Mighty Real Edition Part 2

Summary

Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia Episode: Mighty Real Edition Part 2 Release Date: June 27, 2025

Host: Chris Molanphy, Slate Podcasts

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Overview

In "Mighty Real Edition Part 2," Chris Molanphy delves into the intricate history of LGBTQ artists who have achieved number one hits on the Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard 200 charts. The episode examines the barriers these artists faced regarding their public personas and sexual identities, spanning from the rock era's inception to the modern-day music landscape.

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LGBTQ Artists and Number One Singles

David Bowie: The Ambiguous Icon

• Timeline: Early 1970s to early 2000s
• Key Points:
  • Bowie publicly identified as gay in 1972 but later nuanced his sexual identity.
  • Achieved Hot 100 number ones with "Fame" (1975) and "Let's Dance."
  • Despite his declarations, Bowie in later interviews distanced himself from being openly bisexual.
  • Notable Quote:
    • Bowie on sex identity nuance: “[...] I used that fact very well. I suppose it's the best thing that ever happened to me.” ([03:58])
    • Later retracting: “I was always a closet heterosexual.” ([06:39])

Freddie Mercury: Hidden Persona Behind Queen’s Success

• Timeline: 1970s to early 1990s
• Key Points:
  • Mercury hinted at his sexuality but remained largely private during Queen's rise.
  • Queen's "The Game" (1980) and hits like "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" and "Another One Bites the Dust" reached number one.
  • Posthumous recognition of his influence on LGBTQ visibility.
  • Notable Quote:
    • Reflecting on “Bohemian Rhapsody”: “Tomorrow, it was received by the public as a final eulogy for a rock frontman who gave plenty of hints through his art but struggled just the same.” ([12:42])

Barry Manilow and Debbie Harry: Late Revelations

• Timeline: 1970s to 2010s
• Key Points:
  • Manilow achieved number one hits in the 70s but came out publicly in the mid-2010s.
  • Debbie Harry of Blondie had number one hits but disclosed her bisexuality decades after chart success.
  • Both faced societal pressures to remain closeted during their peak fame.

Boy George and Neil Tennant: Embracing Queer Identities

• Timeline: 1980s to 1990s
• Key Points:
  • Boy George openly embraced his sexual identity during Culture Club’s peak, culminating in a number one hit with "Karma Chameleon" (1984).
  • Neil Tennant of Pet Shop Boys hinted at his orientation through lyrical content before officially coming out in 1994.

Right Said Fred and Elton John: Partial Triumphs and Continued Struggles

• Timeline: Early 1990s to late 1990s
• Key Points:
  • Right Said Fred’s "I'm Too Sexy" (1992) featured openly bisexual themes.
  • Elton John experienced a decline in album chart performance post-coming out but remained a significant cultural figure.

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Transition to Number One Albums

Challenges in Achieving Number One Albums While Out

• Key Points:
  • Prior to the 2010s, no LGBTQ artists had topped the Billboard 200 while openly out.
  • Artists like Melissa Etheridge and K.D. Lang achieved commercial success without reaching number one, highlighting the industry's hesitance.

Elton John’s Cautionary Tale

• Timeline: 1970s to 1990s
• Key Points:
  • Signed consecutive number one albums from "Honky Château" (1972) to "Rock of the Westies" (1975).
  • Coming out as bisexual in 1976 led to a significant drop in album chart performance.
  • Final number one album before full acceptance: "A Single Man" (2003) posthumously, but largely seen as a partial credit.

Adam Lambert: Breaking New Ground

• Timeline: 2010s
• Key Points:
  • Launched solo career with "For Your Entertainment" (2010), reaching number three.
  • Pivotal Moment: "Trespassing" (2012) debuted at number one, marking the first unquestionably out gay artist to achieve this milestone.
  • Collaborated with Queen as a replacement for Freddie Mercury, solidifying his status in both mainstream and LGBTQ communities.
  • Notable Quote:
    • Reflecting on being out: “I'd play a song that would never ever end.” ([62:30])

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Modern Era: Embracing Diversity and Visibility

Recent Chart-Topping LGBTQ Artists

• Key Points:
  • Pentatonix, Frank Ocean, Halsey, Tyler the Creator, Sam Smith, Lil Nas X, Steve Lacy, and Kim Petras have achieved number one album and single statuses while openly embracing their queer identities.
  • Lil Nas X's "Montero (Call Me by Your Name)" and "Industry Baby" exemplify bold queer themes in mainstream music.
  • Sam Smith and Kim Petras's "Unholy" marked the first number one by both a gender non-binary and a trans artist.

