DORIAN ELECTRA.

Remember when pop music used to be fun? There was a time when balls-to-the-wall bangers and boundary-pushing statements reigned supreme, when big-budget music videos were defining moments in pop culture and tuning into the Video Music Awards each year meant you were guaranteed iconic performances and red carpet looks you’d be talking about for years to come. Queer people, especially, have historically been drawn in by more escapist forms of pop, which is why you’ll often find gay men longing for the days of Bad Romance, Rude Boy and California Gurls – and still dressing up as their favourite noughties singers for Halloween. Fortunately, there’s an artist on a mission to make unashamed pop music great again: Dorian Electra.

The gender-fluid American singer-songwriter recently dropped their long-awaited debut album Flamboyant, and as the title suggests, it’s a celebration of all things camp, colourful and extravagant. From opening track Mr To You, on which Dorian invites listeners to peer into their avant-garde world, through to album closer Freaky 4 Life, an outsider’s mission statement that grinds with pulsating synths and guitar