ABSTRACT
In the 21st century, the development of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersexual, and queer rights has been remarkable in the Nordic countries. Though queering has always been central to pop music, music that deals explicitly with LGBTIQ issues has reached a new phase in this societal development. Recently, several songs dealing explicitly with queer life, written by queer-identified artists and allies, have made the Finnish mainstream pop music charts. In this chapter, I discuss four examples of Finnish contemporary mainstream pop that deal specifically with the experiences of LGBTIQ people: ‘Ihmisten edessä’ [In front of everyone] by Jenni Vartiainen (2007a); ‘Kavereita’ [Friends] by Sini Yasemin (2016); ‘Jokainen on vähän homo’ [Everyone’s a little bit gay] by Jukka Takalo (2010); and ‘Lätkäjätkä-Ville’ [Hockey guy Ville] by Tuure Boelius (2018). By combining queer musicology with societally activist music research, my aim is to analyse how these songs and accompanying music videos communicate LGBTIQ activist messages.