Generational Shifts and Acceptance

• Key Points:
  • The zillennial generation's openness has fostered a more inclusive music environment.
  • Artists like Billie Eilish and Chapel Roan continue to push boundaries, reflecting the upward trajectory of LGBTQ representation.
  • Notable Performance: Chapel Roan's set with Elton John at the 2025 Sir Elton John's AIDS Foundation Academy Award party symbolized intergenerational support and pride within the community.
  • Notable Quote from Chapel Roan:
    • “I just like to say thank you Elton. You have sacrificed so much for the queer community and you made it so I could be the artist I could be.” ([62:30])

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Conclusion: A Rainbow Arc of Progress

Chris Molanphy underscores the significant, albeit gradual, progress in LGBTQ representation within the highest echelons of the music industry. From the ambiguous declarations of early icons like David Bowie and Freddie Mercury to the unabashed visibility of contemporary stars like Sam Smith and Lil Nas X, the arc of LGBTQ history in music charts reflects broader societal changes. Despite facing ongoing challenges, particularly for trans artists, the upward trend of queer representation instills hope for a more inclusive future.

Final Thoughts:

• Notable Quote:
  • “It gives me reason to hope.” ([62:30])

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Notable Quotes from Artists

• David Bowie ([03:58]): “I suppose it's the best thing that ever happened to me.”
• Freddie Mercury ([12:42]): “Tomorrow, it was received by the public as a final eulogy for a rock frontman who gave plenty of hints through his art but struggled just the same.”
• Chapel Roan ([62:30]): “I would just like to say thank you Elton. You have sacrificed so much for the queer community and you made it so I could be the artist I could be.”

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Looking Ahead

The episode promises to continue exploring the challenges and triumphs of LGBTQ artists in achieving top chart positions, particularly focusing on album success in future installments.

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Subscribe for More:
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Transcript

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[Chris Melanfy]

Welcome back to Hit Parade, a podcast of pop chart history from Slate Magazine about the hits from coast to coast. I'm Chris Melanfy, chart analyst, pop critic and writer of Slate's why Is this Song Number One Series. On our last episode, we walked through the varied history of LGBTQ hitmakers on the charts, from Little Richard to Leslie Gore, Dusty Springfield to Sylvester. We focused on rock and soul's early years, from the birth of rock and roll to the peak of disco, when gay hitmakers were defining the culture. We're now going to take a twirl through a selection of chart toppers who managed to reach number one both in and out of pop's closet. Thus far, the LGBTQ performers we've covered from rock's first few decades were rarely out of the close it the majority came out years after the peak of their fame or not at all. For example, to reiterate, both Leslie Gore and Billy Preston did score number one hits, but neither was out at the time. Conversely, the artists who were out didn't actually top the Hot 100 or the Pop album chart, from Jabriath to Sylvester. Also complicating matters is that bisexual artists were, to quote one Janis Joplin historian, often heterosexualized. That was certainly the case with Joplin. During her lifetime, she was regarded as a straight, free love hippie, her lesbian relationships largely kept secret except to her friends. Even if Janice had been out her only chart topper. Me and Bobby McGee topped the Hot 100 in 1971. After she was gone.

[Various Artists]

Good enough for me and my Bobby.

[Chris Melanfy]

So as I walk through some LGBTQ acts who scored greater pop success toward the end of the 20th century and into the 21st, we will try to reckon with each artist's public Persona and presentation. Let's start with the Hot 100, and right off the bat we have to address this chart topping gentleman. David Bowie, in the January 22, 1972 issue of England's Melody Maker magazine, said I I'm gay and always have been, even when I was David Jones. At the time, Bowie was newly married and had just fathered his first child. Nonetheless, this self outing was a big deal. Bowie was adopted as a gay icon in both Britain and America. In theory, that would make Bowie's 1975American number one hit, Fame American, the first Hot 100 chart topper by an out performer. The thing is, Bowie kept adding, let's say, nuance to his sexual identity as the years went by. In a 1976 interview with famed journalist Cameron Crow, Bowie declared a bit cynically, it's true I am bisexual, but I can't deny that I've used that fact very well. I suppose it's the best thing that ever happened to me. In other words, Bowie made his queerness sound like a matter of image and career. Seven years after that, Bowie was interviewed by Rolling Stone's Kurt Loder just weeks before he would return to number one on the Hot 100 with let's Dance.

