Three illustrated music player screens show different album covers on a rainbow-colored, concentric circle background. The covers feature a bed by a window, people embracing near water, and an abstract group illustration.

JoySauce Radio: Celebrating queer Asian artists

From tender love songs to bold declarations of identity, these queer Asian artists are creating music that deserves your full attention

From left, cover art for “Vodka Cranberry” by Conan Gray, “Dial Tone” by Linying, and “Part Time Woman” by Vivek Shraya ft. Alok.

Graphic by Ryan Quan

Words by Anjana Pawa

JoySauce Radio: Consider JoySauce Radio our own personal song recommendations—featuring some of our favorite tunes and videos—all from Asian and Pacific Islander artists around the world.

June calls for a playlist that goes beyond the ordinary. This month's JoySauce Radio is a celebration of queer Asian artists who are making music that's tender and gutting, but also pushing boundaries while telling their extraordinary stories. What you'll find here isn't a specific sound or a single story, but what these songs share is the particular ache and beauty of being fully, visibly yourself. As we reach the end of Pride Month, we're turning up the volume on voices that have always deserved to be heard—this month and all year round.

“Dial Tone” by Linying

Singapore-born, LA-based singer-songwriter Linying released “Dial Tone” in early 2025 as the lead single off her album Swim, Swim, and everyone immediately knew it was something special. Set at a traditional Singaporean Chinese banquet wedding, meticulously recreated down to the yam seng toast from the family, it centers a trans woman (played by Seattle drag artist Mikey Xi) moving through the ceremony disguised as a cis man to keep her family comfortable. Linying herself appears as the wedding singer, a quiet witness to the scene unfolding. Every frame feels like it was made with care, intention, and love.

“Secret” by Miraaj

As a queer South Asian artist, Miraaj left their home of Dubai eight years ago seeking freedom, and found both home and an artistic identity in San Francisco's thriving LGBTQ+ community. Their debut music video for “Secret” is a self-funded, community-built love letter to the city that gave them a brand new life. The song blends multilingual lyrics and Bollywood-inspired aesthetics with a chill bedroom pop production. The visuals draw on Miraaj's influences, ranging from house music legends like Armin van Buuren, all the way to the South Asian film music they grew up listening to.

“Girls Like Girls” by Hayley Kiyoko

Released in 2015, "Girls Like Girls" didn't just launch Hayley Kiyoko's career, it became a genuine cultural landmark for queer women and girls, a gay awakening delivered in a pastel-soaked music video that landed just days before the Supreme Court's Obergefell v. Hodges ruling legalized same-sex marriage. What started as a music video that she co-directed has since grown into a New York Times bestselling novel, and as of this year, a full-length feature film that she wrote and directed. Lovingly dubbed by her fans as "Lesbian Jesus,” Kiyoko has never wavered from telling unapologetically queer love stories and this song and video is where her legacy of that began.

“Part Time Woman” by Vivek Shraya ft. Alok

Indo Canadian trans multidisciplinary artist and author Vivek Shraya released “Part-Time Woman” back in 2017, but it belongs on our playlists full-time (and not just at Pride). This release is a collaboration with the Queer Songbook Orchestra that grapples with a gutting question: What does it mean to be a woman when the world only recognizes you as one part of the time? Shraya conceived it as a meditation on the way both she and beloved South Asian artist and activist Alok (who is also featured in the video) are often only permitted to exist safely in private or on stage while performing. The music video was shot on 16mm film, giving it a beautiful and nostalgic quality.

“Vodka Cranberry” by Conan Gray

“Vodka Cranberry” was released in July 2025 as part of Conan Gray’s album Wishbone. The song is a slow-building queer heartbreak anthem that sounds a lot like the moment you realize a summer love is already over before it even begins. Gray has always written love songs with a deliberate ambiguity that shies away from specificity, but Wishbone is when he fully dropped the armor, allowing his queerness and heartbreak to be so much more than surface level and without apology. It’s his most revealing work yet.