Sound Up! Queer Musicians of Color

In honor of Black History Month, this week’s edition of Sound Up! features incredible artists of color who identify as LGBTQ whom you desperately need you to know. So, turn that sound up, and get to celebrating the amazing art featured in this lineup.

Vincint

The Pose meets Flashdance video for the single “Someday” by Vincint may be what brought us to click that link, but we stayed for the undeniably catchy and infectiously danceable track. The heart-string-pulling song can be anything and everything you want to be: it can be the soundtrack to your dance moves, or it can be the backdrop to your unrequited love. The beautiful thing about Vincint is that he delivers music that speaks to the beat and to your love story.

Bringing glamour, fashion, and fierceness to the music scene, we know that Vincint is one to watch.

“I know what being alone feels like/ and I know what it’s like to be with you/ and if we could do it another way/ I’d choose to be someday back in your arms someday”

Dua Saleh

The nonbinary artist Dua Saleh has saw some major attention in 2019 with their debut album titled Nūr, meaning “light” in Arabic. Based in Minneapolis, this Sudanese-American musician, poet, and actor blends their Sudanese, sheltered background and their American, queer present into a genre-less hip-hop/electro/pop spectrum. Their latest single “Pretty Kitty” is paired with a crowd-sourced music video which shows fans of the artist going contributing trippy and contrived Instagram face filters throughout the song.

“Roller coaster ridden/ I was roller coaster hidden/ girl you really got me smitten/ all the lines that I was spitting”

Related article: Sound Up! Cakes Da Killa

Bronze Avery

Dreamy pop meets R&B with the single “Anybody Else” by Bronze Avery. Singing of a lost love, Avery’s essence is both sensual and broken-hearted in the track that showcases a side-by-side depiction of a couple on separate paths. As a songwriter, singer, and producer, Avery is based in Los Angeles and is garnering attention with his sultry vocals and lo-fi backbeats. As a vocal member of the LGBTQ community, Avery’s hope is that he can use his art to change the sexual perspective in mainstream music and give voice to others.

“I just wanna go back in time/ just to be right back by your side/ ’cause I haven’t got eyes for anybody else/ no I haven’t got eyes for anybody else”

Related article: Sound Up! Fab the Duo 

Tangina Stone

Losing your breath in the beat, that’s what Tangina Stone is delivering in this upbeat track “Air,” produced by Toronto’s White Light. The slow build of “Air” comes to a surging crash as Stone sings of slipping and sinking deep in the moment when despair meets adrenaline. The hurried beat of the track drives forward the sense of urgency, while Stone’s empathetic voice provides a sense of comfort. Stone impresses that she’s learning herself, finding confidence, yet she exudes it in spades in “Air.”

“I wanna fade away/ so I won’t feel the time/ and I know myself so I say/ and I know my rights yet it slips away”