In preparation for the holiday season, pop culture enthusiast David Ferguson shares his top ten LGBTQ+ Christmas songs to get you in the festive mood.
Years ago, my favourite artist Bob Dylan had a radio show. Every episode had a theme that the songs he played fit around. I stole the idea and have created some playlists for fun on my blog. I have even done a couple of Christmas playlists for 2020 and 2021.
I wasn’t really planning on curating one for this Christmas, but then I got the idea in my head to do one with only LGBTQ+ songs and it spiralled from there.
My usual method is to find out if any of my favourite artists have a song that fits my theme and then I Google the theme and see if I can find any songs I like. It’s a great way to discover new artists.
For the LGBTQ+ Christmas one, my process was pretty much the same. I discovered some new songs from my favourite artists but also some new ones.
WARNING: That Wham song is included so if you’re trying to avoid Whamageddon, tough!
Elton John – ‘Ho! Ho! Ho! (Who’d Be A Turkey At Christmas)’ (1973)
A favourite! Elton has a couple of Christmas songs (I hadn’t heard any of them) but this is my favourite of his. A fun one I think.
Queen – ‘Thank God It’s Christmas’ (1984)
I googled to see if Queen had a Christmas song and they do and I know it but it somehow slipped my mind. That’s old age folks.
Wham! – ‘Last Christmas’ (1984)
Another favourite. I think everyone knows this one, right?
Pet Shop Boys – ‘It Doesn’t Often Snow At Christmas’ (2009)
I like the Pet Shop Boys but I hadn’t heard of this one. As it’s them, you know it’s gonna be a bit different.
Ronan Keating ft Stephen Gately – ‘Little Drummer Boy’ (2009)
Cheating a bit but I wanted to include Stephen Gately and this is one of my favourite Christmas songs. Sadly, this was released after his death. I always like to try and include at least one Irish artist.
Sam Smith – ‘Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas’ (2014)
Not usually a favourite but again Google was my friend.
Miley Cyrus ft Sean Ono Lennon – ‘Happy X-mas (War Is Over)’ (2018)
I’m not a Miley Cyrus enthusiast but this is a great cover and it’s nice that John Lennon’s son is featured.
Pentatonix – ‘Thank you’ (2020)
A new act for me. A Grammy Award-winning acapella group with vocals that are incredible, and they have a bunch of Christmas songs.
Kat Cunning – ‘O Holy Night’ (2020)
Another new act for me. Kat is a queer non-binary singer with a great voice.
Kacey Musgraves and Troye Sivan – ‘Glittery’ (2020)
Look, people who follow my GCN stuff are not shocked I’m including Troye Sivan. He teams up with Kacey Musgraves again on this one.
Make sure to follow David on Twitter for more pop culture news.
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