Rep. Garcia releases 2024 Pride playlist featuring Beyoncé, Sabrina Carpenter

Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) on Monday unveiled his second annual Pride playlist, complete with hits from pop powerhouses Beyoncé and Taylor Swift and rising stars including Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter. 

“Obviously we have Pride month, but Pride goes on all summer. There are Pride festivals and celebrations all the way through October and across the country,” Garcia told The Hill. “I think it's a great playlist for the summer, and it includes a good combo — like it did last year — of songs I’m currently listening to and artists that I currently like, but also stuff that I’ve been listening to for a long time.” 

Garcia, one of 12 openly LGBTQ members of Congress, released his inaugural Pride playlist last June on Spotify and Apple Music. This year’s collection of songs is meant to be a continuation of that, he said. 

“Obviously you can listen to whatever song you want, but I did take some take to curate it to how I would listen to it,” he said. “You can actually listen to it in order from the first playlist, and this one for a total of 40 songs.” 

Among some of this year’s musical selections: Janelle Monáe’s “Make Me Feel,” Carpenter’s “Please Please Please,” “Nails, Hair, Hips, Heels” by Todrick Hall and Selena’s “Fotos Y Recuerdos.” 

“I wanted to include stuff I've also liked for a long time and some songs that personally mean a lot to me from different points of my life,” Garcia said. 

“All types of art and music are incredible and can change people's perceptions on issues and can be very powerful,” he added, pointing to Beyoncé’s efforts to empower women and Roan’s use of her newfound platform to uplift LGBTQ voices. 

“Just talking about queerness or talking about, like, where she gets her inspiration from I think is inspiring to a lot of her young fans,” Garcia said of Roan, who earlier this month said she turned down an offer to perform at the White House’s annual Pride celebration, citing the administration's handling of Israel's war in Gaza.

“I think it also helps when LGBTQ people can see what she's what she's doing and be proudly kind of queer in the way she's doing it and uplifting the community,” Garcia added. “I think that also in this time where rights are being moved backwards and rights are being attacked, it's important for young people especially.”