[Various Artists]

Because my love for you would break my heart in two if you should fall into my arms, tremble like a blow.

[Chris Melanfy]

And in the Loder interview, Bowie walked back his status even further, saying that his public declaration of bisexuality was the biggest mistake I ever made and adding, quote, I was always a closet heterosexual, unquote. Still, as late as 2002, Bowie was saying simultaneously that he did consider himself bisexual, but that he had no inclination to hold any banners, unquote. So how are we to historicize Fame and Let's Dance, Bowie's two US chart toppers. To this day, gay historians still regard Bowie's 1972 declaration as a signal moment for LGBTQ acceptance in pop music, and that Bowie's many queer accented songs, from Queen Bitch to Boys Keep Swinging, have challenged the public about how gender was represented.

[Various Artists]

Boys, boys.

[Chris Melanfy]

Boys keep swinging Boys always work it out. Critic and journalist Barry Walters, writing an appreciation of Bowie for Billboard magazine just after his 2016 death, eloquently said of the 1972 revelation. He used his outsider stance not simply to be breathtaking, he also built bridges. Walters joins the chorus of queer historians who credit Bowie for making history. So with a small asterisk, let's say David Bowie's two Hot 100 chart toppers qualify as the first number ones by an artist who publicly came out. However, that declaration actually reflected his life. A similar confusion hangs over Queen's Freddie Mercury, who also walked back his self outing. I suppose British fanzines were the place and in the early 70s for rock stars making statements about their sexual identity. Because like Bowie, Mercury, in a 1974 issue of New Musical Express, told a journalist, I'm gay as a daffodil, my dear. The thing is, when that interview quip occurred, Queen was still a rock band on the rise. They'd only had one medium sized British hit, Seven Seas of Rock, and even less US chart presence on both sides of the Atlantic. Queen was still months away from their first big hit, Killer Queen. After that 1974 NME interview, Mercury never directly addressed his sexuality again, and in later years he asked the few journalists he trusted, not to mention his boyfriends. By the time Queen scored their transatlantic number one album, the Game, in 1980, the band was a fixture on American rock radio. They had released record covers and music videos bedecked with scantily clad women, and they generally did not address Mercury's hiding in plain sight orientation. The game generated two number one hits on the Hot 100 in 1980 the rockabilly revival bop, Crazy Little Thing Called Love and the aforementioned dance funk jam that led off our show Another One Bites the Dust. So could Freddie Mercury have been considered out when he scored these 1981? Not by any reasonable standard, and certainly not in the US media. Even in the uk, Mercury hid his identity from the relentless Fleet street press. He spent his final years denying his HIV positive status until days before he died of AIDS in 1991 at age 45. Just months later, when Queen's operatic classic Bohemian Rhapsody was featured in the 19981992 movie Wayne's World and became a hit all over again, peaking in America at number two.

[Various Artists]

Mama didn't mean to make you cry if I'm not back again this time.

[Chris Melanfy]

Tomorrow, it was received by the public as a final eulogy for a rock frontman who gave plenty of hints through his art but struggled just the same. Throughout the 70s and 80s. This continued to be the reality for many LGBTQ chart toppers, though few had stories quite as dramatic as Freddie Mercury's. Their Personal revelations came years after they topped the Hot 100. For example, Barry Manilow. He scored three number ones at his pop peak in the 70s. Mandy I write the songs and looks like we made it.

[Various Artists]

Looks like we made it.

[Chris Melanfy]

Even though Manilow had famously broken his career in the early 70s playing piano behind his friend Bette Midler at gay bath houses, Manilow didn't finally come out until the mid 2010s after he wed his longtime partner Gary Keefe following the legalization of same sex marriage. Debbie Harry of Blondie was long linked romantically to her bandmate Chris Stein. They are still friends and continue to co lead the band. However, Harry came out as bisexual in the mid 2010s, revealing several relationships with women in her youth. These relationships predated Blondie's four number one hits from 1979's Heart of Glass through 1981's Rapture. But again, like Manilow, Harry only made her status public decades later in the 80s. Boy George of Culture Club is a unique case.

[Various Artists]

Do you really want to hurt me? Do you really want to make me cry?

