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15 Songs Inspired by the HIV/AIDS Crisis

We look back at some of the music inspired by the crisis that (eventually) galvanized a generation into action.

George Michael
Photo: Virgin Records

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the first detection of AIDS in the U.S. In 1998, singer-songwriter Dan Bern released “Cure for AIDS,” a seemingly lighthearted track that’s profound in its idyllic vision of a world free of the disease. Over two decades later, HIV/AIDS is no longer a death sentence thanks to advances in treatment and prevention. Years of activism and research even paved the way for the mRNA technology that’s been used to protect against Covid-19, and the work continues in the quest for a vaccine for HIV/AIDS itself. This World AIDS Day, we took a look back at some of the music inspired by the crisis that galvanized a generation into action.

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on June 5, 2013.


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15. Pet Shop Boys, “Dreaming of the Queen” (1993)

The Pet Shop Boys might be the pop-music act with the most (and earliest) nods to the ravages of AIDS in their songs. “Dreaming of the Queen,” which Neil Tennant called “an anxiety dream” about the disease, stands out for its lush orchestral backing and sad hook sung in the guise of Princess Diana: “There were no more lovers left alive/And that’s why love had died.”


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14. Cyndi Lauper, “Boy Blue” (1986)

Cyndi Lauper’s deceptively bouncy “Boy Blue” was based on a children’s story and written for a friend who died early in the epidemic. The single wasn’t a huge hit, but it foreshadowed the prominent role the singer would take in the gay-rights movement later in her career.


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13. Suzanne Vega, “Blood Makes Noise” (1992)

One of the few songs on this list that’s not overtly about the AIDS crisis, released at the apex of HIV prevention and education, it’s impossible to listen to Vega’s modern-rock chart-topper and not think about sitting in a cold, sterile examination office anxiously waiting for blood test results.

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12. Sarah McLachlan, “Hold On” (1993)

Inspired by the true story of a woman whose fiancé discovers he has AIDS, McLachlan’s “Hold On” is poignant without ever becoming saccharine or schmaltzy.


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11. Lou Reed, “Halloween Parade” (1989)

With “Halloween Parade,” rock icon Lou Reed recounted the effects of the AIDS crisis during the 1980s on New York’s annual display of pageantry and disguise in his signature sing-talk style.


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10. Neil Young, “Philadelphia” (1993)

Though it lost the Oscar to Bruce Springsteen’s “Streets of Philadelphia,” this achingly performed song confronts the meaning of city and friendship as a man looks at the light at the end of the tunnel.


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9. Ani DiFranco, “One Every Corner” (1991)

A chronicle of the impact of AIDS on the homeless (and the lack of response) in early-’90s New York, the folksinger proclaims, “I am looking forward to looking back on these days.”

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8. Madonna, “In This Life” (1992)

Madonna has written better slow jams, but “In This Life,” from her brilliant Erotica album, is arguably one of her most personal, written about the deaths of her close friend Martin Burgoyne and mentor Christopher Flynn. The drums tick away like Stephen Hawking’s Doomsday Clock, which, coupled with tension-building keyboard intervals inspired by Gershwin’s blues lullaby “Prelude No. 2,” creates a sense of dis-ease rarely found in a pop ballad.


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7. Elton John, “The Last Song” (1992)

Probably one of the most famous songs about the AIDS crisis, Elton John and Bernie Taupin’s tearjerker is poignantly told from the perspective of a dying man, “as light as straw and brittle as a bird,” reuniting with his estranged father.


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6. George Michael, “Jesus to a Child” (1995)

Written in the wake of his partner Anselmo Feleppa’s AIDs-related death, the first song from Michael’s 1996 album Older is a tender ballad composed in the bossa-nova style of Feleppa’s native Brazil and features stinging couplets like “The words you could not say, I’ll sing them for you/And the love we would have made, I’ll make it for two.”


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5. Wu-Tang Clan, “America” (1996)

Smacking down conspiracy theories that were running rampant in the black community and telling listeners “AIDS kills…Coming from the Wu, it’s real,” Wu-Tang’s “America” is, perhaps, one of the most important songs about HIV/AIDS, directed squarely at a demographic that desperately needed—and still needs—to hear it.


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4. George Michael, “Do You Really Want to Know” (1992)

While “Jesus to a Child” may be the better-known of Michael’s AIDS songs, this delectable pop-house anthem from 1992’s Red Hot + Dance was, like Wu-Tang Clan’s “America,” better designed to reach an essential demographic—and it did so while making them shake their asses.


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3. Boy George, “Il Adore” (1995)

“Il Adore,” from the singer’s 1995 album Cheapness and Beauty and later incorporated into his musical Taboo, is as notable for its beautiful orchestral arrangement as it is for George’s delicate recounting of a mother’s sorrow over her ailing gay son.


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2. Bruce Springsteen, “Streets of Philadelphia” (1993)

“My clothes don’t fit me anymore,” the Boss sings plaintively on the opening theme song from Jonathan Demme’s Philadelphia. Skeletons and frail bodies are common images in songs like these, but there’s nothing usual about Springsteen’s understated portrayal of a man lost and languishing in his own city.


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1. Paula Cole and Peter Gabriel, “Hush, Hush, Hush” (1996)

Like Elton John’s “The Last Song” and Boy George’s “Il Adore,” “Hush, Hush, Hush” paints a portrait of a grieving parent, calling out the cruel irony of delaying happiness only to find death. The beautifully arranged song reaches its heart-wrenching apex as the key changes and Gabriel joyously exclaims, “Oh, maybe next time you’ll be Henry the Eighth!”

Sal Cinquemani

Sal Cinquemani is the co-founder and co-editor of Slant Magazine. His writing has appeared in Rolling Stone, Billboard, The Village Voice, and others. He is also an award-winning screenwriter/director and festival programmer.

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