Sam Smith’s elegiac ballad gets a beautifully somber music video to match. Shura ends up falling for her beautiful lab partner gal, and her brother makes moves on the jock - on a soccer field, no less. Queer bliss ensues, however, when the plan goes awry. For Shura, it’s the pretty-boy jock, and for her brother, the even-prettier female classmate. In the Set It Up-esque visual, Shura and her (real-life) brother conspire to win over their long-time crushes. Shura’s vision of high school on “What’s It Gonna Be?” is romanticized, somewhat implausible, and, as a result, way better than most queer people’s lived experience of their teenage years. To this day, Aguilera continues to advocate for LGBTQ people, sharing the stage during her most recent Liberation tour with drag icons like Lady Bunny and Carmen Carrera and donating the proceeds from her 2016 single “Change” to the families affected by the horrific shooting at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub that year. When the video for “Beautiful” debuted in 2002, Christina Aguilera broke new ground for trans and queer visibility by bringing to light the isolation that comes with living and loving as an LGBTQ person. 50 Top LGBTQ Anthems: Critic's Picks (Updated 2018)
