,” non-binary Canadian indie rocker Rae Spoon was the subject of and soundtrack composer for the 2014 documentary My Prairie Home. Spoon’s latest album, 2018’s bodiesofwater, includes “Do Whatever The Heck You Want,” whose lyrics ask “should I be a man or woman, what does that really mean, should I be outside of it, or something in between.” You can guess the answer!
