20 essential songs for your Pride Month playlist

“Supermodel (You Better Work)” by RuPaul

We had to start this playlist with a bang, and the Queen of all queens, RuPaul!

RuPaul revolutionized drag for the mainstream market. Before Ru, drag queens didn’t have TV talk shows, they didn’t release music videos that actually got played on MTV, and they certainly weren’t the face of cosmetic brands like MAC. Over 20 years later, and Ru has turned all of that into an empire of best-selling books, more music, and of course his crowning glory, the Emmy-winning hit TV show, RuPaul’s Drag Race.

“Supermodel (You Better Work)” isn’t just catchy, it’s an anthem. In typical Ru fashion, the lyrics are all about embracing yourself and being fabulous: “It don’t matter what you wear/They’re checking out your savoir-faire/And it don’t matter what you do/Cause everything looks good on you!”

This amazing song also gave us some iconic phrases, like “You better work!” and “Sashay, Shantay!” If this comes on at any Pride party, you better believe everyone will be running to the dance floor, voguing their butts off (even if they can’t vogue, it doesn’t matter!), trying to death drop, and “thwoorping” their fans dramatically to the beat.

In fact, that’s the case if any RuPaul song comes on at pride. That’s the kind of impact Ru has had on LGBTQ culture over the decades, and it’s hard to deny just how influential he’s been!

Work! Work! Sashay! Shantay!