As part of our 30 Days of Pride initiative, we’ve asked LGBTQ stars to create playlists to show what Pride means to them. Our fifth curator is actress and star of Ryan Murphy’s new hit show Pose, Mj Rodriguez.
“I wanted this playlist to be full of love. I wanted it to be an understanding of connection,” Rodriguez told Billboard. “I wanted this list to just collectively be an uplifting piece of music that others can listen to and that they can feel good in.”
Eight new Pride-themed playlists will publish throughout the month of June. Follow @BillboardPride on Twitter and Instagram to keep up to date.
Macy Kate, “Vibe”
There’s so many people out there in the world that are always trying to like pull me down, and this song is about living in the moment and not letting anyone throw negativity towards my life. I just wanna simply live.
Diana Ross, “I’m Coming Out”
She is just a legendary icon. A woman of the trans experience, me being able to relate to a woman who is of a different experience, but also of a similar experience with being of color — I tie that into my pride.
Kendrick Lamar and SZA, “All the Stars”
At a time like this I feel like me being a woman of color and being of the trans experience, I feel like that song resonates with me and it makes me feel like all the stars have aligned in a way in order for me to finally thrive.
The Knocks, “Collect My Love” (feat. Alex Newell)
Alex is my boo. This song is literally an invitation to all the people that don’t understand us as the LGBT community — especially the “T” part of it — it’s an invitation to get to understand us and collect all the love from us.
Ariana Grande, “Be Alright”
The first thing I thought of when I heard this song was it’s like an anthem to everyone who is going through something and who is especially a part of the LGBT community, and how we get derogatory words thrown at us. Just hearing the lyrics — we’re gonna be alright and we’re gonna live through anything and we’re here and we’re not going nowhere.
SZA, “Normal Girl”
I love her whole album, I think she’s an amazing artist, but this specific song resonated with me because there’s a lyric saying, “I wish I was a normal girl.” I looked at the song as a light and also a glimpse and a lens into the trans perspective and how we want to be considered “normal girls” and how we just want people to address us as the human we are and as the woman we are and that we’ve always been. So listening to that song, it made me think of the possibility as a whole that the world will change and understand that we are normal girls.
Candice Boyd, “Damn Good Time” (feat. French Montana)
When I’m in a down mood and when I feel like I need to get up as far as like, who I am as a person, I go to this song for just solidification. I think that resonates completely with the LGBT community because there are so much backlash thrown towards us, and we have to constantly keep pushing forward and pushing forward in the moment so that it can lead to the next movement.
Kendrick Lamar, “Alright”
This is specifically to my African American LGBT members. People of color in the LGBT community, we experience a lot being a minority and we have a lot of backlash on us even in our own community. This song makes me hopeful that one day, within my community of color and just within the LGBT community in general, that we’ll be alright.
Sylvester, “You Are My Friend”
My mother introduced me to Sylvester when I was a wee little kid. I feel like Sylvester was a beacon of hope for our community. He was very fluid in who he was and he music spoke to us and it resonated with us. In this song, I hear him speaking for everyone, especially a part of the LGBT community — letting us know that here’s no agenda, there’s no type of ploy. We’re just here to live and we want you to understand that you can be our friend too.
Sylvester, “Over and Over”
Another song that my mother got me hooked on to! I feel like we have this stigma placed upon us which is promiscuity and that we are these sexual beings all the time — which is not true. And I feel like Sylvester showed us that we are just a loving family. One of the lines that resonates to me most is “Can’t be nobody’s lover, unless you’re somebody’s friend,” and it’s just sits with me because it’s so true. I truly believe you have to create connection with someone and get to know them in order for you to actually love them.
Hamilton, “Schuyler Sisters”
Oh, okay, so no shade to my gay brothers and my lesbian sisters and all of the above, this is officially for my trans sisters. It’s kind of for now, in the moment, because there’s so much that is changing in just the world, and there’s one part in the song where the the Schuyler sisters make a statement about making history, and it just resonating with me because in this time, in 2018, there are a lot of women of the trans experience, who are making history and making a stamp on the world. Sometimes, I listen to it walking down the street, and it gives me all the confidence — we’re here, we’ve arrived, honey.
Rent, “Seasons of Love”
When I was 19 or 20, I got the opportunity to play Angel. And I tell this to everybody but that was a moment in my life where I felt the cure was in our family, but also it was in the precursor of my medical transition. I felt like I was finally seeing that the woman I am today. And doing that show and listening to “Seasons of Love” — it just changed my whole perspective. Life is too short to hate. It’s too short to spew negativity. It is too short to think about what is going to come or think about the future. You have to live in the now, and you have to love constantly, as cheesy as that sounds. When I heard that song for the first time when I was 11-years-old until the time I did it in that show, it always was a ministry to me. It reaches me in a totally spiritual way.