Queer the Music with Jake Shears

Season 4 of Queer The Music launches today in discussion with Placebo’s iconic frontman Brian Molko. In this special, extended edition, he and Shears discuss everything from their mutual love of David Bowie to outlier-status in alternative music and media. The episode also notably marks the 30th anniversary of Placebo’s radical breakout hit, ‘Nancy Boy’. Originally written in reclaim of a slur, ‘N...

Jake Shears’ hit Queer The Music podcast returns for its fourth season. Kicking off with an episode featuring Placebo’s Brian Molko, this follows a double win for the number 1-charting podcast at the prestigious Webby Awards (including ‘Best Music Podcast’), with guests for Season 4 already set to include Swedish pop queen Tove Lo plus DJ, alt-pop artist Baby Queen and drag royalty, Jodie Harsh. E...

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 See Privacy Pol...

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...

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...

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 th...

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 makin...

This week is a big one - we are celebrating the iconic The B52'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 existe...

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 toppe...

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 You can watch the whole episode on Mercury Studios YouTube c...

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...

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, journ...

This episode is the second part of Jake's interview 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 with asking Rob about his...

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 ab...

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 becomin...

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 colla...

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...

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 a...

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 a...

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 a...

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 power...

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 i...

We're back with Season 2 of 'Queer The Music' and what better way to kick off this series with the brilliant Beth Ditto to talk about the anthem that is Gossip’s ‘Standing In The Way of Control’.  The powerful and absolute banger of a track is known for being a response to George W Bush’s 2004 Federal Marriage Amendment which attempted to outlaw same sex marriage in the US. In this episo...

We have a bonus episode for you! Join us as we are celebrating the brilliant ‘Fast Slow Disco’ the up-tempo reworking of ‘Slow Disco’ by singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Annie Clark, who goes by the stage name St Vincent. Annie began her music career as a member of the Polyphonic Spree, and has since released 7 critically acclaimed albums, picked up 3 Grammy awards, collaborated with t...

For our last episode of this current series we celebrate the brilliant 'Going To A Town' by singer, songwriter Rufus Wainwright. The song, which was the first single from Rufus’s 2007 album 'Release the Stars', has garnered huge critical acclaim and has been covered by artists from George Michael to Lily Allen however its critique of the United States and the war in Iraq provoked strong negative r...