Summer's Best Queer Music Videos Part 2

This summer has already been filled with incredibly innovative music videos. In this round-up, we've got a gay street fighter, an ode to a surrealist painter, an anime-style cosmic escapade, and a ballet-themed breakup. There is so much fierce energy coming out through the creative process right now, and we are loving every minute of it. We'll be dancing and singing along with these videos through summer and beyond!

Reneé Rapp - "Talk Too Much"

In this video directed by Rapp's "The Sex Lives of College Girls" co-star and bestie Alyah Chanelle Scott, a high-stakes poker game becomes a metaphor for the conversation the song is about: Rapp failing to be subtle when asking her lover, played here by Kennedy Walsh as co-conspirator in trying to rob the casino, 'Do you like me enough to withstand my rambling and overthinking and dramatically questioning everything, because I really do want to be with you. The video is stylish, cheeky, and oh so very Reneé Rapp.

Tove Lo - "I like u"

This gorgeous anime video is a collaboration with the Japanese creative team at Shinsei Galverse, which sees Tove Lo's animated character enter the "Galverse" on a final cosmic romantic encounter with Annie, her robot lover as seen in Tove Lo's previous music videos. The stylized visuals of this superheroine adventure and queer love story are equal parts nostalgic and majestic; the storytelling cosmic, emotional, neon-illuminated fun.

Keiynan Lonsdale - "ENTER, THE GAY STREET FIGHTER"

"ENTER, THE GAY STREET FIGHTER" introduces an unabashedly confident, hella queer and Black and badass Lonsdale radiating an "I'm here to show y'all how to get this done" attitude in the absolute best way. He roams the streets, fierce, embodying his "a little nasty, a little sassy" lyric, all lean and muscular, singing about how "it's gays that make the world so god damn bright" in a training montage like that of the classic street fighter films. Special mention to the ending, which has the artist calling out everyone and everything for being "just a little bit gay" –even your mom, and your doctor, and God.

Tyler Childers - "In Your Love"

The music video for "In Your Love" features two queer men (played by Colton Haynes and James Scully) falling in love while working in a coal mine in 1950s Appalachia. Though the video shows a homophobic attack on one of the men when they're discovered to be an item, the rest of the video shows the couple building a life and a home together after they move to the country, where they are out to friends and family and genuinely happy. The story –both heartwarming and devastating, as one of the men becomes fatally ill–was written by Silas House, Kentucky's first openly gay Poet Laureate, with his husband, at the request of Childers, who wanted his gay cousin to be able to see himself in a country video.

SHINJIRO - "Into the Light"

"Into the Light" was released alongside Japanese artist Shinjiro Atae's coming out announcement. The video tells a hopeful, empowering story about the J-Pop star no longer hiding who he has always known he is. With sweet, encouraging lyrics about "coming into the light", the powerful song tells the story of Atae being strengthened by the freedom to live a life in love and as his true self. A portion of the proceeds from this video will be donated to Pride House Tokyo, Japan's first permanent LGBTQ+ center, and ReBit, an organization providing resources and support for LGBTQ+ youth.

That Chick Angel, CasaDi, & Steve Terrell feat. Saucy Santana - "One Margarita (Saucy Remix)"

This absolute banger of a track opens with supermodel Cindy Crawford recreating her iconic '92 Pepsi commercial, this time with a margarita. And lemme tell ya, this video is as laden with people having a great time as it is with margaritas. You can't help but dance raucously to this song, and the way everyone in the video is booty shaking in fantastic sequined and metallic outfits as they keep the drinks flowing, it's clear that this hit, inspired by an overzealous campus preacher, is here to turn ya life up!

Chrissy Chlapecka - "BRAT"

We're all having a "Barbie" moment right now, but in their very pink video for "BRAT", Chrissy Chlapecka has Sugar and Spice, the dolls of "Drag Race" season 15 join them for a life-size makeover channeling, true to the song title, more of a Bratz doll vibe. There is so much gurl power sassiness in everything from the outfits to the dancing and singing along with the lyrics of this bop, which Chlapecka says she wrote as "a hot girl anthem for the girls who are a little diabolical and bratty."

Violett - "Half of Me"

This surreal, creative video is Violett's homage to her favorite artist, Rene Magritte. She begins with her head in the clouds (in accordance with the song's lyrics) wearing the classic surrealist's suit, then a brick against her face finds her built into a wall, later pulling her tongue out in an endless stream of red ribbon. The video is all red lipstick, intricately beaded masks, and mirrored reflections. It's simple, playful, and set to a song so soothing and intriguing that it's impossible not to play it again and again.

Iniko - "Jericho"

This video delivers more imaginative vibes and captivating storytelling than some of the biggest budget sci-fi shows right now. With lyrics like "I got Milky Way for blood, evolution in my vein / I'm gone, I've been far away / I'ma lumineer now, makin' moves, startin' waves" and a radiant, golden combination of styling, set design, production and VFX at this top tier, "Jericho" is giving real 'higher being come to earth to take your world by storm' energy. When the genderless artist sings that they're "Artificially intelligent, new-AI / I'm your future, past and present, I'm the fine line" we believe them, and we want to see so much more.

PVRIS - "I DON'T WANNA DO THIS ANYMORE"

This video sees PVRIS lead Lynn Gunn planting and watering herself in a vegetable garden, while she sings "Something doesn't feel right, am I losing my mind?" We see Gunn shoot herself with a bow and arrow as if she has no choice, both parties hating every moment. It's an unsettling, imaginative video that captures the mood of the song perfectly. "I DON'T WANNA DO THIS ANYMORE" nails the artist's struggle against the velocity of being stuck in a terrible cycle not entirely of your own making, and the frantic worry that we may never escape it.

beabadoobee - "the way things go"

This video is a delicate but casual, pretty-as-can-be one-take wonder. "the way things go" is a gentle shrug of a breakup song. It's a calm coming to terms with a relationship being over, while still acknowledging that it sucks, and the video –set in a room filled with ballerinas, pale pink flowers, vintage props, a dollhouse the floor, and featuring beabadoobee in a black tutu alongside a painter and tumbling man serving champagne in a tux– tells that story effortlessly, pairing perfectly with the artist's impossibly sweet voice.