Spotlight On: TEGAN AND SARA

SHEROES AND QUEEROES: A PRIDE MONTH CELEBRATION

ABOUT THIS WEEK’S SHEROES AND QUEEROES IN THE SPOTLIGHT:
(radio hour featured interview and podcast)

There is no band I hear mentioned more by my queer guests when we talk about queer influences, icons, and trailblazers, than Tegan and Sara. And this past week, just days before the start of Pride Month, Tegan and Sara put out Junior High: a graphic novel that is a prequel of sorts to their bestselling memoir, and subsequent tv series, High School, it explores growing up, coming out, and finding yourself through music and sisterhood. So as we kick off our full month of celebrating queer women, trans women and nonbinary voices on SHEROES, I thought it would be a perfect time to revisit our most recent conversation from October 2022, discussing their tenth studio album and first in six years, Crybaby, Sara’s newest role as a mom and how important it is to create visibility for queer parents, and contemplating what the future might look like in the next chapter of the Tegan and Sara story. For those not familiar, Tegan and Sara Quin are Canadian identical twin sisters who began writing songs in their early teens, and released their debut Under Feet Like Ours in 1999. Within a year were signed to Neil Young's label Vapor Records, who put out their second proper album, This Business of Art in 2000. As it was rare in those days for artists to be openly queer, Tegan and Sara became trailblazers for LGBTQ+ musicians. It was incredible to witness their career take off, when their fourth album, 2004’s So Jealous dropped, that was the moment that truly put them on the international map, helped along by the White Stripes covering the song “Walking With a Ghost”. And while their 2007 fifth album The Con is often namechecked by many as their most iconic, it was their seventh release, Heartthrob that became their biggest album to date, winning three Juno awards, and shortlisted for the Polaris prize. I am thrilled to welcome back Tegan and Sara as SHEROES and QUEEROES in the Spotlight.

SHEROES Radio Hour:

Our Radio QUEERO of the week is Cindy Howes of WUNC Music in Raleigh-Durham, NC. Her QUEERO Pick is a new song by Jobi Riccio, “Sweet”

Listen to the syndicated public radio SHEROES Radio hour: