Gay anthem

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A gay anthem or LGBT anthem is a song that has become widely popular among, or has become identified with, the LGBT community; usually with gay men. The lyrics of gay anthems are often marked with hope against the odds, pride, unity, or defiance. Colloquially, gay anthems are called "gaynthems."

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[edit] Themes

Although every song is individual, the criteria for what makes a gay anthem does show a pattern among the songs. IN the book, Queer the following ten main themes were listed that are common among many, if not all gay anthems.[1]

Some Eurovision Song Contest songs become gay anthems such as the Eurovision 1998 winning song "Diva" by transsexual Israeli Dana International, Croatian 1999 entry "Marija Magdalena" by Doris Dragović and Danish 2007 entry "Drama Queen" by drag DQ. Eurovision 2006 hopefuls drag Queentastic's "Absolutely Fabulous" is also a case in point. Claudette Pace who represented Malta in 2000 issued a gay-anthem entitled "Power of Pink". She performed it at the UK's Gay Pride in 2001.

Less common, but still notable, are gay garage rock, punk and hardcore anthems, including songs by artists such as Jayne County such as "Man Enough To be A Woman", t.A.T.u.'s "All the Things She Said", Buzzcocks' "Orgasm Addict", "Ti Voglio Bene" by Italian star Tiziano Ferro, a number of singles by Pansy Division and songs by Team Dresch and Tribe 8. (See also Queercore). A new gay anthem is Heather Small and her performance of "Proud", released in the Proud album in 2000, and featured in the Showtime original show Queer As Folk. Latin examples are "¿A Quién le Importa?" by Alaska y Dinarama and "Todos Me Miran" by Gloria Trevi.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Simon Gage, Lisa Richards, and Howard Wilmot. Queer, pp. 26-7. June 13, 2002. ISBN 1560253770

[edit] References

[edit] Bibliography

  • Gay Anthems (Book & CD). Music Sales Ltd. ISBN 071199742X
  • Leila J. Rupp, Verta Taylor. Drag Queens at the 801 Cabaret. University Of Chicago Press, May 15, 2003. ISBN 0226731588

[edit] See also

[edit] External links