A piece about queer joy.

“Chill out, it’s all been done before,” Avril Lavigne sings in her 2002 single Complicated.

I never thought a quote from this song would help me calibrate the influence of my own identity on my compositional work. Queer culture has a foundational shaping power on broader pop culture, digital movements, online slang, and modern internet discourse. The material I consume and read is so influenced by my own queerness that it impacts how I see the world and how I interact with it. This implies a coming out of sorts, revealing personal taste and celebrating the references that give me a sense of immense joy.

DING, DONG, DARLING! is a piece trying to reenact the feeling we get when Chappell Roan openly sings about desire towards other women, all packed in a glorious pop package; or the camp of Eurovision; when giggling at a Sainthoax post on Instagram; or when recognizing and celebrating the subversive nature of house music and its makers, predominantly black women and trans women. This piece is about chasing that moment of joy, hope, and a sense of lightness triggered by another person’s display of unabashed queer joy, which, as its core, is a concept that acknowledges the importance of joy and pleasure in the lives of LGBTQ+ individuals. It challenges the dominant narrative that being queer is exclusively rooted in pain or trauma and instead recognizes the resilience, resistance, and creativity of LGBTQ+ people.

Reflecting on my previous work with memory, I realise it was largely external. Now, I turn inward, subjecting myself to introspection. This work is a container, an homage of sorts, filled with references and memories, embracing non normativity, pathos, hyper-pop, camp, glitter, youth, and sexuality in all its aspects and, most importantly, reclaiming joy as an integral part of my artistic practice.

Sara Glojnarić