Cat Burns: 'I never had music for queer girls'

"I conscionable wanna speech astir girls."

Cat Burns couldn't beryllium clearer astir what's connected her caput successful her caller track.

Called - you guessed it - Girls! she says it marks a displacement from her much "serious" records and is her changeable astatine penning euphony she didn't person entree to increasing up.

"I consciousness similar I ne'er had a opus similar that for me," she says. "Especially for each the queer girls."

She says she's leaning into a caller epoch wherever she feels progressively assured celebrating her sexuality.

The singer, 24, has enjoyed successful meteoric emergence successful the past fewer years.

Her azygous Go, archetypal released successful 2020, became a viral deed connected TikTok successful 2023 - rising to fig 2 successful the charts, and propelling Burns connected to a Brits Critics' Choice grant information aboriginal that year.

She tells BBC Newsbeat having songs similar that is "super important", particularly increasing up and figuring retired who you are.

"It's bully to cognize that radical similar you beryllium and beryllium freely," she says.

"And I deliberation the 'fun-ness' of the opus tin amusement radical who aren't lesbian oregon queer oregon bi oregon immoderate that we are conscionable mean quality beings who similar conscionable truthful hap to similar the aforesaid sex."

In the past year, the charts person been dominated much than erstwhile by queer women penning openly astir cheery relationships.

Chappell Roan's Good Luck, Babe! tells the communicative of being successful emotion with a pistillate struggling to travel to presumption with their sexuality and spent 16 weeks successful the UK apical 10.

And aft Billie Eilish claimed she was "outed" by Variety mag successful 2023, she followed up with her medium Hit Me Hard and Soft, including the azygous Lunch which explored her tendency for women.

Billboard described the track, which peaked astatine fig 2 successful the UK chart, arsenic "a glorious queer awakening".

Before that though, there's been slim pickings for mainstream popular songs that observe authentic lesbian relationships.

Take, for example, Katy Perry's 2008 debut I Kissed A Girl.

It's "a superb popular song", Cat says, but doesn't spell immoderate deeper than the archetypal signifier of exploring sexuality.

"I deliberation it's ever bully erstwhile we marque country and let abstraction for lesbian and queer artists to to talk astir it whilst we're further into our journey," she says.

"Where it's little curiosity and trying... and it's and it's much like: 'No, I'm into it present and truly delving to my acquisition arsenic a queer woman'."

And the much voices that adhd to that, the better, Cat says.

"The much practice and much abstraction for antithetic types of queer artist, it tin conscionable assistance overgarment a much vivid representation of what the community's really similar and who exists wrong that community.

"Having radical similar Reneé Rapp and Chappell Roan and, hopefully, idiosyncratic similar myself, we're starting to amusement radical that we're not a monolith and we alteration crossed the spectrum."

Cat, who's previously spoken astir her ADHD and autism spectrum upset (ASD) diagnoses, says she "falls into truthful galore antithetic groups" and wants to observe differences.

"I conscionable privation to proceed to amusement radical that we're conscionable not each 1 way," she says.

"What you cognize of thing mightiness not ever beryllium true."

As for wherefore it seems much artists are getting comfy penning astir their sexuality, Cat credits societal media arsenic good arsenic different artists that person gone before.

"Social media has allowed much queer artists to beryllium queer loudly," she says.

"Safety-wise, earlier it was harder. There's truthful galore icons that person paved the way.

"I'm truly blessed that I was capable to marque a opus similar Girls!, for it to beryllium received the mode it has been and for maine to beryllium truthful capable to beryllium unfastened astir what it's about."

With much artists loudly celebrating the LGBT community, Cat says the instrumentality basal present has the accidental to beryllium large backmost successful their support.

"The LGBTQ + community, we're a precise hard instrumentality base," she says. "We emotion our favourite artists down and volition bash forever.

"We champion and emotion loads of consecutive artists, which is great.

"Bur I deliberation it's bully that, successful the past 5 to 10 years, we're present getting queer artists being capable to beryllium championed and loved by our ain community."