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LGBT ally Kacey Musgraves wins big at queer-dominated Grammys

Brandi Carlile, Lady Gaga also rack up wins

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7 years ago

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Kacey Musgraves accepts Album of the Year at the 2019 Grammys. (Screenshot via YouTube)

Country singer Kacey Musgraves won the coveted Album of the Year award for her album “Golden Hour” marking the end of a Grammys award show filled with plenty of queer women representation.

Musgraves, who also won Country Album of the Year, has emerged as an LGBTQ ally in the country music world. She has spoken up for more LGBTQ inclusion in country music and her song “Follow Your Arrow” was hailed as a pro-LGBTQ anthem. Musgraves also served as judge on “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” Musgraves also took home Best Country Solo Performance (“Butterflies”), and Best Country Song (“Space Cowboy”) Awards for a total of four winning categories.

Lesbian singer/songwriter Brandi Carlile won three awards during the pre-telecast including Best Americana Album for “By the Way, I Forgive You” and Best American Roots Song and Best American Roots Performance for “The Joke.” She received the most nominations of any woman this year and became the first LGBTQ person to win awards in those categories.

While accepting the award for Best American Roots Performance, she shared that she came out in high school at age 15. She says she never was invited to high school parties or dances.

“I never got to attend a dance. To be embraced by this enduring and loving community has been a dance of a lifetime,” Carlile said. “Thank you for being my island.”

Carlile also received a standing ovation for her vocal powerhouse performance of “The Joke” during the televised ceremony.

Other queer artists with impactful Grammys performances were Ricky Martin who performed with Camila Cabello, J Balvin, Arturo Sandoval and Young Thug for a Broadway musical-inspired Grammys opener to Cabello’s song “Havana.”

Miley Cyrus, who identifies as pansexual, dueted with Shawn Mendes on his song “In My Blood.” She later also teamed up with Katy Perry, Maren Morris, Musgraves and Little Big Town for a tribute to Dolly Parton.

Janelle Monáe performed her bisexual anthem “Make Me Feel” off her album “Dirty Computer,” mixed in with her feminist song “Pynk.”

She didn’t win for either category she was nominated for (Album of the Year and Best Music Video) but she did dedicate her nominations to her “trans brothers and sisters.” In an interview with Variety, the singer was asked about coming out as queer last year.

“People do it everyday,” she replied. “My trans brothers and sisters, they do it everyday. And they are shunned from these sorts of events. So this one is for them.”

Lady Gaga scored two wins (Best Pop Duo/Group Performance and Best Song Written For Visual Media) for her “A Star is Born” duet with Bradley Cooper, “Shallow,” which she also performed.

Dua Lipa and St. Vincent, who is sexually fluid, did a steamy joint performance of her song “Masseducation” and Lipa’s “One Kiss.” St. Vincent and Jack Antonoff won Best Rock Song for “Masseducation.”

History continued to be made with Cardi B becoming the first woman to win Best Rap Album and “This is America” by Childish Gambino winning Best Song. This is the first time a rap song has won in that category.

Jennifer Lopez also gave a dance-filled tribute to Motown while Diana Ross honored her own birthday, which is in March, with a performance. Michelle Obama, Lady Gaga, Jada Pinkett-Smith and Lopez also made appearances at the top of the show to help host Alicia Keys reflect on the importance of music.

Check out the complete list of winners below.

Album Of The Year — “Golden Hour”- Kacey Musgraves

Record Of The Year — “This Is America” – Childish Gambino

Best New Artist — Dua Lipa

Best Rap Album — “Invasion Of Privacy”- Cardi B

Best R&B Album Winner — “H.E.R.”- H.E.R.

