Top 20 Songs of 2023

Previously:
Songs 100 – 81
Songs 80 – 61
Songs 60 – 41
Songs 40 – 21

20. Samara Joy “Tight”

A three-time Grammy winner at just 24-years-old, Samara Joy is bringing Jazz to a whole new generation. Like I said in my Grammy post earlier, she packs more vocal technique into these two minutes than most people do in an entire album.

19. Boys World “Funeral”

Boys World was put together in 1999 by an entertainment company scouting for talent on Instagram. Girl groups made up of strangers can go on to have a decent run like En Vogue or the Spice Girls, or they can self-destruct quickly like Danity Kane and Eden’s Crush. Five years is longer than I thought they’d last and now they’re finally hitting their stride. Of their last five songs, I can’t find a bad one.

More from Boys World:
me, my girls & i
Gone Girl
Piña Colada
SO WHAT

18. SHERIE “Mile Away“

Angeline Sherie Barrett is a Haitian-American singer/songwriter/violinist based out of LA who co-wrote “Positions” for Ariana Grande a couple of years ago. She’s been stepping out with her own brand of R&B and I hope the Victoria Monet magic sprinkles over to another one of Ari’s collaborators.

17. Foo Fighters “But Here We Are”

I never expected the Foo Fighters to be around for this long and still be this relevant. They just lost the Best Rock Album to Paramore, but to be nominated for their first album after Taylor Hawkins unexpectedly passed away on tour must feel great for Dave. He said in an interview awhile back that he loves being in a band but doesn’t want to necessarily be in a 90s alt rock band for the rest of his life, and it’s songs like “But Here We Are” that push a little at the edges and take a few risks. We love to see it!

More from Foo Fighters:
Show Me How
Under You
Hearing Voices
Rescued

16. Shaboozey “Let It Burn”

If you Google Shaboozey, the result is a hip-hop artist from Virginia. If you go further and read a Shaboozey interview, you’ll find a guy with Nigerian parents combining country music with afrobeats and hip-hop. There’s no better personification of the New South than him.

More from Shaboozey:
Tall Boy
Beverly Hills
GAS!

15. Cardi B. “Bongos” (feat. Megan Thee Stallion)

Y’all didn’t like it as much as “WAP” but I couldn’t throw ass in the club to “WAP” like I can with “Bongos.” And that’s what I wanna do when Megan and Cardi are on the same track — throw. ass.

14. Noah Kahan “Dial Drunk”

Noah Kahan was up in the woods of Vermont working on his second album and probably had no idea that it would blow up the way it has. Notching a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist, he’s taken this burst of attention and grabbed everyone from Kacey Musgraves to Post Malone to Hozier to hop on his tracks with him. A big name co-sign is a great shortcut to commercial success, but I prefer most of his songs in their original solo versions. Noah is a songwriter and the music can stand alone all by itself.

13. Kenya Grace “Strangers”

A surprise hit thanks to Tik Tok! Born in South Africa and raised in the UK, Kenya was working on some music to upload to TikTok and it quickly went viral both there and on Instagram Reels. It exploded all over Europe, and in the UK, she became only the second female artist to hit number 1 with a track fully written, performed, and produced by themselves. The first was Kate Bush.

All this, and she doesn’t even have an EP out. That’s the power of TikTok.

12. Vishal Bhardwaj “Tere Saath” feat. Kiran + Nivi

Kiran + Nivi are always on some Instagram account singing their face off. They belt these high harmonies that will blow your mind. Vishal Bhardwaj is a singer/songwriter who does a lot of music for Indian movies, like Kuttey.

Kuttey is a Hindi action/thriller that honestly got some pretty terrible reviews, but one in review particular said it could be worth the watch just for the music.

And I agree! I don’t know any Hindi and as best I can translate, “Tere Saath” is a big love song with talks of marriage and dying together, but y’all know I don’t always need the lyrics anyway. The sound is lush and the vocals are vocalling. Constant repeat in my house.

11. Coco Jones “No Chaser”

Coco Jones is not quite the singer I need her to be (which is why “ICU” isn’t on my Top 100 list), but she has passion, drive, and work ethic so we’ll see what happens. What I do know is she’s gotten enough co-signs in the industry to be able to capture top-notch talent to produce the highest of quality R&B. It doesn’t really get much better than this.

More from Coco Jones:
Double Back
ICU
Simple

10. MUNA “One That Got Away”

With just three albums, MUNA are queer pop icons to me. “One That Got Away” is such good 80s power pop, I can’t figure out why more people don’t know about them. Haven’t we agreed nostalgia is the wave?

9. Bad Bunny “WHERE SHE GOES”

I’m gonna count how many queer artists make up my top ten this year and I’m so tempted to add Bad Bunny to the list because everything about his aesthetic and attitude is Bad Bitch Vibes, but alas. We have to allow heterosexual men to just be a vibe and stop labelling them if they step outside of their boring little box.

