The coronavirus pandemic has changed everything, and that includes how we’re all celebrating Pride in 2020.
With huge public gatherings out of the question, we’re asking a range of LGBTQ celebrities and allies for their personal Pride anthems, to help us all get into the Pride spirit from lockdown.
In the lead-up to the second series of The Politician – now streaming on Netflix – we spoke to one of the cast members Rahne Jones.
Rahne appeared in the first series of the Ryan Murphy dramedy as Skye, and is back for the second run, which sees Judith Light and Bette Midler joining the main cast.
During her My Pride Anthems interview, she revealed how Dua Lipa caused her to buck her usual listening trends and shines a light on one of her “unsung” musical heroes...
Beyoncé – Get Me Bodied
“Basically, Beyoncé can do no wrong in my book. She is literally the most talented human being, and there is no Pride without Beyoncé on the playlist.
“This song is off her B’Day album, and I remember when this song came out, during that ‘do the Naomi Campbell walk’ part, you could not tell me that I wasn’t Naomi Campbell.”
Silk City and Dua Lipa – Electricity
“It’s funny, I was shopping and this song came over the radio in the store, and I was like ‘what is this? It’s amazing’. I was basically just dancing around the store, just bopping around.
“I could listen to this song back to back, without stopping. I tend to like a lot of old musicians, but Dua Lipa is really doing it for me right now, she’s one of my top people. I love the danceability of her music, so any song of hers is a chance to let it all out.”
Jennifer Holliday – And I’m Telling You I’m Not Going
“So, I’m a musical theatre nerd, and one of my favourite performers is Jennifer Holliday, so – it’s a slow one – but I had to have And I’m Telling You on my list. Funny story, there’s a version they play in the lobby of my apartment that’s uptempo and it’s set to, like, house music, and I’m telling you, listening to that is a wild experience.
“But I think that Jennifer Holliday’s performance of this song is one of my favourite performances in musical theatre history. And I think this song is the perfect lip sync song, too.”
Janet Jackson – Alright
“The danceability of a song is really important to me, if I can dance to it, I’m all in. But for me, it’s the visual aspect of this song, and the video, that I love.
“It looks like it’s set in New York with these, old-timey outfits, Janet is in this amazing pinstripe suit. There are great dance moves in the video, I love all of it. And she just has so many great videos.”
Phyllis Hyman – You Know How To Love Me
“Phyllis Hyman is one of my favourite artists of all time, I think she’s extremely underrated and unsung. She doesn’t have a lot of uptempo songs, a lot of them are ballads, but with You Know How To Love Me, I love the whole disco-like style to it, and there’s a cut that’s almost eight minutes long, so you really could dance to it all night long. You could go on, and on, and on.
“I love the tone of her voice, she had a rich alto tone. I just think she deserves more recognition for her amazing, amazing talent, so I would just like to give her the props she deserves.”
Rahne Jones is now appearing in the second series of The Politician, which is available to stream on Netflix.
We’ll be adding each celebrity’s song choices to our bumper My Pride Anthems playlist each day. Take a listen below: