Critics' Choice: The Best Queer Country of 2025

We are back from our holiday break, refreshed and more determined than ever to build a space for queer country artists and fans! But first, a look back on the queer country moments of 2025 that brought joy to our staff's hearts...plus our top 3 queer albums of 2025!

Tommy Atkins, Writer and Musician

Is "The Giver" the greatest queer country song ever? No. Is it even one of Chappell’s best tracks? Probably not. But that’s kind of the point. Its power lies in how easy it feels: how comfortably it sits in the lineage of glossy, radio-friendly country-pop while quietly queering the whole thing.

For anyone who grew up with Shania Twain on the car radio, “The Giver” hits a nostalgic sweet spot. The bounce, the sparkle, the wink of confidence… it all feels like home. Country-pop has always thrived on swagger and pleasure, but for the last 15 years it’s been framed through a rigidly straight, male gaze. Chappell flips that without turning it into a lecture. She’s not begging for permission or softening the edges; she’s just having fun. Hearing one of the biggest pop stars in the world sing plainly about being able to pleasure a woman better than any man can - over a bright, vibrant country track - feels subtly radical and weirdly overdue. Because, let’s face it, queer “country” has predominantly sat in the Americana-outskirts for years.

What made the moment especially delicious was its timing. The “country’s cool again” bubble will surely pop in 2026. But Chappell Roan managed to tap into the resurgence this year while refusing to leave her queerness at the door. Instead, she dragged it right onto the dance floor, cowgirl boots and all, and contributed one of the defining songs of the “pop stars go country” era. There’s something deeply comforting about that: about queerness not as a gimmick, but as an (almost) unremarkable fact embedded in joy.

“The Giver” doesn’t need to be perfect to matter. It just needs to exist, loud and proud, reminding us that country-pop can be playful, queer, and warm all at once.

Stefanie Cuthbert, Writer

Although there’s lots of standout moments in the queer country calendar this year, for me it was a quieter, more unassuming one – seeing Amythyst Kiah on a BBC documentary.

Rob Brydon's Honky Tonk Road Trip wasn’t without its shortcomings. Stubbornly "apolitical," it refused to acknowledge the rampant racism and queerphobia across the genre or give space for Amythyst to talk about her Blackness, queerness, or the ways in which they intersect. This is the boot-licking, propaganda machine that is the BBC after all.

But, despite that, it was a powerful few minutes to see her existing proudly on screen, unashamedly herself. Cool, calm, and exuding talent in every gesture. What struck me as most profound is that I was so unprepared and had no prior knowledge of her appearance. As soon as she came on, I thrust a finger towards the TV and all but shouted, “Oh my god, that’s Amythyst Kiah!”

This is an artist whose new releases always hurtle into my top five albums of the year, and who inspires my own creative work. For my money, her 2021 album Wary + Strange remains one of the most vital entries into the country canon of the last twenty-five years.

My top queer country moment of the year shows a queer Black woman taking up screen space alongside a British national treasure. It shows Amythyst getting some of the respect and adoration she’s due. More than all that, though, it shows everyone watching that she exists and isn’t going anywhere.

Joshua Friedberg, Writer

I had a few favorite queer country moments this year; it’s hard to pick just one. In February, I saw Crys Matthews play a solo acoustic set at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago, mourning with the audience about the 2024 presidential election and blowing me away with songs like “Cancel Culture,” “Some Roads,” “Sleeves Up,” and “Exactly Where You Are.” She was charming, describing her mother’s post-retirement fixation with puzzles that inspired her song “The Bigger Picture.”

Since then, I’ve heavily listened to songs from at least three of her albums; she quickly became my most played artist of 2025 on my streaming service of choice. I also felt much queer country joy seeing Chris Housman’s “Up and Down” blow up on social media. It felt good to see comments about how this is what country radio should be playing–not that executives will ever listen.