[Chris Melanfy]

The Brit born George o' Dowd was already indisputably a gender non conforming icon when the band broke through in America in 1982 and 83. In the videos for hits like do you really want to hurt me? And I'll tumble for ya, Boy George performed in heavy makeup, long braids and effeminate outfits. He did obfuscate his sexuality, at first claiming to be bisexual. George, who was gay, later admitted he was softening the revelation in the press. Nonetheless, when Culture Club scored their sole number one on the Hot 100 in early 1984, Karma Chameleon Boy George was about as out as a pop star could be for the time. A week after Chameleon dropped out of number one, Culture Club won best New Artist at the Grammy Awards. And George offered this cheeky closer to his speech thanking America for its embrace with a wink and a blown kiss.

[Various Artists]

Thank you America. You've got. You've got taste, style and you know a good drag queen when you see one.

[Chris Melanfy]

George would fully reveal he was gay, to absolutely no one's surprise in a 1995 memoir. More cautious was Neil Tennant, lead singer of the British synth pop duo Pet Shop Boys. Like Culture Club, they scored just one number one hit in America, West End Girls, in 1986. Though gay themes echoed throughout Pet Shop Boys hits virtually from the start, like the searching It's a Sin or the queer coded love ballad Rent Dreams, the.

[Various Artists]

Currency we've spent I love you.

[Chris Melanfy]

Tennant remained quiet about his personal life and would not officially come out as gay until 1994. This was well after Pet Shop Boys had dropped copious hints, including closing their 1993 album the very with a cover of the Village People's Go West. Arguably, it took until the 90s for some unquestionably out of the closet performers to score number ones on the Hot 100 while out. Coincidentally, two such singles went to number one in early 1992. Back to back British pop band Right Said Fred, led by brothers Fred and Richard Fairbrass, went to number one in February of 92 with I'm too Sexy. By that time, Richard, their lead singer, was already out as bisexual and the song and video were unabashedly gay coded and fabulous.

[Various Artists]

I'm too sexy for your party Too sexy for your party no way I'm disco dancing I'm a model, you know what I mean and I do my little turn on the catwalk, yeah, on the catwalk.

[Chris Melanfy]

One week before Wright Said Fred hit number one in late January 1992, the song occupying the hot 1/ hundreds penthouse was a duet between George Michael and Elton Johnson, a live cover of Elton's classic 1974 ballad Don't Let the Sun Go down on Me. What was interesting about that number one hit was that at the time Elton John was fully out. As we'll Discuss later, a mid-70s revelation had damaged his career for years. By the 90s, however, he had declared himself as gay. But George Michael in 1992 was not yet out. So though it was not remarked upon at the time, this was a fascinating partial victory in the history of outperformers topping the charts. Elton John back to back with Richard Fairbrass. The fact that it was not remarkable was a kind of progress. Five years later, in October 1997, Elton John, now paired with his future husband David Furnish, was number one again with his homage to the deceased Princess Diana, another remake of One of his 70s hits, Candle in the Wind.

[Various Artists]

And it seems to me you lived your life like a candle in the wind never fading with the sunset when the rain set in.

[Chris Melanfy]

So that's the 20th century history of out LGBTQ artists at number one one on the Hot 100. But what about albums? As it turned out, topping that chart would prove to be an even greater challenge for out queer artists than the songs chart had been. We'll be back with that momentarily.

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[Chris Melanfy]

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[Chris Melanfy]

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[Chris Melanfy]

Back in 2012 I was writing a column on the charts for the village voice called 100200 and Single. For my column I did a historical study on the Billboard 200 album chart to determine whether any queer artists had topped the chart while publicly out. My examination was Inspired by the 2012 release of a new Adam Lambert album, which had a chance to be the first such album. Here's what I learned with all the caveats I've already articulated in this episode about how slippery it is to determine when an LGBTQ artist is out. Arguably, no artist from the rock era through 2010 had scored a number one album while out. Remarkably, some best selling artists who were publicly out did not score number one LPs. Two prominent examples, both lesbians who peaked in the 1990s are Melissa Etheridge, whose best selling and self revealing 1993 album Yes I Am sold 6 million copies but only got as high on the charts as number 15 and K D Lang, the country pop chanteuse who came out publicly in 1992. The same year she issued her top selling CD Ingenue, which went double platinum but peaked at number 18. That leaves a handful of acts who did top the chart closeted, and in many cases their status was the subject of much speculation. Let's run them down in chronological order, starting with this legendary piano troubadour slash Captain fantastic Elton Zhang scored an epic string of chart topping albums in the 70s. To be exact, seven LPs in a row from 1972's Honky Chateau through 1975's Rock of the Westies topped the Billboard LP chart. Then as we discussed in an earlier Hit Parade episode, in an interview for a 1976 Rolling Stone cover story, Elton revealed he was bisexual and his chart fortunes changed practically overnight. His next album, Blue Moves peaked at number three, his first to miss the number one spot in four years.

