Feature image of boygenius, who announced their indefinite hiatus, by David Livingston/WireImage
Going into Grammy weekend, for which they are nominated for six times including Album of the Year, boygenius has announced an indefinite hiatus. The announcement came on stage last night during a set of back-to-back private concerts at The Smell in Los Angeles, with fans in attendance breaking the news online.
A video on Instagram depicts Lucy Dacus telling the crowd, “This is our last show, and we’re feeling it.” Another fan tweeted that the musicians said they were “going away for the foreseeable future.” Billboard reached out to the band’s representatives, who confirmed that the group would be stepping away, but gave no further details.
While boygenius has taken a hiatus before, after their 2018 self-title debut the group took a break for all three musicians to explore solo careers before joining back together in 2023, this news is still tough to bear! The last year has felt like a meteoric rise for the band. They were everywhere, on stage dancing in very little clothes at Coachella, opening for Taylor Swift during her juggernaut Eras Tour, selling out their own concert at Madison Square Garden (to the tune of over 19500 seats!!) with MUNA. And while that is impressive on its own, what has mattered most is that everywhere boygenius went — they opened up space for sapphic and queer joy in their wake. As Gabrielle Grace Hogan wrote in her review of their Madison Square Garden Concert for Autostraddle, boygenius’ music “remind[s] me, remind[s] us, that we do not have to suffer, and that even in our suffering, we are not alone. That the love queer folks can have for another is the most beautiful love one can achieve.”
When talking about boygeinus in the Autostraddle office today, the first thing that came up was how their concerts felt like sapphic gathering spaces, at a time when we are losing those kinds of spaces left and right. Of course it’s not boygenius’ responsibility alone to keep that torch going — that responsibility falls to us. But, still, that sense of loss compounds each time news like this hits. One fan online summed it up best:
boygenius said they’re going away for the foreseeable future. pic.twitter.com/SBZPEOVxje
— SITA (@raspberhrriies) February 2, 2024
Over the last year, boygenius released not only their first full-length album, The Record, but also a four-track EP, The Rest. With The Record boygenius had their first entry on the Billboard 200, eventually peaking at No. 4 and staying on the chart for a total of 15 weeks. That is a rare, especially for a queer band!! It deserves to be celebrated. And I hope that this weekend boygenius gets all their due recognition at the Grammys, where in addition to Album of The Year they are also nominated for Best Alternative Music Album and Record of the Year for their single “Not Strong Enough.” The last year of pop music has been gay as hell, and boygenius’ fingerprints are the very core of what made it so special.
“I think people know this is a rarity and that there’s no guarantee that it’ll continue,” Lucy Dacus told Billboard during an interview with the band in April. And it’s true that in life there are no guarantees (though I hope boygenius doesn’t let this “indefinite” hiatus last too long), but this moment? This moment right here? It’s been so damn special to savor.
I’m wishing the boys all the best.
This isn’t really a surprise, as they’ve been saying for months that they likely won’t continue indefinitely in their current state, and acknowledged that the synergy and specificity of their music functions in large part because it is fueled by their distinct solo careers (which were already well underway before they became a group in 2018) and songwriting. I have hope this isn’t the end of their road… “indefinite” just means they don’t have set plans. I just hope we don’t have to wait 5 years for the next album! And in the meantime I will cherish the show I attended as among the most joyful, queer, and feelings forward experiences of my year.
I should have led with: even if it’s not a surprise it still stings! telling myself I can always do without it, knowing that it probably isn’t true…. : thanks for covering this, Carmen!
Agreed! A lot of the promotion around their first album focused on promoting boygenius as supergroup and that’s what I’ve always seen them as. Their ep cover is even a nod to Crosby, Stills & Nash. This likely means more amazing music coming out x3 which is so exciting! They all collaborate on each others solo stuff, their solo tours are often close together and the do alot of the same fesitivals. I’m taking this as good news.
This is our last show, and we’re felling it.”
Did you mean feeling?
I did! Thank you for the catch on the typo. I’ll get it fixed.