There are some artists whose journeys feel particularly special to witness, and for EQ Music, MNEK will always be one of them.
We’ll never forget receiving an email from him when he was just 14 years old, personally introducing us to his music. Long before he became the Grammy-nominated songwriter and producer behind hits for some of the biggest names in pop, MNEK was a genuine music-blog devotee who religiously read EQ Music. Even then, the talent and ambition were impossible to miss.
We subsequently spent years pestering him to perform at EQ Music Live, but the timing never quite worked. By that point, his career as an in-demand songwriter was already taking off at considerable speed. Years later, while we were covering Betty Who at Mighty Hoopla, MNEK spotted us and made a point of coming over to say hello and thank us. He absolutely didn’t have to do that, but the gesture stayed with us.
All of which makes watching MNEK grow from a precociously talented bedroom songwriter into one of British pop’s fiercest and most important queer voices feel incredibly rewarding.
His latest single, “MUSCLE MARYS..,” represents another striking step in that evolution. Lifted from his forthcoming sophomore album BULLDOZER!!, the breezy, UK garage-inflected track explores body image, desirability and the particular kind of superficiality that can permeate gay dating culture.
Muscle Marys may be sliding into MNEK’s DMs, but underneath the flirtation sits a much more vulnerable question: are they interested in the person behind the music, confidence and public persona—or merely what they see on the outside?
MNEK has described the song as an attempt to articulate what many larger men experience when navigating their bodies and desirability. It is an achingly relatable subject for the LGBTQ+ community, where the journey towards accepting yourself can be made considerably harder by a culture that often treats bodies like categories on a dating app.
Musically, “MUSCLE MARYS..” feels light, fluid and immediately infectious. That buoyancy provides a clever contrast to its emotional weight. MNEK doesn’t turn the track into a solemn self-esteem anthem; instead, he allows vulnerability, humour, lust and uncertainty to occupy the same space. It feels honest because it doesn’t pretend that learning to love your body is a journey with a neat and permanent conclusion.
And in the Ben Galster-directed video, MNEK bares all—quite literally.
Set inside a gym, the visual moves through workouts, changing rooms and a particularly cheeky communal shower scene populated by a parade of muscular, scantily clad men. But beneath all the flesh and homoerotic fun is something far more intimate. MNEK places his own body at the centre of the video, appearing shirtless and ultimately wearing little more than a thong.
For an artist who has spoken openly about never imagining he would appear shirtless in a music video, it feels less like provocation for provocation’s sake and more like a genuine act of liberation. The Muscle Marys may surround him, but MNEK refuses to disappear among them or present their bodies as the only ones worthy of being desired.
That is where the video lands its biggest punch. It acknowledges the appeal of the sculpted gym body without allowing it to become the sole definition of beauty. MNEK is funny, sexy, exposed and completely in command of the frame. The result is celebratory without glossing over the insecurity sitting beneath the song.
“MUSCLE MARYS..” follows “REVERSE!!” and “OH NO!! ALL THE BOYS!!” as the third taste of BULLDOZER!!, MNEK’s first full-length album since 2018’s Language. The 11-track record arrives on 18 September and, judging by what we have heard so far, promises to be his boldest and most unapologetically queer body of work yet.
We have watched MNEK develop through many different chapters—from the 14-year-old songwriter introducing himself by email to the accomplished artist now confidently putting his body, sexuality and vulnerability on screen. “MUSCLE MARYS..” brings that journey into sharp focus.
The boy who once sat at home reading music blogs has grown into exactly the kind of artist those blogs were created to champion.