Skin, born Deborah Anne Dyer, is a Black British queer singer, songwriter, musician, author, DJ, and activist best known as the lead vocalist of Skunk Anansie. Her career has challenged conventions around race, gender, sexuality, and identity in British rock and alternative music.

Kehlani Ashley Parrish is an American singer and songwriter whose R&B-centered music incorporates pop, hip-hop, electronic, and contemporary influences. Their work explores love, identity, vulnerability, community, and personal transformation across recordings, songwriting, and performance.

Rapper, singer-songwriter, producer, and educator best known for introspective music exploring Black identity, queerness, spirituality, mental health, and social justice through hip-hop, R&B, and soul.

Toya Delazy is a South African Zulu singer-songwriter, rapper, producer, pianist, and electronic artist who created the AfroRave movement, blending Indigenous Zulu language and storytelling with rave, jungle, drum and bass, techno, and other electronic sounds. A queer, gender-non-confirming artist based in London, she uses music and performance to explore African identity, ancestry, cultural reclamation, and artistic freedom.

Singer-songwriter, producer, author, and activist best known for blending pop, alternative, and electronic music with thoughtful explorations of identity, social justice, and the Black queer experience.

Kelsey Lu is an American singer, cellist, songwriter, composer, producer, and performance artist known for blending classical training with experimental music, contemporary R&B, electronic sound, and multidisciplinary performance.

Kelela Mizanekristos is an American singer and songwriter whose experimental R&B and electronic music connects Black queer identity with club culture, contemporary production, and intimate songwriting. Her work spans albums, live performance, remix culture, and multidisciplinary collaboration.

Ghanaian-American singer, songwriter, and producer best known for blending Afropop, alternative R&B, and global pop while expanding queer visibility in African music.

Shayna McHayle, known professionally as Junglepussy, is a Brooklyn-born rapper and actress whose independent music career includes the mixtape Satisfaction Guaranteed, the studio albums JP3 and JP4, and the EP JP5000. She has also appeared in films including Support the Girls, The Perfect Find, and One Battle After Another.

American blues singer and performer known as the “Mother of the Blues.” A pioneering recording artist, she helped popularize the blues as a recorded musical form, and her recordings included themes of sexuality and references to relationships between women.

Oya Noire is a Haitian-American R&B and soul singer and songwriter from Brooklyn whose music draws from gospel, jazz, and contemporary soul. She publicly identifies as queer and has built a career as a recording and performing artist.

American singer-songwriter, bassist, composer, and activist whose genre-spanning work incorporates jazz, soul, funk, R&B, rock, hip-hop, and experimental approaches. Her music explores Black identity, sexuality, spirituality, social justice, and political expression.

Joy Oladokun is an American singer-songwriter whose genre-crossing music draws from folk, country, R&B, soul, pop, rock, and Americana. A Nigerian American and openly lesbian artist, she writes candidly about identity, faith, mental health, social justice, relationships, and belonging.

Bishop, pastor, theologian, author, and gospel singer best known for advancing radically inclusive Black Christian ministries and affirming faith communities.

Arlo Parks is a British Black bisexual singer, songwriter, poet, and musician whose work combines intimate songwriting with indie pop, alternative R&B, soul, and spoken-word influences. Her music explores love, identity, vulnerability, grief, desire, and queer experience.

Singer-songwriter and guitarist whose socially conscious songwriting, distinctive acoustic sound, and emotionally direct storytelling have made her one of the most influential artists in contemporary folk and popular music.

American activist, organizer, singer, spoken-word artist, and reproductive-justice leader whose work centers reproductive justice, LGBTQ+ liberation, racial justice, and community organizing. She is Executive Director of SisterSong.

Dai Burger is a Black queer rapper, dancer, creative, and entrepreneur whose work blends hip-hop, club music, fashion, and performance. A Queens native, she is known for her contributions to New York's underground queer music scene and for creating opportunities for women and young creatives through her community work.

Janelle Monáe is an American nonbinary singer, songwriter, producer, actor, and author whose Afrofuturist work explores Black identity, queerness, gender freedom, and liberation across music, film, literature, and visual storytelling.

Bessie Smith was an American blues singer known as the “Empress of the Blues” and one of the most influential recording artists of the 1920s. Historical and Smithsonian documentation identifies Smith as bisexual and records relationships with both men and women. Her recordings addressed love, sexuality, hardship, and Black women's experiences, establishing a lasting legacy in blues, jazz, and Black queer cultural history.

Singer, songwriter, and Alté artist best known for blending Afrobeats, alternative R&B, jazz, and soul while expanding creative and queer representation in contemporary African music.

Queen Latifah, born Dana Elaine Owens, is a Grammy-winning rapper, singer, actor, producer, and entrepreneur whose career has shaped Black music, film, and television for more than three decades.

IAMDDB, born Diana Adelaide Rocha De Brito, is an Angolan British singer, rapper, songwriter, producer, and performer whose self-described Urban Jazz blends jazz, hip-hop, trap, R&B, soul, and global musical influences.

Khadija Mbowe is a Gambian-Canadian-American multidisciplinary creator, singer, performer, writer, educator, and cultural commentator whose work explores race, gender, sexuality, identity, media, and popular culture across digital media, music, podcasting, and performance.

Filmmaker, director, music artist, and creative entrepreneur best known for celebrating Black music, dance, and culture through award-winning documentaries, visual storytelling, and multidisciplinary artistic practice.

South African singer, songwriter, dancer, and performer known for her self-described “future ghetto funk” sound, bold visual style, and work centered on female sexual empowerment, self-expression, and liberation.

Rapper, songwriter, actress, and television personality best known for her independent hip-hop career, emotionally honest lyricism, and visibility as one of the few openly lesbian artists to gain national recognition in mainstream rap.

Dope Saint Jude is a Cape Town based rapper, singer, songwriter, producer, and performer whose genre-bending work brings queer identity, feminism, social commentary, and South African cultural experience into contemporary hip hop.

Doechii, born Jaylah Hickmon, is a Tampa-born rapper, singer, and songwriter whose genre-crossing music has brought Black womanhood, bisexual identity, and contemporary hip-hop into a growing international audience.

Singer-songwriter, producer, audio engineer, and performer best known as the lead vocalist of The Internet and for shaping contemporary alternative R&B through innovative production, intimate songwriting, and authentic queer representation.

Shawntae Harris, known professionally as Da Brat, is a Chicago-born rapper, actress, and television personality whose 1994 debut Funkdafied made her the first solo female rapper to achieve a platinum album.