[Various Artists]

Why can't we talk it over? Oh it seems to me seems to be the hardest world.

[Chris Melanfy]

And he spent the late 70s in the pop wilderness out of the top 10 altogether. Coming out at least the first time decimated Elton John's career. John did stage a solid chart comeback in the 80s. He married and then divorced a woman, then came out fully as a gay man in 1988. But Elson has never again occupied the album charts. Penthouse with one semi exception, the 1994 soundtrack to the Lion King. Elton penned just over half of the songs on this chart topping cd, but he was the credited performer on only three of them. So Elton gets partial credit for a number one album after coming out. But none of his single artist studio LP's has since topped the Billboard 200. Elton's coming out story in the 70s remains a cautionary tale. Around the same time Elton John scored his last number one LP in 1975. This Sensitive Soul also topped the album chart. At 17 was the tender hit about feeling like a teenage outcast that momentarily made Janice Ian a chart topping star. The single reached number three in September of 75 and one week later Janice Ian's album Between the Lines hit number one. Ian's album Chart Victory came nearly two decades before she came out publicly as a lesbian. Five years after Ian's chart topper, as we discussed earlier, Queen, fronted by the mostly closeted Freddie Mercury, topped the album chart with their hit packed LP the.

[Various Artists]

Play the Game. Everybody play the game.

[Chris Melanfy]

Flash ahead five more years. 1985 saw the first of two number one albums for the only artist on this list to top the chart. Both with a group and solo. The group, actually a duo, came first.

[Various Artists]

I'm never gonna dance again. Guilty.

[Chris Melanfy]

Wham. The pop duo of George Michael and Andrew Ridgely broke in America at the end of 1984. By the winter of 85, as their smash ballad Careless Whisper rose to number one, their LP Make It Big was also atop the album chart. It made George Michael a global star. And after the duo amicably broke up in 1986, George went onto a solo career that was even more massive. Released in 1987, Faith, George Michael's solo debut, topped the album chart at the start of 1988 and stayed there a dozen weeks, spinning off six top five singles, including four number ones like so many artists on this list of LGBTQ hitmakers, George Michael's sexual identity may seem obvious in retrospect, but at the height of his fame, he was a major straight identified sex symbol, appearing in his I want your sex video with women in varying states of undress. Remarkably, as late as the mid-90s, George Michael was still not public about his sexuality until finally, in 1998, a police sting in Beverly Hills, California snared Michael for solicitation in a public park men's room. Michael was outed under less than flattering circumstances. To his credit, Michael leaned into the tabloid exposure to giving interviews in which he laughed off the revelation. He even recorded a single outside with lyrical references to al Fresco lovemaking and a music video featuring Michael dancing in a men's loo in a police uniform. After George Michael's solo Number one, the next artist on our list was a member of a boy band, Jonathan Knight of New Kids on the Block, one of two nights in the hugely successful late 80s boy band. Along with his brother Jordan Knight, Jonathan sang on the 1989 chart topping album Hangin Tough and its 1990 follow up smash Step by Step.

[Various Artists]

Step by step. Oh baby, gonna get to you girl.

[Chris Melanfy]

Step by Step New Kids inability to return to the penthouse after 1990 was entirely related to the aging of their fan base rather than issues over any member's sexuality. Fun fact, Jonathan Knight's public coming out happened in 2011 and was an accidental and reportedly friendly revelation by his fellow late 80s teen pop star Tiffany. Knight. And Tiffany had dated back in the day. One year after New Kid's last number one album, Step by Step, an alternative rock band went to number one with a frontman who was hard to decipher.

[Various Artists]

That's me in the corner.

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[Various Artists]

In the spot like losing my religion.

[Chris Melanfy]

Michael Stipe of REM has always been as cryptic as the lyrics he wrote for the Athens, Georgia band, which makes it hard to say when exactly the singer songwriter came out. He was pretty clearly not out in 1991 when the group scored its first number one out of time, the album containing the smash Losing My Religion that made REM one of the biggest bands in America. Then around the time of REM's second number one album, 1994's Monster.

