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There’s nothing like a great love song to inspire you to reach for your own romantic heights. It’s even more powerful when you can really relate to the lyrics. Yet, in the hetero-heavy world of romantic music, great gay love songs and fantastic lesbian love songs can be hard to find. So, we’ve created a playlist of LGBT love songs that can help change all that.
Want pronoun-appropriate gay love songs? We’ve got em. Looking for lesbian love songs written by openly-out artists? We’ve got them too. Think that the best LGBT songs about love are those that simply celebrate love in all its forms? This is the Spotify playlist for you.
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Embrace Romance With These 21 LGBT Songs About Love
Boy Meets Boy: 7 Gay Love Songs
Boy meets boy, and sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn’t – and in both cases, it can lead to some incredible gay love songs. The tunes below are some of our favourite romantic songs sung by men in love with men. From celebrations of love that lasts to reflections on first crushes, these songs will make you swoon.
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1. Hold Each Other – A Great Big World
Best love lyric: Something happens when I hold him/He keeps my heart from getting broken
Chad King sang love songs with female pronouns because, as he told Billboard, ”it’s just what people do”. Hold Each Other shows King getting real. When bandmate Ian Axel sings about the woman he loves, King joins in – singing about the man who belongs in his arms. It’s wonderful.
2. Capers – Kele Okereke
Best love lyric: No, I’m not in love, I don’t claim to be/But are you free on Sunday?
Best known as the front man of Bloc Party, Kele Okereke’s solo projects show a whole new side of the gay indie icon. Capers, for instance, is a sweetly jaunty love song about a man who insists he’s not in love… but his skipping heart and delight in the date reveal the truth.
3. Forrest Gump – Frank Ocean
Best love lyric: Forrest Gump you run my mind boy/ Running on my mind boy
Even in 2018, when openly out artists sing love songs, it’s more common to hear ‘you’ rather than ‘him’. Frank Ocean is different. Forrest Gump is that rare gay love song that doesn’t shy away from male pronouns – in this case, the teenaged dream who a younger Ocean once loved from afar. Anyone whose high school crush was unrequited can sympathize.
4. My My My! – Troye Sivan
Best love lyric: Now, let’s stop running from love/Running from love
At just 22, Troye Sivan is a queer music icon, thanks to his inclusive videos (made to show the LGBTQ+ relationships he didn’t see growing up1). His music has always been thoughtful, but in new single My My My! there’s joy too, celebrating the fact that Sivan is head over heels in love.
5. Just Some Guy – Anthony Rapp
Best lyric: And I’ve said these things to other boys, but right now the old words feel so new
Seen Rent? Then chances are you know Anthony Rapp, aka the definitive Mark Cohen. He’s also responsible for Just Some Guy: possibly the world’s sweetest gay love song. Nothing else quite captures that gleeful disbelief you feel when the man of your dreams loves you back.
6. Love is Love – Trey Pearson
Best love lyric: Don’t wanna leave can’t get enough/l know that LOVE İS LOVE
Trey Pearson found fame as a married, straight, Christian rock singer. Then, in 2016, he made the decision to come out publically, quickly becoming an advocate for gay Christians who crave a more accepting kind of faith. Even if you don’t share his religion, you can believe in 2017’s Love is Love; a magical song about finally allowing yourself to embrace true love and desire.
7. What A Beautiful Day – Brett Every ft. Belinda Crawford
Best lyric: Your father said while giving his toast/That, “Of all my beliefs, I believe in love most”
A gay love song sure to strike a chord with marriage-minded singles, Brett Every’s tale of two men getting hitched is simple and beautiful (and hard to listen to without a few happy tears!). Written in 2012 to support same-sex marriage rights, the song is just as poignant today – it’s no wonder it won ‘Best Love Song of the Year’ at the Out Music Awards in 20122
Girl Meets Girl: 7 Lesbian Love Songs
There are so many gorgeous lesbian love songs out there. Yet, lists of the most romantic songs by women about women often include the likes of Katy Perry and t.A.t.u – music more about marketing than meaning. The lesbian love songs below are different; they’re genuine tales of girls meeting girls and falling deeply, heart-stoppingly in love.
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1. All I Want is To Be Your Girl – Holly Miranda
Best love lyric: I wasn’t looking for love but she found me
Since The Jealous Girlfriends went on hiatus, lead vocalist Holly Miranda has been busy with solo projects, like this oh-so-catchy song about new love. If you’re crushing on a lady, this is the ideal tune to play while dancing around your bedroom – hairbrush mic optional.
2. She – Jen Foster
Best love lyric: It’s simple as can be/I love her, she loves me
Over the last 15 years, Jen Foster’s She has become a lesbian love anthem. It’s easy to see why: She is both a beautiful love song about an inspiring romance and a demand for tolerance (with lyrics like ‘Just try and stop me, just try and stop us/Good luck to you,’ this is no mere plea).
3. Girl – The Internet ft. KAYTRANADA
Best love lyric: Would you let me call you my girl, my girlfriend, my girlfriend?
