Image Credit: “Angel Baby” (left), “One Of Your Girls” (right) | YouTube, Troye Sivan
“When was the last truly f*cking nasty, nasty bad pop girl?” Troye Sivan’s character asks in The Idol.
It’s a question, apparently improvised by Sivan, that’s managed to linger in the culture far longer than the HBO series itself (which came-and-went after just five divisive episodes), and it turns out the answer’s been right in front of us this whole time…
With the release of his third studio album—the cathartic, sexually liberated, and joyfully queer Something To Give Each Other—the 28-year-old singer-songwriter makes it clear that he’s the “truly f*cking nasty, nasty bad pop girl” we’ve been looking for all along.
The record is Sivan’s strongest artistic statement yet, a natural evolution of his sound and—especially for those of us who’ve been fans of the star since his YouTube days—a testament to queer self-actualization and stepping into one’s power.
It’s also an incredibly sexy album, a point which has been driven home by its poppers-fueled packaging and especially the music videos Sivan has dropped for its trio of singles, each steamy, sensual, and provocative.
But that’s been part of Sivan’s ethos as a pop star since the beginning: He’s not ashamed of his sexuality—in both senses of the word—and wants us all to feel comfortable celebrating ourselves in the same way.
With that in mind, Something To Give Each Other‘s release has inspired us to take a look back through Sivan’s work and rank the five sexiest music videos of his career thus far. So bring a towel to wipe up that sweat, because it’s about to get hot.
5. “Stud”
While not a traditional music video, we’d be remiss not to include “Stud” from Sivan’s innovative live performance of 2020’s In A Dream, connecting fans to his music in the wake of the pandemic. This shape-shifting club track about cruising and desire is one of Sivan’s outright thirstiest, and the gym proved the perfect setting for the visuals as beefy men pump iron around him. At one point, a tatted hunk even pauses his workout to lock eyes with Sivan as he sings “We should do this, right?” The sexual tension is almost too much to bear!
Reba McEntire asked Troye Sivan, “What is a popper?” and nothing was ever the same.
4. “Heaven”
“Heaven,” from Sivan’s debut EP Blue Neighborhood, remains one of his most potent messages about coming out and coming-of-age. Twenty at the time, it’s about reckoning with his place in the world—physically and spiritually—as a gay man. The stark black-and-white video for “Heaven” follows that thread with archival footage of couples kissing, loving, and celebrating together, intercut with footage of Sivan with his arms wrapped around an anonymous man. It’s intimate and sensual, but with a palpable gravity and sense of history.
3. “Rush”
“Rush” ushered in a new era of Troye Sivan, one that’s uninhibited and brazenly horny. Bodies touching bodies touching even more bodies, the visuals find community through physical connection, reveling in the desires the make us human. From the clever glory hole shot to the moment that makes a keg stand look like Caravaggio painting, “Rush” reminds us that sex should be fun and freeing, a point underlined by the immediately iconic choreo from Sergio Reis and Mauro Van De Kerkhof that really brings Sivan out of his shell.
The visuals for “Rush” have ignited the latest round of Twink discourse.
2. “One Of Your Girls”
Sivan’s latest almost looks like an old-school Abercrombie & Fitch ad, another black-and-white video where beautiful men—including internet crush Ross Lynch—make bedroom eyes right at the viewer. While singing about an unattainable, all-consuming straight male crush, Sivan cues up the chorus with a wink, and suddenly he’s one of the most stunning drag queens we’ve ever seen. He’s already brain-meltingly gorgeous in a wig and pink lipstick, but by the time he starts draping himself all over Lynch’s shirtless torso? Oh, it’s over. We’re dead.
1. “Angel Baby”
This standalone single from 2021 is an unabashed love ballad, and its video, leaning into the romance, pays homage to so many that came before it: There are fireworks, wind machines, motorcycle rides, evocative food play, passionate make-outs and more—longtime visual hallmarks of the torch song. Sivan and his paramour get plenty of time to tumble one-on-one, but one of “Angel Baby’s” most striking motifs is that of the pop star lying in with ten other interconnected bodies, all touching, feeling, loving. Sensitive and incredibly erotic, this one always gives us goosebumps.
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