[Various Artists]

Bang Bang Bang bang bang bang bang bang bang.

[Chris Melanfy]

Stipe referred to himself as, quote, an equal opportunity lech in an interview about his sexuality. So could we say he was out circa Monster? Songs on the album like Tongue and Crush with Eyeliner certainly suggested that Stipe was feeling himself. It's debatable. But in any case, after years of speculation, Michael Stipe fully vocalized his sexuality in a 2001 Time magazine an interview revealing that he was in a relationship of several years with a man. For the record, Stipe prefers the term queer to describe himself rather than gay or bisexual, as queer describes something that's more inclusive of the gray areas. About half a decade after REM's last number one album, this Latin crossover star was a phenomenon. Ricky Martin, whose career exploded in 1999 as he went from established Spanish language radio fixture to cross cultural megastar, was also dogged by the most intense sexual identity speculation of any act in millennial pop. His self titled English language debut album, featuring the blockbuster hit Livin La Vida Loca, debuted at number one with 661,000 copies, still the best sales week for for a Latin pop star in history. But Martin spent his peak fame years dodging questions about his sexuality, lobbed by everyone from Rolling Stone magazine to Barbara Walters. Finally, in 2010, long past his explosive Anglo pop moment, Martin finally ended the speculation, issuing a statement on his website as a fortunate homosexual man blessed to be who I am. The revelation didn't hurt Ricky Martin's career much. Though he never returned to number one, he kept scoring top 20 albums well into the 2010s. At the turn of the millennium, another boy band with a closeted gay member topped the charts with positively gargantuan sales. Lance Bass was one of five vocalists in NSync in 2000 when the Orlando boy band sold 2.4 million copies of their CD no Strings Attached in a single week, the highest week of album sales in history to that point. They nearly repeated the feat in 2001, topping the charts with 1.7 million opening week copies of their follow up Celebrity and then the Millennial Boy Band moment was over as Justin Timberlake and other members of NSYNC went solo. For his part, Lance Bass pivoted toward an acting career and in 2006 ended years of rabid media speculation when he came out as gay in a People magazine cover story. The last two chart toppers on our list reached number one on the Billboard 200 the same year 2003. First, the aforementioned R B great Luther Vandross hit number one just a couple of years before his untimely passing with his heartfelt album Dance With My Father.

[Various Artists]

If I could get another chance, another walk, another dance with him, I'd play a song that would never ever end.

[Chris Melanfy]

And 2003American Idol runner up Clay Aiken. His debut album, Measure of a Man, hit number one with blockbuster sales to his army of claymates. Aiken would later break his female fans hearts when he came out in 2008. This slide list of 10 chart topping queer Elton John, Janice Ian, Freddie Mercury, George Michael, Jonathan Knight of the New Kids, Michael Stipe of R.E.M. ricky Martin, Lance Bass of NSYNC, Luther Vandross and Clay Aiken span genres and pop eras. They are very diverse. The only thing they all have in common is none was fully out when they scored a number one album. As successful as they all were, the pressure, spoken or unspoken, to remain closeted must have been intense. When I asked readers of my column if I'd missed anybody, the only partial counter examples they offered were two artists who'd come out as bisexual and scored number one albums, Billy Joe Armstrong of Green Day, whose album American Idiot topped the Billboard 200 in 2004.

[Various Artists]

I walk a lonely road, the only one that I have ever known don't know where it goes but it's only me and I walk along.

[Chris Melanfy]

And Lady Gaga, who reached number one one in 2011 with her album Born this Way. Still, in both cases, readers agreed with me that these artists, however brave they were, labored under the heterosexualization I discussed around Janis Joplin. Earlier, their identities had been flattened by the music industry into straight presenting performers, and their chart topping success was not regarded as overtly boundary breaking. That's what made Adam Lambert at the turn of the 2010s so unique. He foreshadowed a much freer future for the millennial and Zoomer generations. We'll be right back.

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[Chris Melanfy]

Though Adam Lambert had been out of the closet in his personal life since his teenage years. While he was a finalist on the 2009 edition of American Idol, he was not publicly out, but with, you might say, a wink. Here's an excerpt of a segment introducing Lambert's childhood backstory to the TV audience.

[Progressive Insurance Ad Voice]

Welcome back to the show Adam. Back in the day, ever wondered as a kid? Take a look.

[Various Artists]

I was born January 29, 1982.

