I Was Told Not to Release Music Because It Was Weird — Now Chappell Roan and Reneé Rapp Are Helping Change the Narrative

POP singer Isa Bruder released a queer song in 2020 and said she received pushback from her team.

Now, artists like Chappell Roan, Renee Rapp, and Billie Eilish are paving the way for other queer artists to sing about what they want.

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Isa is an independent queer artist performing in New York City.

She released her debut single, Near herin 2020.

With lyrics like “All I know for sure is that I want to be close to her” and “I didn’t choose this, but I don’t want to lose this,” Isa’s team didn’t want the song to be released.

“My dream was to become a pop star, and I was showing my music to these people in the industry, and they told me not to release it because it was openly queer,” Isa told The US Sun.

“And they said, ‘This is going to alienate a lot of audiences. You don’t want to alienate anyone because the song was about a girl, so it has she/her pronouns.’”

“Some people in the industry told me that releasing a romantic song about a girl was not a good idea,” she said.

“That was just four years ago and it’s amazing to me to see in that short period of time that the narrative has been able to change.”

Isa said she doesn’t think the song alienated its listeners and found the people it was meant to find.

“If I write a song that isn’t true to me, no one will relate to it,” she said.

“If I write a song that is true to me and I am a queer person, then the song will be queer and authentic.”

Isa said she believes people who aren’t gay would still appreciate her being authentic in her music.

‘THIS IS EXACTLY HOW I FEEL’

However, she said that despite initial resistance, the song received good feedback from those who heard it.

“I got messages from people saying, ‘That’s exactly how I feel. Thank you for putting that in a song,’” she said.

“And that’s my dream: to make people feel seen.”

“That’s the most beautiful thing, I think, in music,” shared Isa.

My dream was to become a pop star, and I was showing my music to these industry people, and they told me not to release it because it was overtly weird.

Isa Bruderindependent queer pop artist

“Just getting messages from people saying, ‘You made me feel seen’ is everything.

“It just makes me want to make more queer pop and grow even more.”

She has a show on July 3rd at Arlene’s Grocery, in New York, at 7pm, where she will sing new songs, as well as some covers.

Isa will be releasing new music in the fall as well.

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PAVING THE WAY

As Isa mentioned, queer artists in 2024 are changing the narrative by releasing music that is authentic to them.

Chappell Roan opened for Olivia Rodrigo on her Guts World Tour.

She has over 5,000,000 monthly listeners on Spotify.

According to BBC NewsChappell’s “noisy debut album,” The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess, tells “the story of a closeted small-town girl finding her way in the world.”

She was raised “in the conservative town of Willard, Missouri, where she attended church three times a week and learned that being gay was a sin.”

After signing with Atlantic Records, the singer moved to Los Angeles, California, at age 17, which “opened her eyes.”

Her most popular song is Good Luck, Babe!, which she told Forced is about a “common situation within queer relationships – where someone is struggling to come to terms with themselves.”

It is a sang recently a cover of Good Luck, Baby! at one of his shows.

“It’s a song about wishing the best for someone who avoids their true feelings,” she said.

OPEN DOORS

Another artist paving the way for queer music is Renee Rapp.

She released the song, Beautiful girlsin 2022, which is an ode to “straight girls who only get it after a few drinks.”

Renee it went out as a lesbian when she hosted Saturday Night Live this year.

She identified as bisexual before that.

Billie Eilish also recently released a queer song called Lunch on her album, Hit Me Hard and Soft.

“I could eat that girl for lunch / Yes, she dances on my tongue /
It feels like she could be the one and I could never get enough / I could buy her so many things / It’s a desire, not a passion,” the lyrics said.

These female artists, and others, are paving the way for LGBTQ+ singers to talk openly about their feelings and sing about same-sex love.

“It’s a narrative that’s been changing for years, but it’s beautiful to see it happening in real time,” said Isa.

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