A little while ago, I shared some of my favourite queens from the well known show RuPaul's Drag Race. It's done huge service to the Drag community all over the world, helping massively boost the profile and popularity of drag queens and the art of drag and inspiring even more to dive into it too! I'm so unbelievably grateful to this show for opening doors for drag performers. While drag has been around for longer than anyone can really race back, in recent years, thanks to shows like Drag Race, drag has really hit the mainstream and given us all opportunities we have not have had before! The cast of the show each season enjoy gigs and tours all over the world and people pay good money for shows and meets and greets with them, which was amazing! I've been to a few, I know how amazing it al is, but let's take a look at some of my drag heroes that you won't have seen on Drag Race...
1. Chris D'Bray
A northern performer who I believe has been in showbiz for over 40 years, which is amazing she's only 35! There's so much I can say, but I don't feel like I could ever do her justice - She was the main queen that I’d had up close experience of when I was younger, as she would come over to my neighbourhood every week to DJ and entertain with fantastic taste in music, side-splitting humour and amazing routines, even sometimes doing an actual fire eating spectacular!
I’ve not actually had a chance to see Chris since I started doing drag, but at some point, I’d love to sit and have a good catch-up as it’s been far too long! She’s sort of like the Cilla Black of Drag, which is pretty amazing! I can’t say enough about this queen’s fabulousness!
2. Misty Chance
Another queen I’m delighted to call my friend, Misty is one of the Manchester area’s busiest and most well known queens! We know each other from the Star Trek convention scene and her faithful reproductions of looks from Trek’s various incarnations are really something to behold! I first saw her in 2012 at the London convention dressed as Queen Arachnia from a Voyager episode that paid tribute to black and white classic sci-fi movies – her look was incredible and I was in awe ever since! I’ve seen her do all sorts, including Lwaxana Troi and Discovery’s ‘Number one’ and each one is as fabulous as the last! If you get a chance to see one of this platinum goddess’s nights, do NOT miss it!
Misty’s love of al things nerdy comes through as she’s widely known for her themed quiz nights too! What a gal!
3: Vicky Vox
The only queen on this list from the other side of the Atlantic, Vicky is often on rumoured cast lists for Drag Race, but has never actually been on the show, it’s not like she needs it, apparently always being busy and being at the top of her game! She’s enjoyed amazing popularity as a solo act and also part of the drag girl group ‘DWV’ alongside Drag Race favourites Detox and Willam and has toured all over the world. She’s also pretty active on social media and really engages with her fans, which is another one of the things that makes her so popular! She’s hilarious, a fabulous singer and a brilliant performer. Her performance of ‘The Alphabet Song’ that Patti Labelle once did on Sesame Street is a performance to behold!
4: The Viaduct Showgirls
Now, I know this isn’t a single queen, but these girls would take up a whole list of their own, so I’ve decided to count the showgirls as one entry for the purposes of this list, though each one is more than worthy of a feature of their own. I’m probably slightly out of date, as it’s a few years since I’ve visited the amazing Viaduct Showbar in Leeds, so I’m not even sure what the current line-up is, but the queens I’ve been lucky enough to see perform and have contact with have been absolutely amazing – Not just as performers, but as beautiful individuals too! Mystique, Iva Bouquet and Uma Daze were kind enough to give me some fabulous pointers when I was starting out and I’m eternally grateful to them for being so fabulously supportive of a queen starting out. Many queens out there wouldn’t take the time to talk to someone they didn’t know about starting out in the industry and to have queens at the top of their game willing to take the time to do that is really special and something I’ll always remember.
The shows at Viaduct are slick, highly choreographed, fantastically costumed and immaculately presented. Everything I’ve ever seen there has a huge ‘wow’ factor and the queens I’ve already mentioned, along with the gorgeous Precious McMichaels and Anja Bach, really know how to put on a show! It ay have been about four years since I’ve been there, but next time I can find an excuse to pop to Leeds, it’s my first stop! I’ve never seen one venue have such a concentration of talent in one place!
5: Lola Lasagne
Lola’s been in the game a long time, but has never lost her sparkle! She sings, she serves glam and has a massive heart! I’ve been aware of Lola for a good while, but finally had a chance to see her perform in January and also shared a dressing room with her and she couldn’t have been more welcoming and kind! I’d been a little afraid of sharing a dressing room and performing next to such long-standing, experienced and adored entertainers and was terrified that they wouldn’t see me as on their level, but it turns out my fears were completely unfounded, as Lola greeted me so warmly and introduced me to everyone I needed to meet to make my performance run smoothly, which was great, as I can actually be pretty shy behind the scenes.
This lady knows how to captivate a crowd and good god, she’s got stamina, often working night after night in different cities around the UK. Most of us regular mortals would crumble under a schedule like that, but Ms Lasagne handles it with ease and always delivers a brilliant performance and somehow produces the energy out of nowhere!
6: Brenda LaBeau
Brenda is a hell of a presence! To take a look at her, at first sight, you almost expect her to just be a ‘look’ queen – Always immaculately turned out, often in a trademark ‘up-do’ and glitzy dress and accessorised to the nines, she’s dripping in glamour, poise, elegance and professionalism. But then, when she raises that microphone and starts to sing, you realise the looks were far from all she has to offer! I was blown away! You have to see her performance of ‘Suddenly Seymour’ from ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ to believe it as she sings the male and female parts seamlessly – all live – and somehow even managed to do harmonies and Broadway-worthy high notes and belts!
Adding even more impressive talents to the list, she designs and sews all her own outfits, makes her own jewellery that would make Harry Winston jealous an is a renowned wig-mistress, with from all over itching to get a wig styled by her! There seems to be no end to what Brenda’s capable of!
So, there’s some of my heroes of drag that haven’t featured on Drag Race for whatever reason! As queens, people constantly ask us when we’re going to be on the show and that’s bound to happen as it’s so big, though it’s not necessarily everyone’s goal. While it may be something some of us would gladly consider when the time is right, others are more than happy forging their own path – and both perspectives are absolutely fine! It’s not like you’d ask Cher why she’s never competed on X-Factor!
The point is, there’s plenty of talent outside the sphere of Drag Race that often gets overlooked when there’s so many Ru-girls around, but you can find incredible performers all over the place, often without having to pay a hefty ticket price. So, get out there and support your local queens! You’re missing out if you don’t!
Stay Safe, Stay Sane, Stay Vidalicious x