[Apple Pay Ad Voice]

When Adam was little, he was interested in everything.

[Various Artists]

He loved books.

[Chris Melanfy]

He loved music.

[Apple Pay Ad Voice]

Sports.

[Various Artists]

Not so much.

[Chris Melanfy]

I just loved playing dress up, not soccer. Literally weeks after the American Idol season ended Lambert was the runner up, coming in second to winner Chris Allen. Lambert gave an interview for a Rolling Stone cover story officially coming out again. It was not a well kept secret, but it was still remarkable for an American Idol finalist to come out even before releasing a debut album. Recall that 2003 Idol runner up Clay Aiken came out years after his Idol moment. Lambert's debut CD, for your Entertainment arrived six months later and reached an impressive number three on the Billboard 200. It also spawned a top 10 hit on the Hot 100. What do you want from me?

[Various Artists]

What do you want from me?

[Chris Melanfy]

As impressive as this was, Lambert's 2012 follow up album would be the true test of his fan base as he would no longer be a focus of the Idol promotional machine. In the studio, Lambert pulled out all the stops for his sophomore album which he would title Trespassing. He worked with star producers and pop luminaries from Bruno Mars and Pharrell Williams to Nile Rogers, who played his trademark disco guitar on Lambert's queer themed dance jam Shady. And the fans showed up. When Lambert dropped Trespassing In May of 2012, it opened to first week sales of 77,000 copies, fairly strong for an American Idol competitor's second album, but more important strong enough to debut on the Billboard 200 at number one. That made Adam Lambert unofficially the first unquestionably out gay artist with a number one album and in history, a milestone for LGBTQ artistry on the charts. Though Lambert would score only one more top 10 album, 2015's the Original High, and he never landed another song in the pop top 40, he went on to an enduring and very successful career. To the general public, Lambert is probably best known now for his years fronting rock hall of Famers Queen as a replacement vocalist for their late singer Freddie Mercury. The group, which tours as Queen plus Adam Lambert, has played dozens of dates worldwide since 2014. And for gay rights activists and allies, the spectacle of one big voiced queer singer subbing in for the legendary Mercury has poetic cross. Generational residents.

[Various Artists]

Sing It.

[Chris Melanfy]

As for Lambert's solo chart achievement in 2012, with hindsight it can now be seen as a dividing line in LGBTQ chart acceptance. After trespassing, numerous out queer artists in a range of genres topped the Billboard 200 in 2015, for example, best selling acapella singing troupe Pentatonix, two of whose members Mitch Grassi and Scott Hoyling are gay, hit number one with their self titled fourth album in 2016. Former Odd Future member and R B hip hop iconoclast Frank Ocean topped the album chart with his critically hailed sophomore album Blonde. Ocean had revealed his sexual orientation in an open letter in 2012, a move that was hailed in the hip hop community for its honesty. Pitchfork magazine later named Ocean's Blonde album the greatest LP of the 2000s. In 2017, singer Hall Halsey, who is openly bisexual, went to number one with her hit packed album Hopeless Fountain kingdom. And in 2019, another former Odd Future member, rapper and singer Tyler the Creator, who has been deliberately sexually ambiguous but open about his own queer experiences and is now regarded as a gay icon, scored his first of several number one albums with his best selling LP Igor. Speaking of Halsey, she is one of several openly LGBTQ artists to also top the Billboard Hot 100 Songs chart in the last decade. She did so twice as a guest on the Chainsmokers Closer and on her own solo hit Without Me, Miley Cyrus came out as queer. Her term of art is gender fluid as early as her teen years, which did not prevent her from scoring number one singles, including 2013's Wrecking Ball. A decade later, long after she was out publicly, Cyrus went back to number one with the Smash Flowers and of course, as we discussed in depth in a prior episode of Hit Parade, Lil Nas X, the subject of my recent book Old Town Road, came out of the closet while that song was in the middle of its record setting 19 week run at number one in 2019. What is even more remarkable is that Lil Nas X came back to number one in 2021 with two more singles that were even more boldly queer, his flamenco fied electropop jam Montero Call Me by youy Name and his trap pop collaboration with fellow rapper singer Jack Harlow, industry baby. Then in 2022 the number one one spot on the Hot 100 hosted a pair of landmark singles back to back. In October of that year, a laconic song by the bisexual singer guitarist Steve Lacy called Bad Habit, a romantic confessional about a crush object of any gender, rose to number one.