Best Rap Song — “God’s Plan”- Drake

Best Country Album — “Golden Hour”- Kacey Musgraves

Song Of The Year — “This Is America”- Childish Gambino

Best Pop Duo/Group Performance — “Shallow” Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper

Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical — Pharrell Williams

Best Rap/Sung Performance — “This Is America”-Childish Gambino

Best Rap Performance — “King’s Dead”- Kendrick Lamar, Jay Rock, Future & James Blake / Bubblin, Anderson .Paak

Best Rock Album — “From The Fires”-Greta Van Fleet

Best Rock Song — “Masseduction” – St. Vincent

Best Metal Performance — “Electric Messiah”- High On Fire

Best Rock Performance — “When Bad Does Good”- Chris Cornell

Best Urban Contemporary Album — “Everything Is Love”- The Carters

Best R&B Song — “Boo’d Up”- Ella Mai

Best Traditional R&B Performance — “Bet Ain’t Worth The Hand”- Leon Bridges / “How Deep Is Your Love”-Pj Morton Featuring Yebba

Best R&B Performance — “Best Part”- H.E.R. Featuring Daniel Caesar

Best Latin Jazz Album — “Back To The Sunset”- Dafnis Prieto Big Band

Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album — “American Dreamers: Voices Of Hope, Music Of Freedom”- John Daversa Big Band Featuring Daca Artists

Best Jazz Instrumental Album — “Emanon”- The Wayne Shorter Quartet

Best Jazz Vocal Album — “The Window”- Cécile Mclorin Salvant

Best Improvised Jazz Solo — “Don’t Fence Me In”- John Daversa

Best Reggae Album — “44/876”- Sting & Shaggy

Best Dance/Electronic Album — “Woman Worldwide”- Justice

Best Dance Recording — “Electricity”- Silk City & Dua Lipa Featuring Diplo & Mark Ronson

Best Contemporary Classical Composition — “Kernis: Violin Concerto”- James Ehnes, Ludovic Morlot & Seattle Symphony

Best Classical Compendium — “Fuchs: Piano Concerto ‘Spiritualist’”; Poems Of Life; Glacier; Rush”- Joann Falletta

Best Classical Solo Vocal Album —” Songs Of Orpheus”-Monteverdi, Caccini, D’india & Landi, Karim Sulayman

Best Classical Instrumental Solo — “Kernis: Violin Concerto”- James Ehnes

Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance — “Anderson”- Laurie: Landfall, Laurie Anderson & Kronos Quartet

Best Choral Performance — “Mcloskey: Zealot Canticles”- Donald Nally

Best Opera Recording — “Bates: The (R)Evolution Of Steve Jobs”-Michael Christie, Garrett Sorenson, Wei Wu, Sasha Cooke, Edward Parks & Jessica E. Jones

Best Orchestral Performance — “Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 11”- Andris Nelsons

Producer Of The Year, Classical — Blanton Alspaugh

Best Engineered Album, Classical — “Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 11”- Andris Nelsons & Boston Symphony Orchestra

Best Pop Vocal Album — “Sweetener”- Ariana Grande

Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album — “My Way” -Willie Nelson

Best Pop Solo Performance — “Joanne (Where Do You Think You’re Goin’?)”- Lady Gaga

Best Country Song — “Space Cowboy” – Kacey Musgraves

Best Country Duo/Group Performance — “Tequila”- Dan + Shay

Best Country Solo Performance — “Butterflies”- Kacey Musgraves

Best Music Film — “Quincy”- Quincy Jones

Best Music Video — “This Is America”-Childish Gambino

Best Regional Roots Music Album — “No ‘Ane’I”- Kalani Pe’a

Best Tropical Latin Album — “Anniversary”- Spanish Harlem Orchestra

Best Regional Mexican Music Album (Including Tejano) — “¡México Por Siempre!”- Luis Miguel

Best Latin Rock, Urban Or Alternative Album — “Aztlán”- Zoé

Best Latin Pop Album — “Sincera”- Claudia Brant

Best Spoken Word Album (Includes Poetry, Audio Books & Storytelling) — “Faith – A Journey For All”- Jimmy Carter

Best Children’s Album — “All The Sounds”- Lucy Kalantari & The Jazz Cats

Best Folk Album — “All Ashore”- Punch Brothers

Best Contemporary Blues Album —” Please Don’t Be Dead”- Fantastic Negrito

Best Traditional Blues Album — “The Blues Is Alive And Well”- Buddy Guy

Best Bluegrass Album —”The Travelin’ Mccourys”- The Travelin’ Mccourys

Best Americana Album — “By The Way, I Forgive You”- Brandi Carlile

Best American Roots Song — “The Joke”- Brandi Carlile

Best American Roots Performance — “The Joke”- Brandi Carlile

Best New Age Album — “Opium Moon”- Opium Moon

Best Song Written For Visual Media — “Shallow”- Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper

Best Score Soundtrack For Visual Media — “Black Panther”- Ludwig Göransson

Best Compilation Soundtrack For Visual Media — “The Greatest Showman”- Hugh Jackman (& Various Artists)

Best World Music Album — “Freedom”- Soweto Gospel Choir

Best Roots Gospel Album — “Unexpected”- Jason Crabb

Best Contemporary Christian Music Album — “Look Up Child”- Lauren Daigle

Best Gospel Album — “Hiding Place”-Tori Kelly

Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song — “You Say” -Lauren Daigle

Best Gospel Performance/Song — “Never Alone”- Tori Kelly Featuring Kirk Franklin

Best Contemporary Instrumental Album — “Steve Gadd Band”- Steve Gadd Band

Best Immersive Audio Album —” Eye In The Sky – 35th Anniversary Edition”- The Alan Parsons Project

Best Remixed Recording — “Walking Away (Mura Masa Remix)”- Haim

Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical — “Colors”- Beck

Best Historical Album — “Voices Of Mississippi: Artists And Musicians Documented By William Ferris”

Best Album Notes —” Voices Of Mississippi: Artists And Musicians Documented By William Ferris”

Best Boxed Or Special Limited Edition Package — “Squeeze Box: The Complete Works Of ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic” Weird Al Yankovic

Best Recording Package — “Masseduction”- St. Vincent

Best Arrangement, Instruments And Vocals — “Spiderman Theme”- Randy Waldman Featuring Take 6 & Chris Potter

Best Arrangement, Instrumental Or A Cappella — “Stars And Stripes Forever”- John Daversa Big Band Featuring Daca Artists

Best Instrumental Composition — “Blut Und Boden (Blood And Soil)”- Terence Blanchard

Best Alternative Music Album — “Colors”- Beck

Best Musical Theater Album — “The Band’s Visit”- Original Broadway Cast

Best Comedy Album — “Equanimity & The Bird Revelation”- Dave Chappelle

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‘Hedda’ brings queer visibility to Golden Globes

Tessa Thompson up for Best Actress for new take on Ibsen classic

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14 hours ago

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January 8, 2026

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Tessa Thompson is nominated for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a motion picture for ‘Hedda’ at Sunday’s Golden Globes. (Image courtesy IMDB)

The 83rd annual Golden Globes awards are set for Sunday (CBS, 8 p.m. EST). One of the many bright spots this awards season is “Hedda,” a unique LGBTQ version of the classic Henrik Ibsen story, “Hedda Gabler,” starring powerhouses Nina Hoss, Tessa Thompson and Imogen Poots. A modern reinterpretation of a timeless story, the film and its cast have already received several nominations this awards season, including a Globes nod for Best Actress for Thompson.

Writer/director Nia DaCosta was fascinated by Ibsen’s play and the enigmatic character of the deeply complex Hedda, who in the original, is stuck in a marriage she doesn’t want, and still is drawn to her former lover, Eilert. 

But in DaCosta’s adaptation, there’s a fundamental difference: Eilert is being played by Hoss, and is now named Eileen.

“That name change adds this element of queerness to the story as well,” said DaCosta at a recent Golden Globes press event. “And although some people read the original play as Hedda being queer, which I find interesting, which I didn’t necessarily…it was a side effect in my movie that everyone was queer once I changed Eilert to a woman.”

She added: “But it still, for me, stayed true to the original because I was staying true to all the themes and the feelings and the sort of muckiness that I love so much about the original work.”

Thompson, who is bisexual, enjoyed playing this new version of Hedda, noting that the queer love storyline gave the film “a whole lot of knockoff effects.”

“But I think more than that, I think fundamentally something that it does is give Hedda a real foil. Another woman who’s in the world who’s making very different choices. And I think this is a film that wants to explore that piece more than Ibsen’s.”

DaCosta making it a queer story “made that kind of jump off the page and get under my skin in a way that felt really immediate,” Thompson acknowledged.

