diff --git a/frontend/index.ts b/frontend/index.ts
index cdaf1c9..f5b1f6b 100644
--- a/frontend/index.ts
+++ b/frontend/index.ts
@@ -67,6 +67,7 @@ import '@store/theme-store';
 import './src/services/keyboard-shortcut-service';
 import { activateView, deactivateView } from '@utils/view-lifecycle';
 import { installLongPressContextMenu } from '@utils/long-press';
+import { openQueue, queuePanelElement } from '@utils/open-queue';
 import { installTopBarFit } from './src/services/top-bar-fit';
 import {
     hasTrackPayload,
@@ -336,6 +337,33 @@ window.addEventListener('popstate', (e: PopStateEvent) => {
     void handleNavigate({ ...nav, _isBack: true });
 });
 
+/**
+ * The queue, while it is a screen (#55).
+ *
+ * It is *not* in `VIEW_TAGS` and *not* in `DETAIL_LOADERS`: there is
+ * nothing to mount, because the panel is already in the document and,
+ * as an overlay, already occupies `.main-panel`'s rect exactly. What a
+ * navigation adds is the two things that make a screen a screen — a
+ * history entry, so the platform's back gesture answers it, and a
+ * destination to leave, so navigating anywhere else takes it away.
+ *
+ * Keeping it out of both tables is what keeps its context menu working
+ * on the reference device: `.main-panel > *` is paint-contained and a
+ * `wa-popup` falls back to `position: fixed` on Chrome 113, which
+ * escapes overflow but not containment (#60). The panel stays in
+ * `.content-area`, which is not paint-contained, exactly as it is
+ * today.
+ */
+const QUEUE_VIEW = 'queue';
+
+/** Close a queue that is being navigated away from. A *column* is not
+ *  a place, so it survives a navigation the way the sidebar does. */
+function dismissQueueScreen(): void {
+    const panel = queuePanelElement();
+
+    if (panel?.hasAttribute('overlay')) panel.removeAttribute('open');
+}
+
 async function handleNavigate(
     detail: { view: string; [key: string]: any },
 ): Promise<void> {
@@ -347,6 +375,25 @@ async function handleNavigate(
 
     if (!detail._isBack) recordNavigation(detail);
 
+    if (view === QUEUE_VIEW) {
+        // The shell says where the user is; `false` because the queue is
+        // not a primary view, so nothing in either nav lights while it
+        // is up -- the same rule a detail view gets, and the reason the
+        // tab the queue was opened from stays lit.
+        activeViewStore.setView(view, false);
+        queuePanelElement()?.setAttribute('open', '');
+
+        // Deliberately not `searchStore.setCurrentView` and not
+        // `dataset.activeView`: both describe what is *in the main
+        // panel*, and the queue covers that panel without replacing it.
+        // Overwriting either would disable the search box belonging to
+        // the page underneath and make every `data-active-view`
+        // selector in the suite disagree with the element it names.
+        return;
+    }
+
+    dismissQueueScreen();
+
     // Bookkeeping stays synchronous with the click: the search box's
     // scope and the active-view attribute describe the navigation that
     // was *asked for*, and are what the rest of the app and the e2e
@@ -631,13 +678,17 @@ const queuePanel = document.getElementById('queue-panel') as HTMLElement | null;
 
 if (queueButton && queuePanel) {
     queueButton.addEventListener('click', () => {
-        const isOpen = queuePanel.hasAttribute('open');
-
-        if (isOpen) {
+        if (queuePanel.hasAttribute('open')) {
+            // Closing goes through the panel either way; where the queue
+            // is a screen the observer below is what unwinds its history
+            // entry, so this button, Escape, the scrim and the close
+            // button all take the same route out.
             queuePanel.removeAttribute('open');
-        } else {
-            queuePanel.setAttribute('open', '');
+
+            return;
         }
+
+        openQueue();
     });
 
     // The button says whether the panel is open, and it learns that
@@ -655,7 +706,39 @@ if (queueButton && queuePanel) {
         );
     };
 
