Queer The Music: Jake Shears On The Songs That Changed Lives
Jake Shears celebrates the anthems that have dominated dancefloors and shaped queer lives. Throughout the history of popular music, queer artists have made huge contributions - often at great expense and risk to themselves personally and professionally. This podcast shines a spotlight on those who trailblazed paths towards self-expression. Join Scissor Sisters’ frontman Jake Shears and his guests as he unearths these important stories song by song. Executive Producers: Alice Williams, Dan Borrelli Producer: Debbie Kilbride Director: Oisín Bickley Project Manager: Claudia Mantle Production Manager: Amy Hainstock Production Team: Lauren Baugh, Esther Duckworth Researcher: Karine Sebatware
Episodes
December 22, 2025 • 41 mins
Christmas has come early as Jake selects some of his favourite bits from the last 3 seasons. Really just a reminder to go back and listen to the episodes you've missed - there have been some brilliant conversations - wishing everyone a Happy New Year and thank you for listening to Queer The Music in 2025!
We'd love to hear from you - get in touch via instagram @queerthemusicpodcast
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December 15, 2025 • 47 mins
For this special episode of Queer The Music Jake is joined by the brilliant Rebecca Lucy Taylor aka Self Esteem. With a critically acclaimed new album, a concert tour and book under her belt this year, the pair have plenty to catch up on.
Listen as Jake and Rebecca discuss their highlights of the year in queer music, answer questions from listeners, reveal what 2026 has in store for them and tell us who they’ll be kissing under th...
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November 17, 2025 • 51 mins
It's our season finale and we're delighted to be joined by Roddy Bottum, best known as the keyboardist of Faith No More.
Back in 1990 Roddy found himself in the spotlight in the rock world as its first openly gay star. In this special episode Jake and Roddy celebrate Faith No More's breakthrough hit 'Epic' and they discuss what it was like to be the only out queer in rock, on tour with Guns N' Roses and Metallica, his important f...
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November 10, 2025 • 46 mins
This week on Queer The Music we celebrate Grace Kelly - the debut single from Multi-platinum, BRIT Award-winning, and Grammy nominated global pop visionary Mika.
Listen to Jake and Mika's fascinating conversation about Mika's childhood, the struggles he faced, how he found sanctuary through music, his creative process and how he created the hit single Grace Kelly which shot to the top of the UK charts and stayed there for 5 whole...
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November 3, 2025 • 51 mins
This week's episode celebrates the anthemic song 'Queen' by Perfume Genius.
Singer-songwriter Mike Hadreas aka Perfume Genius first emerged around 2010, his music has been described as ‘dreamy and melancholic’, ‘grandiose yet intimate’ and over the course of seven studio albums he continues to shapeshift while still sounding completely himself.
He joins Jake to talk about the making of the song, the video, his creative process, ...
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October 27, 2025 • 55 mins
This week is a big one - we are celebrating the iconic The B-52's. A band that paved the way for queer artists through their unapologetic on-stage identity and camp aesthetic.
Their non-conformist attitude and unique sound has had a huge and lasting impact on rock and pop music - you can witness their influence on artists from Boy George to Chappell Roan.
Jake credits them with the very existence of The Scissor Sisters and was th...
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October 21, 2025 • 45 mins
Joining Jake Shears for this episode are Abigail and Georgia from one of the most talked-about bands of the moment…The Last Dinner Party.
2024 was a huge year for them; they landed a deal with Island Records, released their critically acclaimed debut album, 'Prelude to Ecstasy', supported The Rolling Stones, Lana Del Ray, Florence and the Machine and The Arctic Monkeys, and topped it off with sold-out solo tours and two Brit Awar...
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October 13, 2025 • 32 mins
Welcome to the second part of the legendary Billy Porter on Queer The Music with Jake’s Shears where we hear the Tony, Grammy and Emmy award winner talk about his queer musical influences, politics, Pose and how playing Pray Tell, the flamboyant Master of Ceremonies in the New York City ballroom scene, changed Billy’s life.
We'd love to hear from you, please get in touch via Instagram @queerthemusicpodcast
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October 6, 2025 • 50 mins
Queer The Music this week celebrates the multi-award winning actor, singer and activist Billy Porter.
Billy is the first gay Black man to win an Emmy Award in any lead acting category and in 2020 Time magazine included him in their list of 100 most influential people in the world
He wowed Broadway with his lead performance as drag queen Lola in Kinky Boots, scooping a Tony Award and a Grammy for Best Musical Theater album. He jo...
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September 29, 2025 • 46 mins
Kae Tempest joins Jake Shears to talk about his song 'Statue In The Square'.