And then I met Hunter Kelly, the famous queer country music journalist who has written for Rolling Stone and other publications after years of following him on social media. It was great to share gossip and favorite artists we’ve been listening to, as well as hear about his upcoming book on the Judds. But for me, nothing tops writing for Rainbow Rodeo and spotlighting queer issues in the Cowboy Carter Grammy debates, ideas of authenticity in country, and a personal essay on a relationship relating to Ty Herndon’s “What Mattered Most.”

It felt good to put my knowledge of these debates in different critical literature to work in the first two essays, and I had wanted to write an essay about that relationship for several years. I recently entered all three of my Rainbow Rodeo pieces into a communications contest. I hope to see more from all these artists and venues in the very near future!

Richard Marcus, Vandoliers Expert

I have a difficult time choosing a favourite album of the year. Even when narrowed down to a very specific genre - what was your favourite queer Americana album - it's extremely difficult. Depending on my mood any album can be my favourite at any particular time. However, I've discovered there is one album that I have on constant repeat: Life Behind Bars by the Vandoliers.

Since their inception The Vandoliers have developed a reputation as a rousing and rowdy band. Playing their own unique brand of cowpunk which draws upon everything from Mariachi to country for its inspiration they enthral audiences from their native Texas to Europe.

While Life Behind Bars has many of the elements that made them popular in the first place they also upped their game substantially lyrically and emotionally. This album was also notable because it was the first one after lead singer Jenni Rose transitioned.

Not surprisingly some of the songs deal with her struggles with gender identity. However, this isn't a one person band nor a one themed album. Sure there was a storm of publicity when Jenni came out - even an interview in Rolling Stone - and she is one of the primary song writers. Their artistry is such The Vandoliers aren't about to let themselves be defined by anyone save themselves.

In some ways Life Behind Bars is their most country album to date. More twang and pedal steel drift through these songs than tumbleweed through a small town in Texas. However, stop and listen to the lyrics and you'll realize its also as far from a "straight" country album as anything anyone put out this year.

A song about gun control, "Thoughts and Prayers," rubs shoulders with a song, "Bible Belt," about being exiled from family for being a sinner. Not the God Bless America, pass the six pack and the hunting rifle country songs you'd expect from Texas.

Life Behind Bars is one of those great albums where each song is not only different thematically, but musically as well. Introspective and rollicking in turn the band takes you on quite a journey in just under 35 minutes. This disc is not only my favourite Queer Country disc of the year, but pretty near my favourite release period.

Sarah Josephine Pennington, Writer

As a kid in rural Kentucky, I spent countless nights standing under the navy dark sky, bats circling the lone security light on our property, neck craned to the heavens while the dogs ate leftovers served up over bowls of Ol’ Roy kibble. Even in the early 90’s, satellites filled the sky above, shining brighter than the pale stars they sought to imitate. On overcast days I’d direct my wishes their way, praying the luck was in the ritual. In the lead single of S.G. Goodman’s Planting by the Signs, she, too, wishes on the satellites that circle overhead in their interminable orbits,

Say it's good, say it's right, wishing on a satellite
Kingdom come, kingdom come
It's the same for everyone, it's the same for everyone.

Planting by the Signs reads as deeply personal, carrying stories of childhood vengeance enacted on behalf of waylaid snapping turtles, memorials to lost friends, and celebration of new love, but in Goodman’s deft hands the personal becomes universal—or, at least, universally Kentucky. Taking inspiration from the farming tradition of seeking cues from the natural world, in Goodman’s eyes the signs are everywhere—not just in the satellites and heat lightning that roll across the summer sky, but also in the spoon bread, Karo, and pot likker that fuels her to “keep on walking in the sunshine” (“I Can See the Devil”).

Maybe it’s a copout, choosing an entire album as my favorite queer country moment of 2025, but that first listen, hearing the way that Goodman captures life in rural places—from Wal-Mart underwear to all the ways your mind can get stuck in a small town—got caught in my hair like a ghost I couldn’t shake, providing a soundtrack to the year and giving me a place to file away all the things that make Kentucky Kentucky. I’m grateful for this haunting.