-    new MutationObserver(reflectQueueState).observe(queuePanel, {
+    /**
+     * Keep the back stack honest about a queue that closed itself.
+     *
+     * Where the queue is a screen its `open` attribute and the current
+     * history entry are two statements of one fact, and the panel can
+     * change its half on its own -- Escape, the scrim, the close button,
+     * and anything added later. Reconciling here rather than at each of
+     * those is the same reason this observer already exists for
+     * `aria-expanded`: the attribute is the one fact, and a state kept
+     * beside a click is right until something else changes it.
+     *
+     * Without this the entry is orphaned and the *next* back press is
+     * the one that closes the queue -- a press that appears to do
+     * nothing, which is the defect this issue is about, moved one press
+     * later.
+     *
+     * `history.back()` rather than a stack of our own, for the reason
+     * `navigate-back` does: two stacks is how a component's own way out
+     * and the phone's gesture come to disagree about what one press
+     * means.
+     */
+    const reconcileQueueHistory = () => {
+        if (queuePanel.hasAttribute('open')) return;
+
+        const state = history.state as NavState | null;
+
+        if (state?.yjNav?.view === QUEUE_VIEW) history.back();
+    };
+
+    new MutationObserver(() => {
+        reflectQueueState();
+        reconcileQueueHistory();
+    }).observe(queuePanel, {
         attributes: true,
         attributeFilter: ['open'],
     });
diff --git a/frontend/src/components/now-playing-view/now-playing-view.ts b/frontend/src/components/now-playing-view/now-playing-view.ts
index ac55cd7..d426dd3 100644
--- a/frontend/src/components/now-playing-view/now-playing-view.ts
+++ b/frontend/src/components/now-playing-view/now-playing-view.ts
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ import { FavoritesController } from '@store/controllers/favorites-controller';
 import { designTokens } from '../../styles/tokens.css';
 import { srOnly } from '../../styles/sr-only.css';
 import { ICON_QUEUE } from '@utils/icon-language';
+import { openQueue as showQueue } from '@utils/open-queue';
 
 /**
  * What is playing, at the size a phone has room for (plan 016 B2,
@@ -226,13 +227,15 @@ export class NowPlayingView extends LitElement {
      *
      * This view hides the bottom bar (index.css), and the bar is where
      * the queue button lives -- so without this, going full-screen
-     * would take the queue away. It toggles the same `open` attribute
+     * would take the queue away. It goes through the same helper
      * `index.ts` does, because the panel's state is an attribute on one
      * element and a second mechanism for it is a second thing to keep
-     * in step.
+     * in step -- which is exactly what this button was: it set `open`
+     * directly, so on a phone it produced a queue with no history entry
+     * behind it and back moved the page underneath instead (#55).
      */
     private openQueue() {
-        document.getElementById('queue-panel')?.setAttribute('open', '');
+        showQueue();
     }
 