“It wants to explore sort of pathways to personhood and gaining sort of agency over one’s life. In the original piece, you have Hedda saying, ‘for once, I want to be in control of a man’s destiny,’” said Thompson.

“And I think in our piece, you see a woman struggling with trying to be in control of her own. And I thought that sort of mind, what is in the original material, but made it just, for me, make sense as a modern woman now.” 

It is because of Hedda’s jealousy and envy of Eileen and her new girlfriend (Poots) that we see the character make impulsive moves.

“I think to a modern sensibility, the idea of a woman being quite jealous of another woman and acting out on that is really something that there’s not a lot of patience or grace for that in the world that we live in now,” said Thompson.

“Which I appreciate. But I do think there is something really generative. What I discovered with playing Hedda is, if it’s not left unchecked, there’s something very generative about feelings like envy and jealousy, because they point us in the direction of self. They help us understand the kind of lives that we want to live.”

Hoss actually played Hedda on stage in Berlin for several years previously.

“When I read the script, I was so surprised and mesmerized by what this decision did that there’s an Eileen instead of an Ejlert Lovborg,” said Hoss. “I was so drawn to this woman immediately.”

The deep love that is still there between Hedda and Eileen was immediately evident, as soon as the characters meet onscreen.

“If she is able to have this emotion with Eileen’s eyes, I think she isn’t yet because she doesn’t want to be vulnerable,” said Hoss. “So she doesn’t allow herself to feel that because then she could get hurt. And that’s something Eileen never got through to. So that’s the deep sadness within Eileen that she couldn’t make her feel the love, but at least these two when they meet, you feel like, ‘Oh my God, it’s not yet done with those two.’’’

Onscreen and offscreen, Thompson and Hoss loved working with each other.

“She did such great, strong choices…I looked at her transforming, which was somewhat mesmerizing, and she was really dangerous,” Hoss enthused. “It’s like when she was Hedda, I was a little bit like, but on the other hand, of course, fascinated. And that’s the thing that these humans have that are slightly dangerous. They’re also very fascinating.”

Hoss said that’s what drew Eileen to Hedda.  

“I think both women want to change each other, but actually how they are is what attracts them to each other. And they’re very complimentary in that sense. So they would make up a great couple, I would believe. But the way they are right now, they’re just not good for each other. So in a way, that’s what we were talking about. I think we thought, ‘well, the background story must have been something like a chaotic, wonderful, just exploring for the first time, being in love, being out of society, doing something slightly dangerous, hidden, and then not so hidden because they would enter the Bohemian world where it was kind of okay to be queer and to celebrate yourself and to explore it.’”

But up to a certain point, because Eileen started working and was really after, ‘This is what I want to do. I want to publish, I want to become someone in the academic world,’” noted Hoss.

Poots has had her hands full playing Eileen’s love interest as she also starred in the complicated drama, “The Chronology of Water” (based on the memoir by Lydia Yuknavitch and directed by queer actress Kristen Stewart).

“Because the character in ‘Hedda’ is the only person in that triptych of women who’s acting on her impulses, despite the fact she’s incredibly, seemingly fragile, she’s the only one who has the ability to move through cowardice,” Poots acknowledged. “And that’s an interesting thing.”

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Arts & Entertainment

2026 Most Eligible LGBTQ Singles nominations

We are looking for the most eligible LGBTQ singles in the Washington, D.C. region.

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2 days ago

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January 7, 2026

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We are looking for the most eligible LGBTQ singles in the Washington, D.C. region.

Are you or a friend looking to find a little love in 2026? We are looking for the most eligible LGBTQ singles in the Washington, D.C. region. Nominate you or your friends until January 23rd using the form below or by clicking HERE.

Our most eligible singles will be announced online in February. View our 2025 singles HERE.

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PHOTOS: Freddie’s Follies

Queens perform at weekly Arlington show

Published

2 days ago

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January 6, 2026

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The Freddie's Follies drag show was held at Freddie's Beach Bar in Arlington, Va. on Saturday. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

The Freddie’s Follies drag show was held at Freddie’s Beach Bar in Arlington, Va. on Saturday, Jan. 3. Performers included Monet Dupree, Michelle Livigne, Shirley Naytch, Gigi Paris Couture and Shenandoah.

(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)

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