[Various Artists]

I bite My tongue, It's a bad kind of mad that it didn't take.

[Chris Melanfy]

Billed in the music press as a song about queer or even gender non binary longing. Steve Lacy's indie R B jam fueled by millions of open hearted tick tock videos, was an unlikely chart topper. Then after three weeks on top of Bad Habit was replaced at number one by an even more historic song. The first number one by both a gender non binary artist and a trans artist. Sam Smith had been scoring hits since the mid-2010s as an openly gay artist. In 2017 they came out as genderqueer and within a couple of years switched to they them pronouns. For their 2022 single, Smith teamed up with Kim Petras, a trans woman born in Cologne, Germany and based in Los Angeles who had scored several club hits together. Smith and Petras recorded a track that celebrated transgressive love and sexual freedom. They called it Unholy Daddy if you.

[Various Artists]

Want to drop the attic.

[Chris Melanfy]

These back to back number ones, Bad Habit and Unholy, two wildly different songs that were both proudly queer, showed how far the charts, pop listeners and indeed America itself had traveled. The zillennial generation is unabashed in sharing everything their gender presentation, their sexual orientation, their pronouns, and neither recording artists nor the pop audience seem limited by this. Straight artists like Harry Styles and Bad Bunny are presenting themselves as more sexually fluid and wearing gender non conforming costumes on stage. And as for queer performers, it is now not only possible for chart topping musicians to come out, it is mostly expected. Just last year Billie Eilish released her first openly queer single, an ode to same sex infatuation called Lunch. It reached number five on the Hot 100 and Chapel Roan became a megastar in 2024 with a string of hits openly discussing her same sex romantic adventures like Hot to Go Casual and her big voiced power ballad kiss off to a would be female lover who is in denial. Good luck babe, a number four Hot 100 hit. To be sure, progress has come in fits and starts over the decades. In 2025 it feels as if the LGBTQ community, particularly trans Americans, are under assault both legally and societally, more than ever before. But a tour through these decades of queer chart history, from Johnny Ray and Little Richard in the 1950s to Kim Petras and Chapel Roan in the 2000s shows the rainbow arc of history bending ever upward. Speaking just for myself, it gives me reason to hope. Speaking of hopeful moments in 2025 and Chapel Roan, she took part in one particularly joyful event in Los Angeles back in March. Roan was the featured guest at Sir Elton John's AIDS Foundation Academy Award party, his annual post Oscars fundraising soiree. Roan performed an hour long set of her own material at the event and when Elton joined her on stage she had very kind words for him. I would just like to say thank you Elton. You have sacrificed so much for the queer community and you made it so I could be the artist I could be. And then they broke into one of Chapel's biggest hits, maybe her most Elton like hit the flamboyant Pink Pony Club.

[Various Artists]

That you wanted me to stay, but I gotta ignore the crazy visions of me in a la I.

[Chris Melanfy]

Like Adam Lambert fronting Queen or Elton's previous mentorship of a young George Michael. This was a joyous summit of generations of LGBTQ excellence. Elton John had seen both the worst and the best of what living his truth could mean for his career, his body of work, and his audience of millions. And Chapel Roan was living out loud with purpose in a pop world her queer forebears had helped create. An optimist might say that even as the world continued to burn, this was a moment of pride.

[Progressive Insurance Ad Voice]

I hope you enjoyed this episode episode of Hit Parade. Our show was written, edited and narrated by Chris Melanfy. That's me. My producer is Kevin Bendis. Kevin also produced the latest installment of our monthly Hit Parade the Bridge shows, which are available exclusively to Slate plus members. In our latest Bridge episode, I welcome author and LGBTQ cultural scholar Barry Walters, who conducted the last major interview with dance floor icon Sylvester and goes deeper on what made him so pivotal to pop and dance music as well as queer identity. To sign up for Slate plus and hear not only the Bridge but all our shows the day they drop, visit slate.com hit parade plus our supervising producer producer is Joel Meyer and the Executive Producer of Slate Podcasts is Mia Lobel. Check out their roster of [e-mail] podcasts. You can subscribe to Hit Parade wherever you get your podcasts, in addition to finding it in the Slate Culture feed. If you're subscribing on Apple Podcasts, please rate and review us while you're there. It helps other listeners find the Ship show. Thanks for listening and I look forward to leading the Hit Parade back your way. Until then, keep on marching on the one. I'm Chris Melanfy.