Our Favorite Queer Music Videos from September 2023

This month we've got a hot pink ode to Elle Woods, two videos featuring a tree set on fire, Troye Sivan running through the streets of Bangkok, and roller derby teams tackling each other to a not-so-sweet country song. Doechii escapes an underground lab and runs to a leather club, Keiynan Lonsdale is in love on summer vacation, boygenius delivers an eerie animated story about a dog and a girl, and we meet 070 Shake after she escapes a plane crash.

Lagoona Bloo - "Elle Woods"

This Lagoona Bloo banger is about how Elle Woods empowered her to shine. The song will be stuck in your head for ages, and the video (which stars Kerri Colby, Marcia Marcia Marcia, and Olivia Lux, with cameos from the screenwriters of the "Legally Blonde" movie) leans into the hot pink girls-night-in fun –complete with the bend and snap, Elle's satin bunny costume, and finding the perfect dress. The lyric "Baby I'm a star! What, like it's hard?" truly goes so hard, it's impossible not to dance along.

Keiynan Lonsdale - "Come Papi"

This video has the relaxed and in love vibe we all dream a summer vacation would be. Lonsdale is happy and at peace, smiling at his (mostly hidden but definitely gorgeous and in love, too) boyfriend in a video that feels personal, intimate, and wonderfully queer. It's flirtatious and serene, sun-drenched, joyous and seductive. While everything is turning spooky for Fall, "Come Papi" keeps the summer mood going.

Megan Thee Stallion & Cardi B - "Bongos"

We love a badass, boisterous Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion collab! This video is hot and fun –filled with sooo much twerking, energetic choreography, and gorgeous colorful outfits that complement the provocative lyrics. There's even a scene where the rappers intertwine in matching red swimsuits, simulating scissoring. Real hot girl shit!

Jobi Riccio - "Sweet"

Jobi Riccio's country song pairs perfectly with these visuals of a real roller derby team, and not just for the innate queerness of the roller derby community. Riccio shared that "roller derby and its athletes perfectly embody the spirit of my song, in all their DIY toughness and subversion of gender roles and constructs." The musician's voice and openly queer lyrics lament their lack of sweetness and their struggles fitting into stereotypical femininity while the skaters race around and tackle each other.... Chef's kiss.

070 Shake - "Black Dress"

"Black Dress" takes us to the aftermath of a plane crash. The video is meandering, compelling, and mysterious. When the camera finds Shake in a tree with a parachute, she floats towards us, walking on air. "Even when it's dark, I could see the light in you. My baby was in a black dress when she married me" she sings, while the tree sets alight and she rises up to float again.

Jungle - "Holding On"

"Holding On" opens with an announcement that this video is "Me and my girls serving you Looks, so hold on. Werk!" and that's exactly what they do. It's a simple set, with a white runway and a spotlight; Everyone's in black leather and lace, doing incredible choreography. "Holding On" is absolutely giving Ballroom and it's tens across the board.

boygenius - "Cool About It"

The boys offer up this charmingly illustrated greyscale animated video following a relationship between a stitched-together girl and a dog, with many eerie hints and a fraying rope to let you know that's not quite what's going on. It's haunting at times, painfully sweet at others, and ends with everyone falling apart like a teddy bear that's losing its stuffing. The "Cool About It" video is everything this unforgettable song (and the lyric "Once I took your medication to know what it's like, and now I have to act like I can't read your mind") makes us feel.

Rosemary Joaquin - "It Was Me"

Rosemary Joaquin roped her sisters (and family for a cameo at the end) in for this fun confession of a song, addressed to the person she's been hooking up with, letting them know she "spilled in the group chat." They're dancing on the beach in colored-coded, choreographed delight while she's hopefully not ruined everything she has with this person, because she thinks they've really got something. It's messy, summer fun for the whole family!

Troye Sivan - "Got Me Started"

Troye Sivan is finding himself and feeling himself in this video, shot in Thailand. He's trying on wigs backstage with the queens, running through the streets in sparkling outfits; he's nude at the bathhouse, dancing on rooftops, and he's showing his ass (in red briefs) with some new choreography. We also recommend checking out the Extended Version, which opens with Troye speaking to the person who inspired the song and helped him come alive in a way that he really needed to.

Doechii - "Pacer"

"Pacer" is giving creative vision, it's giving artistry, it's giving sci-fi movie meets BDSM club. It's giving Doechii escaped a lab where she was being tested on and she's taking her power back right now. At one point Doechii's wearing a yellow wig so tall and wide that it looks like she stuck her head through a hair curtain in someone's window and got stuck there. Sublime! Iconic! We love to see it.

Mitski - "My Love Mine All Mine"

In this video, Mitski uses wooden chairs to build precarious towers; The tower she climbs is tall enough to reach the ceiling, the chair on the floor placed on top of an egg. It's poignant and open to interpretation, the mesmerizing mood paired beautifully with her lyrics saying that "My love is mine, all mine, all mine."

Empress Of ft. Rina Sawayama - "Kiss Me"

"If you send a flare, then I'll be there." This video also features a tree ablaze, but it's got a much brighter, lighter, fantasy dream vibe. Empress Of and Rina Sawayama are in their ethereal era, asking for the kind of love they need, in butterfly dresses and angel wings, floating through gardens and sitting on crescent moons.