Rolling Stone published a 2024 feature titled “20 Best Songs by Drag Queens,” and two of its inclusions are confirmed: “Hieeee” and “Read You Wrote You,” both by Alaska Thunderfuck. The full twenty-song order and the magazine’s rationale for each pick were not accessible when this guide was prepared, so this page does not reproduce a ranking. What follows covers what is established, how drag performers’ music fits together as a field, and how to build a listening list from it.
What the 2024 Rolling Stone feature confirms
The feature’s title and year are the anchor for this topic, and the two Alaska Thunderfuck entries are the only individual selections this guide can name with confidence. Anything beyond that would be a guess presented as a list.
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| Detail | Status |
|---|---|
| Feature title and year | Confirmed: “20 Best Songs by Drag Queens,” Rolling Stone, 2024 |
| “Hieeee” by Alaska Thunderfuck | Confirmed as an inclusion |
| “Read You Wrote You” by Alaska Thunderfuck | Confirmed as an inclusion |
| Remaining eighteen entries and their order | Not stated in this guide’s sources |
| Editorial rationale for each pick | Not stated in this guide’s sources |
If you need the complete list, go to Rolling Stone’s own site and search for the 2024 feature by its title. Treat any third-party reproduction of the list as unverified unless it links back to the magazine’s page.
Alaska Thunderfuck: the two confirmed songs
“Hieeee”
Confirmed as one of the twenty selections in Rolling Stone’s 2024 feature. This guide does not have a verified description of the track’s production or release history, so listen to it directly and judge its style for yourself.
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“Read You Wrote You”
Also confirmed as a Rolling Stone inclusion. As with “Hieeee,” the sources available here establish its place in the feature but not its background, so treat any detail beyond the listing as something to check against the artist’s own releases.
Alaska’s recorded music is also represented by the album Red 4 Filth, which the official Drag: The Musical production biography lists among her albums. The sources do not establish whether a vinyl or CD edition exists, so check the current release format on the artist’s official channels or your preferred streaming service before buying.
Rank #2
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A broader map: Pitchfork’s 2023 list
Pitchfork published “These Queens Can Sing: The 15 Best Songs by Today’s Drag Performers” on June 8, 2023, by Julianne Escobedo Shepherd. It is a different editorial selection from Rolling Stone’s, and its entries are presented alphabetically by artist, not ranked. It is useful for seeing the wider landscape, but its picks should not be used to fill in gaps in the Rolling Stone list.
Named songs in the Pitchfork piece include:
- Aja, “Vulture Queen”
- Alaska Thunderfuck, “Wow”
- Additional songs by Bob the Drag Queen, Trixie Mattel, RuPaul, and Yvie Oddly
Pitchfork describes most, but not all, of its list as coming from RuPaul’s Drag Race alumni. That is the outlet’s characterization of its own selection in 2023, not a measured demographic figure for drag performers in general.
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Rank #3
How the field spans genres
Pitchfork frames drag music as spanning pop, club, and country, and its rationale praises contrasting strengths such as rap precision, camp, and pop-punk style. A listening list built from this range will sound much less uniform than the television-era stereotype of a single dance-pop sound.
Earlier history
Drag performers have released music well before the modern reality-television era. Pitchfork points to several early examples:
Rank #4
- Petite Swanson, 1947: “Lawdy Miss Claudy” and “My Jockey Knows How to Ride,” released on a local label.
- José Sarria, 1960: the album No Camping.
- Divine, 1980s: disco and new-wave output.
- RuPaul, 1990s: “Supermodel (You Better Work),” which reached pop charts and which Pitchfork calls emblematic of mass-media visibility for a full-time drag star of the MTV era.
Pitchfork also argues that the later global popularity of RuPaul’s Drag Race widened mainstream exposure to drag music. That is an editorial reading of the show’s influence, not a measured causal study, and it is best treated as context rather than proof.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Original songs versus lip-sync tracks
Drag performers often perform songs by other artists in lip-sync routines, and those tracks are not the same as music the performer made or released. Lists titled “best songs by drag queens” usually mean original recordings by drag performers. Check whether a list you are reading includes both categories, because a lip-sync classic by a non-drag artist can look like a drag pick at first glance.
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How to build your own list
Until you can read the full 2024 Rolling Stone feature, you can build a useful shortlist yourself:
- Start with the two confirmed Alaska Thunderfuck songs, “Hieeee” and “Read You Wrote You.”
- Add the Pitchfork 2023 entries named above, including Aja’s “Vulture Queen” and Alaska’s “Wow.”
- Add one or two early recordings, such as Petite Swanson’s 1947 singles, to hear the history.
- Sort your shortlist by the axes that matter to you: musical style, camp or humor, vocal or rap delivery, historical influence, and whether the song was released independently or first gained attention through television or live performance.
These axes are suggestions for your own comparison. They are not criteria that Rolling Stone has confirmed for its ranking.
Where to listen
A Spotify playlist with the description “songs ever performed, written by drag performers through the years” uses phrasing close to what many listeners search for. It is user-curated rather than an authoritative ranking, so use it as a discovery tool and cross-check any entry against an artist’s official releases.
The strongest path into this topic is to start with the confirmed Alaska songs, then move through the Pitchfork picks, and then look for the Rolling Stone feature directly to fill in the rest.
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