So Bad Bunny is not one of the gurlz, but “WHERE SHE GOES” is a Jersey Club banger for the gurlz to turn up to. He might not be queer, but that’s still a bad bitch.

More from Bad Bunny:
UN PREVIEW
HIBIKI
BABY NUEVA

8. Carly Rae Jepsen “Put It To Rest”

Carly Rae Jepsen loves a B-Side album where she releases more tracks from the same recording session that didn’t make the album. Instead of calling this album The Loneliest Time: Side B (as she did Emotions: Side B and Dedicated Side B), she called it The Loveliest Time as a companion to her 2022 album. Both recorded during lockdown in an office space-turned-studio in her home, The Loveliest Time is both more adventurous and more cohesive than the A Sides, but it’s the Patrik Berger productions (“Aeroplanes,” “Kollage,” and “Put It To Rest”) that really anchor the album. That’s a guy who knows drum programming and I need to find more of his stuff.

More from Carly Rae Jepsen:
Aeroplanes
Kollage

7. Baby Tate “Jersey”

The second queer icon-in-the-making in my Top 10, Baby Tate released a concept EP and all four tracks are some of the best work of her career. A true singer/rapper combo, Baby Tate is completely out of her mom’s (Dionne Farris) shadow continuing to carve her own lane.

More from Baby Tate:
Lollipop
Luv Everybody
Grip

6. Emily Ann Roberts “Devil Wears Denim“

After multiple delays, Emily Ann Roberts has finally released her debut album. She was a finalist on The Voice back in 2015 when she was still in high school. After charting a few songs on the Country charts during the run of the show, she took a step back to finish school, and then prepared to release her first album. COVID interrupted those plans, but she’s back with some good old-fashioned country storytelling and the same sweet voice that carried her to the finals.

5. boygenius “Strong Enough”

I love a supergroup that doesn’t feel forced, where there’s no struggle for the spotlight, and boygenius is Pistol Annies for lesbians. Queer mothers! The assertion that this is not rock music is so rich coming from old men who grew up on Fleetwood Mac and the Eagles, because sonically that’s where we are: strong harmonies and top-notch musicianship from a group of people who know how to write a song.

More from boygenius:
Emily I’m Sorry
True Blue
Cool About It

4. Kylie Minogue “Tension”

“Padam, Padam” was the hit, but “Tension” was the magic. It’s just experimental enough to be interesting, but not so much so that it’s unrecognizable as a Kylie Minogue affair. Plus — it’s a full three minutes and 36 seconds, an actual song length.

More from Kylie Minogue:
Hold On To Now
Vegas High
One More Time
Hands

3. Victoria Monet “On My Mama”

“On My Mama” was the song of the summer as soon as I heard it. I’m not one who latches on to lyrics immediately, but on very first listen, “I’m so deep in my bag like a grandma with a peppermint” hooked me and I rewound the track to take in all the words of affirmation. “On My Mama” is proof that retro doesn’t ever have to mean stale.

And she’s bisexual, so that’s four in the Top 10 so far!

More from Victoria Monet:
Alright
How Does It Make You Feel
Stop (Askin’ Me 4Shyt)
Hollywood

2. Kali Uchis “Blue”

Another bisexual icon, where was Kali Uchis on everybody’s Best of 2023 list?? Released back in March, she was giving smooth R&B with a touch of California neo-soul, but “Blue” is when she reached deep into her Sade bag. This feels ripped straight from Sade’s Diamond Life album, updated for 2023.

More from Kali Uchis:
Te Mata
Fantasy
Moonlight
Hasta Cuando

1. Måneskin “HONEY (ARE YOU COMING?)”

I don’t care that “serious music publications” hate Måneskin. They make big, loud, sexy music and somebody desperately needed to bring the glam and carnality back to rock music. And what I really love is that, for most rock bands, if there is a woman, she’s the lead singer. If there is a gay man, he’s the lead singer. Måneskin has both…but it’s the straight man up front thirst-trapping on Instagram and peacocking around stage.

I’m not going to pretend this band is the great saving hope of rock music as though they’re doing something musically that we’ve never seen before. But! So many of the things we love are just repackaged versions of things we already loved before. Måneskin isn’t making music for rock musicians so much as fans of Top 40 Radio who also like rock music. It’s all very shiny and easy to digest, but so is Popeye’s and they had fistfights over chicken sandwiches. Being uncomplicated and mass-market doesn’t have mean low-quality and cheap. Måneskin is doing everything at the highest level of entertainment and I, for one, am very entertained.

And that’s 6 queer artists in the Top 10 this year. The Gay Agenda is winning!