     private toggleFavorite() {
diff --git a/frontend/src/utils/open-queue.ts b/frontend/src/utils/open-queue.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..65e7d33
--- /dev/null
+++ b/frontend/src/utils/open-queue.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+/**
+ * Opening the queue, from the two buttons that do it.
+ *
+ * **The queue is a place while it is covering the content, and a
+ * control while it sits beside it** (#55). Those are not two components
+ * and not two mount points — they are the two presentations #24 already
+ * computes, and this is the one line that turns that measurement into a
+ * navigation decision.
+ *
+ * A column is a thing the user docked: back must not undock it, and
+ * navigating to Albums must not take it away. An overlay is a screen —
+ * at the reference device's 424x439 it is 424x318, which is
+ * `.main-panel`'s rect exactly — so it needs the two things a screen
+ * has and this one did not: an entry in the back stack, and a way out
+ * that answers the platform's own gesture. Measured before this existed:
+ * opening the queue on Artists and pressing back moved the page
+ * *underneath* to Albums and left the queue up.
+ *
+ * The mode is read off the panel rather than from a viewport width, for
+ * the reason `queue-panel.overlay` is computed at all: the panel is
+ * drag-resizable between 200 and 500px and persisted, so a breakpoint
+ * is wrong by up to 180px in the direction that hurts.
+ */
+export function queuePanelElement(): HTMLElement | null {
+    return document.getElementById('queue-panel');
+}
+
+/** Whether the queue is currently a screen rather than a column. */
+export function queueIsAScreen(): boolean {
+    return queuePanelElement()?.hasAttribute('overlay') ?? false;
+}
+
+/**
+ * Show the queue: a navigation where it is a screen, an attribute where
+ * it is a column.
+ *
+ * Both routes end at the same `open` attribute on the same element —
+ * `index.ts` handles `navigate {view: 'queue'}` by setting it — because
+ * the panel's state is one fact and a second mechanism for it is a
+ * second thing to keep in step.
+ */
+export function openQueue(): void {
+    if (queueIsAScreen()) {
+        document.dispatchEvent(new CustomEvent('navigate', {
+            bubbles: true,
+            composed: true,
+            detail: { view: 'queue' },
+        }));
+
+        return;
+    }
+
+    queuePanelElement()?.setAttribute('open', '');
+}
diff --git a/frontend/test/utils/open-queue.test.ts b/frontend/test/utils/open-queue.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..03ed5cb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/frontend/test/utils/open-queue.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,101 @@
+/**
+ * Opening the queue is a *navigation* where the queue is a screen, and
+ * an *attribute* where it is a column (#55).
+ *
+ * This is the one decision in that change, so it is pinned at the tier
+ * that can state it without a shell: the mode is read off the panel's
+ * own `overlay` attribute — which #24 computes from the measured widths
+ * — and never from a viewport breakpoint. A breakpoint would silently
+ * assume the default 320px panel and be wrong by up to 180px for a user
+ * who has dragged it wide, in the direction that hurts.
+ *
+ * What this tier cannot see is the other half: that the entry is
+ * unwound when the panel closes, which lives in the shell's mutation
+ * observer. `e2e/specs/queue-as-a-screen.spec.ts` is where that is
+ * asserted, and it is asserted as *two* back presses rather than one.
+ */
+import { afterEach, describe, expect, it } from 'vitest';
+
+import { openQueue, queueIsAScreen } from '@utils/open-queue';
+
+function panel(overlay: boolean): HTMLElement {
+    const el = document.createElement('div');
+
+    el.id = 'queue-panel';
+    if (overlay) el.setAttribute('overlay', '');
+    document.body.appendChild(el);
+
+    return el;
+}
+
+function recordNavigations(): string[] {
+    const seen: string[] = [];
+    const listener = (e: Event) => {
+        seen.push((e as CustomEvent).detail.view);
+    };
+
+    document.addEventListener('navigate', listener);
+    cleanup.push(() => document.removeEventListener('navigate', listener));
+
+    return seen;
+}
+
+const cleanup: Array<() => void> = [];
+
+afterEach(() => {
+    while (cleanup.length) cleanup.pop()!();
+    document.getElementById('queue-panel')?.remove();
+});
+
+describe('opening the queue', () => {
+    it('navigates where the queue covers the content', () => {
+        const el = panel(true);
+        const seen = recordNavigations();
+
+        expect(queueIsAScreen()).toBe(true);
+
+        openQueue();
+
+        expect(seen).toEqual(['queue']);
+        // The shell answers the navigation by setting the attribute, so
+        // the helper deliberately does *not* set it as well: two
+        // mechanisms for one fact is two things to keep in step, which
+        // is what `now-playing-view`'s copy of this button was.
+        expect(el.hasAttribute('open')).toBe(false);
+    });
+
+    it('sets the attribute where the queue is a column', () => {
+        const el = panel(false);
+        const seen = recordNavigations();
+
+        expect(queueIsAScreen()).toBe(false);
+
+        openQueue();
+
+        // A column is a thing the user docked. Back must not undock it,
+        // so it is not a history entry and therefore not a navigation.
+        expect(seen).toEqual([]);
+        expect(el.hasAttribute('open')).toBe(true);
+    });
+
+    it('follows the panel rather than the viewport', () => {
+        const el = panel(false);
+        const seen = recordNavigations();
+
+        openQueue();
+        expect(seen).toEqual([]);
+
+        // Nothing about the window changed; the panel got wider, which
+        // is exactly the case a media query cannot express.
+        el.removeAttribute('open');
+        el.setAttribute('overlay', '');
+
+        openQueue();
+        expect(seen).toEqual(['queue']);
+    });
+
+    it('says the queue is not a screen when there is no panel at all', () => {
+        expect(queueIsAScreen()).toBe(false);
+        expect(() => openQueue()).not.toThrow();
+    });
+});