Just three days after concluding their year-long international tour, boygenius took home three Awards at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards. The supergroup, comprised of Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus, reached new levels of success this year upon the release of their album, the record. Selling out venues across the world, boygenius captivated crowds with their melancholy, indie-rock sound and the genuine friendship at the core of their band.
The boygenius trio, all artists of the indie genre, didn’t begin their music careers together. They are considered a “supergroup” because Dacus, Baker, and Bridgers have all led successful musical careers prior to the formation of boygenius. However, the three had admired each others’ work well before the release of their self-titled EP in 2018. After their 2018 North American tour, they parted ways to continue their solo careers. The group remained friends and even featured each other on their respective albums.
In 2023, boygenius announced they would be releasing The Record, their first full album as a band. The Record and the international tour that followed expanded on the previous success of boygenius’ first EP and the popularity their individual careers had acquired. Boygenius has a broad fanbase largely comprised of teenage girls and young women. Although they are not the first to do so, boygenius consistently pushes the boundaries of gender, both inside and outside of the music industry. Society often creates a false sense of competition between female musicians, and boygenius was formed, in part, to combat those norms. Throughout their careers as a band, boygenius has consistently highlighted the strong friendship that is the base of their group. Their positive representation of female friendship and platonic love has resonated with many fans and sets boygenius apart from other musical groups.
Additionally, Dacus, Baker, and Bridgers are all openly queer, and they cater to a queer fanbase. The trio jokingly goes by “the boys,” and they frequently experiment with gender expression in their wardrobe, group aesthetic, and other aspects of their brand. For many fans, boygenius’ unapologetic celebration of identity and experimentation is central to their impact as a supergroup.
As boygenius’ international tour came to a close, many fans wondered: what happens next? Many hoped the group would continue to make music together, but others felt that it was inevitable for Bridgers, Dacus, and Baker to return to their solo careers. On Thursday, February 1st, at a surprise performance in Los Angeles, the group confirmed that they would be going their separate ways “for the foreseeable future.” Fans quickly flocked to social media, expressing their disappointment, as well as their hope for future collaborations from the boygenius trio. As Abbie Deng ’25 put it, “I know they’re going to come back because they’re just working on solo music for now. That’s what happened last time,” referring to the five-year hiatus after the release of boygenius’ first EP. The band hasn’t hinted at a timeline for if or when they’ll return. Still, given their exceptional group chemistry and boygenius’ tremendous popularity, it seems likely that the trio’s individual careers will intersect again at some point.