Steve Roberts, Writer

This year I ended up again making a concerted effort to listen to more queer artists. Usually I just find them in my mess of streaming and word of mouth, alongside the endless boring straights. I reviewed Weakened Friends’ new album and truly enjoyed them and other artists’ this year who seemed to proudly march back into the sounds of late 90s-early oughts slacker rock. It seems to be the mood for the moment in 2025.

And I also feel that the barrier between alt and alt rock has crashed down completely; nobody’s afraid of an acoustic guitar or even a slide solo in any genre you can think of. I followed the hydra heads of boygenius off into their solo realms and really enjoyed Lucy Dacus’s new music. I was brought to tears as I almost always am by Brandi Carlisle, but was surprisingly unimpressed at new work by Orville Peck.

More than anything, I was happy to see Ethel Cain ingest and spit out Lana Del Rey on social media while continuing to create an incredible unique aesthetic music in a bevy of new releases.

As mentioned in editor Rachel Cholst’s excellent essay Coward Country, I feel like the moment I’ll most remember from Country music this year is the popularity on social media of supposed lefty country artists like Jesse Welles, who seem to be some mirror version of Oliver Anthony, plain spoken good old boys who play simple unadorned roots music that celebrate the simple views of a working class lifestyle. But just like Oliver Anthony, any head nod towards real politics was just that: a nod. Also, the music stinks. I’d love for every artist with a tiktok account and a guitar to stop trying to be Woody Guthrie please. It’s always embarrassing in comparison.

Alexander Taurozzi, Writer

My favorite queer country moment this year was when Orville Peck appeared on the Ziwe network. I watch each episode when it releases. I had no idea Mr. Peck was such a icon. Not just for Canada, but for the world.

Each Ziwe episode really sets itself apart, but I was surprised. Shocked, I dare say. The arrival of Orville Peck on Ziwe did a couple of things - it exposed queer country music and its stars to a large audience previously not exposed to the genre, and it gave us a peek behind the mask. Ziwe's show is rising like never before. Each of her guests coincides with the moment, and having Orville on was great marketing for the elusive countryman. Orville is notoriously stingy about his identity. We will never know who the Lone Ranger really is.

But in this episode, we got a glance at his personality. A look behind the curtain. I could wax on. Ziwe's unique brand of hard-hitting questions, awkward moments, and hilarious set-ups made this an episode to remember. The chemistry was on point, we learned Orville's father was adopted, and we got to hear him rap. Only with an interviewer like Ziwe could the audience have had these moments. Orville also appeared on NPR, the New York Times, NBC News, and Artist Friendly w/ Joel Madden. None of these interviews really stood out to me in the same way that his iconic, country-duet with Ziwe did. The video is currently listed for members only, but let's hope we get the full episode back up soon.

Rainbow Rodeo Staff's Best Albums of 2025

3. Vandoliers – Life Behind Bars

"Life Behind Bars is a continuation of what the Vandoliers started with that song. Led by Rose, they careen through the ten songs on the album with a mixture of joie de vivre and spiting in the eye of hatred. The songs have both an emotional depth and level of political awareness that weren't as obvious on previous recordings." – Richard Marcus

2. Willi Carlisle – Winged Victory

"Art is a gift. That’s the sensibility woven into the underpinning of Willi Carlisle’s new album. Beneath Winged Victory, a sequel to last year’s Critterland, there ebbs and flows a provocative danger that seems to ooze from its seam-bursting edges. It’s alarmingly chaotic, sometimes, and other times, it bobs to and fro with the ease of a sailboat on the water." – Bee Delores

1. Brandi Carlile – Returning to Myself

"Returning to Myself is as deeply personal as it is universal. When you honestly dig into your chest, you find truths to be eternal. It's a marvelous thing—that the meaning of life has been with us this entire time. It's not some glorious revelation found in religion or vices or even the exhilaration of taking big, bold risks... it's simply to be." – Bee Delores