Staff List: The 20 Best Pride Albums of 2024

Even as an already notable year for the album format as a whole, 2024 was a tour-de-force for queer artists making honest, impactful LPs.

While much has been made over the advent of queer pop music — and for good reason, looking at year-dominating artists like Chappell Roan and Billie Eilish — not enough has been made about the advances of queer artists in non-pop spaces. Across genres including rap, R&B, folk, rock, country and dance, LGBTQ+ artists not only made their presence known, but they released categorical bodies of work, some of which burrowed deep into the very core of their own genres and shook them up from the inside.

It was fitting to see queer and trans artists taking a radical approach to music in 2024, seeing as the world outside the music industry courted chaos for the community. With last year’s wave on anti-LGBTQ+ legislation continuing into 2024 and the re-election of Donald Trump threatening queer and trans rights around the U.S., the LGBTQ+ community is facing a scary future. But despite what many may feel, there were significant wins for LGBTQ+ people in 2024: Thailand became the first country in Southeast Asia to legalize same-sex marriage; New South Wales, Australia passed a ban on conversion therapy; a record number of LGBTQ+ candidates won elections in the U.S., including Sarah McBride, who became the first trans person elected to Congress.

Amid that chaos, LGBTQ+ artists provided a fitting soundtrack through a series of groundbreaking LPs. Below, Billboard picks our 20 favorite albums released in 2024 by LGBTQ+ artists, presented alphabetically by artist.