Joy Oladokun's debut EP Cathedrals was self-released in 2015. Carry Me, her first studio album, was financed through Kickstarter and published on April 29, 2016 by Well Records. The track was published by Oladokun "Sunday' is the song that 12-year-old Joy, seated in the back of church youth group, needed to hear. She needed to hear that you can be queer and happy. Queer and healthy. Queer and holy. She needed to see married women kissing and playing with their kids." The music video has a largely gay cast and focuses on persons in LGBTQ partnerships.
Grace Beverly Jones OJ is a Jamaican model, singer, and actress who was born on May 19, 1948. She was named 82nd on VH1's 100 Greatest Women of Rock and Roll in 1999, and she received a Q Idol Award in 2008. Jones was an inspiration for artists such as Annie Lennox, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Solange, Lorde, Róisn Murphy, Brazilian Girls, Nile Rodgers, Santigold, and Basement Jaxx, and impacted the 1980s cross-dressing movement. She was named the 40th best dance club musician of all time by Billboard magazine in 2016.
Lawrence Philpot was born on July 20, 1954, and died on November 8, 1992. He was an American DJ best known for his decade-long engagement at Paradise Garage in New York City, which has been dubbed "the prototype of the modern dance club." He established a cult following that dubbed his performances "Saturday Mass." François Kevorkian, a well-known post-disco DJ, credits Levan with introducing the dub aesthetic to dance music. In his recordings and live sets, Levan, like Kevorkian, experimented with drum machines and synthesizers, ushering in an electronic, post-disco sound that foreshadowed the rise of house music. In the 1980s, he also DJed at Club Zanzibar, which was home to the Jersey Sound genre of deep house or garage house.
Jaren Kyei Merrell was born February 8, 1989. She is known professionally as Shea Couleé, is an American drag queen, musician, podcaster, and fixture of the Chicago nightlife scene. Lipstick City, which they co-produced, directed, wrote, and starred in, was released in 2016. Couleé-D, their debut EP, was released in 2017 along with accompanying music videos. They've continued their musical careers since then, starring in their own web series, podcast, and touring domestically and internationally, including Werq the World, Haters Roast, and A Drag Queen Christmas.
Victoria Monét McCants was born on May 1, 1989, in New York City. She is a singer, songwriter, and record producer from the United States. She began her career in the performing arts at an early age, singing in her church's youth choir and dancing with a city dance team. She quickly began composing and collaborating with producer Rodney Jerkins. Nas, Ariana Grande, Fifth Harmony, T.I., GOOD Music, Lupe Fiasco, Chrisette Michele, Coco Jones, Chris Brown, and Dirty Money are among the musicians for whom Monét has written songs. Monét was nominated for two Grammy Awards in 2019, one for Album of the Year for her work on Ariana Grande's Thank U, Next and the other for Record of the Year for "7 Rings."
Jessica Koroi, better known by her stage name Jesswar, is a South East Queensland-based Fijian Australian rapper. Her debut song "Savage" was published in 2017 and her debut EP Tropixx was released in 2021. She also won the Queensland Music Awards and the APRA Professional Development Awards that year. Jesswar was born in Canberra and spent part of his childhood in Fiji and the Gold Coast, Queensland. She left home when she was 16 years old to pursue music studies at TAFE Queensland and then the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University. With fellow classmates, she established Sneeky Picnic, a four-piece pop rap band, in 2012.