| Sumario: | This article analyzes the vocal performance of two queer Dominican music groups: Rita Indiana y los Misterios (the merengue alternativo project of the writer and performer Rita Indiana Hernández) and Mula (an alternative and electronic music trio). Focusing on key songs alongside audience interaction during live performances, I showcase how their innovative musical work is embedded in a practice of bringing queer music and queered sounds "out of the closet." I argue that their vocal productions draw out the queered roots of nationalized and mainstreamed music genres such as merengue, bachata, reggaetón, and salsa, sketching a rubric of trans-Caribbean sonic network of lesbian desire. Finally, I claim that their LGBTQ+ audiences engage in forms of listening that enact transgressive understandings about music performances in Dominican and Puerto Rican cultural histories.
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