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.