With two Mercury nominations and the Ted Hughes Poetry Prize under his belt, Kae Tempest is a celebrated and prolific artist. His new album, Self Titled is his most personal work yet telling his story of finding love, community and comfort.
In this episode he opens up to Jake about his identity struggles, journey of self-acceptance and we learn how crea...
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September 22, 2025 • 32 mins
This is the second part of Jake's revealing conversation with The Metal God himself, Rob Halford - frontman of legendary rock band Judas Priest
Last time we learnt about the pressures on Rob to keep his sexuality secret, the risk he took writing a song about Fire Island and how Tom of Finland influenced Judas Priest’s look. And now we’re about to get down and dirty… starting his extremely honest autobiography…
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September 15, 2025 • 32 mins
Welcome to Series 3 of Queer The Music! We're kicking off with an absolute icon from the world of rock - Rob Halford.
Rob has spent half a century fronting one of heavy metal's biggest and most influential bands, Judas Priest.
The first openly gay metal singer, it’s hard to underestimate the impact Rob Halford’s coming out must have had for other queer rock fans.
In this episode Rob talks about how he created the look for Hea...
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December 19, 2024 • 44 mins
In this festive edition of Queer the Music Jake sits down with the iconic Holly Johnson, the front man of Frankie Goes To Hollywood, to discuss the 1984 UK number one single and enduring Christmas song, ‘The Power of Love’.
The Power of Love came out during a time of social and political turmoil in the UK. Between Thatcherism, the miner strike and an encroaching AIDS epidemic the world was becoming a scary place for the LGBTQ+ comm...
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December 2, 2024 • 61 mins
It's the Season Finale of Queer The Music and we have a big one for you! It's none other than Neil Tennant to talk about Pet Shop Boys' 1987 smash hit 'It's A Sin'.
Neil joined Jake on his sofa to talk about making the song, the meaning behind the lyrics & his brilliant music career. We cover a lot of ground in this episode and learn so much about many of Pet Shop Boys songs, their collaborations and creative process.
Thank you t...
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November 25, 2024 • 50 mins
Have you heard the news?? Scissors Sisters are reforming and going on tour next May so for this special edition of Queer The Music, recorded in front of an audience at The Phoenix Arts club in London, we celebrate one of the songs that started it all, a song that is instantly recognizable from the first chord and one that the LGBTQ+ community have taken to their hearts, it's 2004's 'Take Your Mama'
Longtime friend and associate of...
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November 18, 2024 • 51 mins
This episode celebrates the song 'Midnight Radio', by Stephen Trask, the epic finale song from the ground-breaking film and stage musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch.
Jake is joined at his home in New Orleans by the creator, director and star of this cult classic, John Cameron Mitchell, to talk about where the ideas for the musical came from, it's reception, the making of the film and its enduring significance.
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November 11, 2024 • 45 mins
Queer The Music not only shines a light on songs by queer artists but also those that have been adopted by the LGBTQ+ community and in this episode we’re celebrating an absolute banger and one that has well and truly been claimed by the queer community - it’s the unbelievably uplifting call to arms ‘Free Yourself’ by Jessie Ware.
Tune in to hear Jake and Jessie chat about how the song came about, her influences, creative process, ...
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November 4, 2024 • 41 mins
In this episode of Queer The Music we’re shining a light on an incredible artist as we celebrate ‘Explode’ by the rapper and ‘Queen of Bounce’ Big Freedia.
Big Freedia, “The Queen Diva,” not only brought bounce music to the mainstream but has become a cultural icon, an advocate for the LGBTQ+ community and an ambassador for New Orleans.
Big Freedia joined Jake at his house in New Orleans to talk about how the song was conceived, he...
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October 29, 2024 • 43 mins
This week on Queer The Music we welcome the great singer songwriter John Grant to talk about his epic song Glacier.
Glacier is the standout track from John's 2013 album 'Pale Green Ghosts' and is about the pain of growing up gay in a hostile environment, which for John was his conservative Methodist upbringing. It’s an emotional tour de force with hauntingly beautiful orchestration and powerful lyrics. We hear about how this song ...
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October 21, 2024 • 49 mins
This week on Queer The Music we celebrate the phenomenal artist Little Richard and his groundbreaking song 'Tutti Frutti'. We can’t underplay the impact that this one song had on popular music at the time, Little Richard is an artist that sent shockwaves through popular music in the 1950s and his influence is still apparent to this day.
To find out more about this extraordinary artist Jake is joined by Charles Glenn, bass player w...
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