Riyah Collins
BBC Newsbeat
Reuben Bastienne
“I simply wanna discuss women.”
Cat Burns could not be clearer about what is on her thoughts in her new monitor.
Known as – you guessed it – Ladies! she says it marks a shift from her extra “critical” information and is her shot at writing track she did not have get entry to to rising up.
“I think like I by no means had a track like that for me,” she says. “Particularly for the entire queer women.”
She says she’s leaning into a brand new technology the place she feels increasingly more assured celebrating her sexuality.
The singer, 24, has loved in meteoric upward thrust previously few years.
Her unmarried Pass, first launched in 2020, was a viral hit on TikTok in 2023 – emerging to quantity 2 within the charts, propelling Cat directly to a Brits Critics’ Selection award nomination later that 12 months.
She tells BBC Newsbeat having songs like this is “tremendous essential”, particularly rising up and working out who you might be.
“It is great to grasp that folks such as you exist and exist freely,” she says.
“And I believe the ‘fun-ness’ of the track can display individuals who are not lesbian or queer or bi or no matter that we’re simply commonplace human beings who like simply so occur to love the similar intercourse.”
Reuben Bastienne
Previously 12 months, the charts had been ruled greater than as soon as via queer girls writing brazenly about homosexual relationships.
Chappell Roan’s Excellent Good fortune, Babe! tells the tale of being in love with a girl suffering to come back to phrases with their sexuality and spent 16 weeks in the United Kingdom most sensible 10.
And after Billie Eilish claimed she used to be “outed” via Selection mag in 2023, she adopted up along with her album Hit Me Exhausting and Cushy, together with the one Lunch which explored her need for girls.
Billboard described the monitor, which peaked at quantity two in the United Kingdom chart, as “a wonderful queer awakening”.
Prior to that regardless that, there is been narrow pickings for mainstream pop songs that remember unique lesbian relationships.
Take, as an example, Katy Perry’s 2008 debut I Kissed A Woman.
It is “a super pop track”, Cat says, however does not pass any deeper than the primary degree of exploring sexuality.
“I believe it is all the time just right once we make room and make allowance area for lesbian and queer artists to discuss it while we are additional into our adventure,” she says.
“The place it is much less interest and making an attempt… and it is extra like: ‘No, I am into it now and actually delving to my enjoy as a queer girl’.”
‘We are not a monolith’
And the extra voices that upload to that, the simpler, Cat says.
“The extra illustration and extra space for various kinds of queer artist, it may well simply assist paint a extra vibrant image of what the group’s in fact like and who exists inside that group.
“Having other folks like Reneé Rapp and Chappell Roan and, confidently, anyone like myself, we are beginning to display those that we are not a monolith and we range around the spectrum.”
Cat, who is in the past spoken about her ADHD and autism spectrum dysfunction (ASD) diagnoses, says she “falls into such a lot of other teams” and needs to have fun variations.
“I simply need to proceed to turn those that we are simply now not all a technique,” she says.
“What you already know of one thing may now not all the time be true.”
As for why it sort of feels extra artists are getting relaxed writing about their sexuality, Cat credit social media in addition to different artists that experience long past prior to.
“Social media has allowed extra queer artists to be queer loudly,” she says.
“Protection-wise, prior to it used to be tougher. There is such a lot of icons that experience lead the way.
“I am actually satisfied that I used to be in a position to make a track like Ladies!, for it to be gained how it has been and for me to be so in a position to be open about what it is about.”
With extra artists loudly celebrating the LGBT group, Cat says the fan base now has the chance to be loud again of their toughen.
“The LGBTQ + group, we are an overly onerous fan base,” she says. “We adore our favorite artists down and can do endlessly.
“We champion and love a number of directly artists, which is superb.
“However I believe it is great that, within the final 5 to ten years, we are now getting queer artists with the ability to be championed and beloved via our personal group.”
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