The Internet’s Syd is not without controversy,3 but here she’s simply smitten and ready to give her girl the world. The dreamy, electro-soul of this track is the perfect accompaniment to her vocals, creating the musical equivalent of ecstatic, late-night, whispered sweet nothings.
4. Constant Craving – k.d. lang
Best love lyric: Maybe a great magnet pulls/All souls to what’s true
Is it even legal to create a playlist of lesbian love songs and not include the iconic k.d. lang? Constant Craving turns an astonishing 26 years old in 2018 (it was released in 1992, the year k.d. lang came out as gay), and yet it is still fresh and fantastic. In fact, it’s possibly the definitive tune about lesbian longing, desire, and love.
5. Come to My Window – Melissa Etheridge
Best love lyric: Come to my window/I’ll be home soon’
The first single Melissa Etheridge released after coming out in 1993, this song struck a chord with lesbians and queer-identifying folk everywhere. So much so that they changed the meaning – the line ‘what do they know about this love anyway’ originally referred to gossipy friends, but Etheridge says the gay community has helped it mean much, much more.4
6. Better Than Love – Hayley Kiyoko
Best love lyric: Somebody tell me what’s better than love?/Better than love
Hayley Kiyoko made a huge impact on 2015’s Girls Like Girls. Since then, the former Disney star has been experimenting with different takes on the lesbian love song – here, she switches out the tough gay anthem for pure, bubbling joy. As romantic songs go, this is pretty special.
7. She Keeps Me Warm – Mary Lambert
Best love lyric: Do you like kissing girls?/Can I call you ‘Baby’?
She Keeps Me Warm started life as the hook of Macklemore’s mega-hit Same Love. Soon, however, people were clamouring to hear a full-length version from singer Mary Lambert – and oh boy did she deliver. This gorgeous lesbian love song is so heartfelt and happy, we even had to include it on our list of the 100 best love songs of all time.
Love is Love: 7 LGBT Songs About Love
Recent years have seen the release of more and gayer love songs and lesbian love songs. Now, no matter what pronouns you prefer, or what love song style you like, chances are you can find something that makes your heart flutter. That said, there’s still plenty of room for the classic LGBT songs about love – anthems that have become a rallying cry for those who believe that love is love, and what matters is not who you love but that you love.
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1. Power of Two – Indigo Girls
Best love lyric: The closer I’m bound in love to you/ The closer I am to free
The Indigo Girls have been writing LGBT-friendly songs about love and life for decades. And, while their love songs often lean more towards the unrequited end of things, here all parties are all in. They’ve weathered a lot together and come out stronger, and the result is beautiful.
2. Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover – Sophie B. Hawkins
Best lyric: I’ll do such things to ease your pain/Free your mind & you won’t feel ashamed
This 90s jam was one of the earlier songs to make a frank reference to lesbian romance (‘makin’ love to her with visions clear’), but, seeing as singer Sophie B. Hawkins identifies as omnisexual, it can also be read as more broad than that; an LGBT song about love that will appeal to anyone pining for a friend in a bad relationship.
3. Somebody to Love – Queen
Best lyric: I’m OK, I’m alright (he’s alright, he’s alright)/I ain’t gonna face no defeat
Not all great love songs have to be about relationships and Somebody to Love shows this on multiple levels. Both an ode to the love lessons you learn while single, and a plea to the world to show more tolerance for all types of love, this is an utter classic.
READ MORE: Check out our comprehensive guide on the best gay and lesbian dating apps of 2018.
4. Closer – Tegan and Sara
Best love lyric: I want you close, I want you/I won’t treat you like you’re typical
Twins Tegan and Sara are famously known for their LGBTQ+ activism (they even helped create an ice-cream that supports gay marriage!).5 Here though, they’re focused on celebrating the fun of love, specifically the overwhelming giddiness of teenage crushes. Even adults can remember that feeling – this track helps us realize that it’s never too late to feel it again.
5. All the Lovers – Kylie Minogue
Best lyric: If love is really good, you just want more/Even if it throws you to the fire, fire, fire
Although not a queer-identifying artist, Kylie falls firmly into the ally category. Indeed, as she told Reuters, All The Lovers is a tribute to her beloved gay audience (the music video, featuring a wealth of LGBTQ+ couples, backs that up). A stunning tribute it is too; a disco-pop love song that’s perfect for those that have loved and lost, but are ready to keep on trying.
6. A Little Bit of Love – RuPaul
Best love lyric: A little bit of love /Goes a long, long way
The goddess that is RuPaul is responsible for many of the queer community’s most uplifting moments. A Little Bit of Love is no exception – it’s an LGBT love song for the community, rather than for a particular person. Here, RuPaul acknowledges that times can get tough, but as long as there is love, you’re going to shine.
7. I Still Love You – Jennifer Hudson
Best love lyric: You make my life complete/I still love you baby
For the I Still Love You video, Jennifer Hudson teamed up with Human Rights Campaign to create a piece that is both a song about love and an argument in favour of marriage equality.6 The romantic (yet totally danceable) result is definitely one for the wedding playlist!
Did we include your favourite LGBT song about love? Know a gay love song or a lesbian love song that we missed? Let us know in the comments below, or drop us a line at [email protected]
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