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Remembering Remarkable Queens

Mother Marsha in 1987, Photo by: Stanley Stellar, @stanley.stellar

Some queens go beyond their wigs, outfits, and flawless makeup to redefining drag, fashion and culture all while challenging stereotypes and stigmas around gender, race and sexuality. Indeed, most of us would feel blessed if we accomplished half of their achievements in our lifetime. Here, at GiGi, we wanted to honour just some of these queens of queens. With so many memorable queens who have roamed this earth and gifted us with their humour, personalities, talent, beauty, and more, it was quite the challenge selecting only four to focus on. Time can’t erase the impact these icons have made and the footprints they have left. Starting with, yours truly, Divine!  

Divine

Photo by Albert Watson, Divine, New York City, 1978.

Born Harris Glenn Milstead in 1945, Baltimore, and renowned the “drag queen of the century” by People Magazine upon his death in 1988; you may not believe it but in his childhood, Divine was a bit of an outcast and a shy kid. It wasn’t until the age of 16 when he met underground filmmaker John Waters; also known as “The Pope of Trash” according to writer William Burroughs, that Divine flourished. Waters wanted her to be the Godzilla of drag queens, calling her the “most beautiful woman in the world, almost”. Together, this dynamic duo gave rise to transgressive and delightfully trashy films such as Pink Flamingo, Serial Mom, Multiple Maniacs, Hairspray and many other pictures where Divine proved herself to be a talented actress. The queen was also a club performer, successfully producing various singles in the 1970s and 80s such as ‘I’m So Beautiful’ and even appeared on the U.K music show Top of the Pops with her song ‘You Think You’re A Man’.

Divine was iconic, unapologetically big, and self-consciously vulgar. As far as her looks went, it was very in-your-face and aggressive with ostentatious makeup looks and outfits that flaunted her curves; redefining the conventions of drag and challenging who was allowed to perform gender and how. “Divine took a bigger-than-life character… I think she made RuPaul possible,” says Film Historian George Figgs in Divine’s 1998 documentary. Similarly, in Harper’s Bazaar, drag queen Psycadella Facade speculates how we could’ve had Divine’s Drag Race instead of RuPaul’s had Divine’s success not been cut short. At only 42 years old, in 1988, Divine was found dead at the Regency Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles from a heart attack.

Although Divine considered herself more of an actor than a drag queen, her influence was ample. Not only did she fearlessly shift drag from beauty pageant styles, but she also was the inspiration for the villain, Ursula, from Little Mermaid– very few of us can say they have a Disney character influenced by them. Divine is even displayed as a 10-foot statue in the American Museum of Visionary Art in Baltimore. She is a legend with one hell of a personality who daringly paved the way for many queens to come. She is simply, and truly divine.

Marsha P. Johnson

Photo from @payitnomind

Born Malcolm Michaels Jr. in 1945, New Jersey, Marsha was and continues to be a prominent figure in the LGBTQIA+ community. As an outspoken advocate of gay rights in the 1969 Stonewall uprising, she’s considered by many as the forefront of the gay liberation movement in the United States. She is also the co-founder of the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR), helping homeless transgender youth.

In addition to being an activist, Johnson was also a drag queen, sex worker and a prevalent part of street life in New York’s Greenwich Village where she relocated in 1966 to find herself, with one bag of clothes and $15 dollars to her name. During this transition period, she was initially referred to as Malcolm and Black Marsha. Later, she settled on Marsha P. Johnson, the “P” standing for “Pay It No Mind”; a phrase she used when asked about her gender as a gender-nonconforming individual during a time where this was not widespread or acceptable.

With a liking for feminine clothing since she was five years old, Marsha found tremendous joy in being a drag queen, quickly establishing her presence in the village through her vibrant outfits which she would tend to scavenge for in rubbish bins. She was usually seen wearing bright red heels, colorful wigs rendered with artificial fruits and flowers sourced from the streets of Manhattan’s Flower District, stacks of jewelry and glittering dresses. She occasionally performed on stage in ‘high drag’, but primarily in grassroots groups such as the drag performance group Hot Peaches whom she successfully toured the world with. 

Marsha’s body was found in the Hudson River in 1992, soon after the Pride parade. Initially ruled as a suicide, the case has been reopened as a possible murder. Despite her tragic death, her legacy lives on and her story of determination in the face of oppression echoes to this day.

“I’d like to let you know Marsha, that your fire never went out. I see it on the streets, in the bars and dance floors, on the piers. I see it in the eyes of those who are fearlessly themselves. I see it in black and brown queer and trans people. Marsha, your fire never went out. It spread like wildfire and set us ablaze. I will fight for you forever, Marsha,” says West Dakota, a Brooklyn-based drag queen said to possess a star quality to rival Lady Gaga, according to Vogue. 

Mario Montez

Photo by Conrad Ventur- @conrad.ventur

Born René Rivera in 1935, Puerto Rico, but New York made, Mario Montez, whose name is a homage to the iconic Dominican actress, Maria Montez; was a substantial influence in the history of film, theatre, art and queer performance. His poised and glamorous drag made him a successful figure in the avant-garde, camp, and underground film culture in the 60s, becoming a fixture in films by Andy Warhol as his first drag “superstar” and a favourite of artist Jack Smith.

Presented with a lifetime achievement award in queer film by the Berlin International Film Festival and crowned “the great drag superstar,” Montez was a sought-after actor, making appearances in 13 films by Andy Warhol such as Harlot, Camp, More Milk, Yvette and The Chelsea Girls as well as in Flaming Creatures and the unfinished film, Normal Love by Jack Smith. Other features included films by Puerto Rican filmmaker José Rodríguez-Soltero and Brazilian visual artist Hélio Oiticica.

As a member of Charles Ludlam’s Ridiculous Theater Company, Montez would design and make costumes for himself as well as other cast members by refashioning clothing found at thrift shops and trash piles which he labelled, “Montez Creations”. On stage, he was known for his timely humour, over-the-top acting and versatility in capturing the essence of femininity independent of what role he was playing. “Whether he is playing The Wife, The Mother, The Whore or The Virgin, Montez captures the ineffable essence of femininity,” says Charles Ludlam, founder of the Ridiculous Theatrical Company.

Although Montez performed in drag, as a devout Roman Catholic, his relationship with drag was an intricate one, calling it “going into costume” and being fearful of revealing this to his family. According to Warhol in the book, Popism, “The only spiritual comfort he allowed himself was the logic that even though God surely didn’t like him for going into drag, that still, if he really hated him, he would have struck him dead.”

This queen, fascinated with the Hollywood glitz and considered a royal in the world of underground filmmaking, was every inch a star, one which shines to this day. Bringing drag to the theatre as well as representation for Latinos in the US cinema with his striking performances.

Montez died in 2013 in Key West, Florida, at the age of 78. The cause according to Claire K. Henry, senior curatorial assistant of the Andy Warhol Film Project, was complications of a stroke.

Sylvester

Sylvester in Golden Gate Park, 1971. Photo by Fayette Hauser
‘The Cockettes; Acid Drag & Sexual Anarchy, 1969-1972’.

Born Sylvester James in 1947, Los Angeles, this queen is the creator of one of disco’s impermeable classics, an everlasting Pride anthem and a groundbreaking hit in Pop history, You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)’. One of the first openly gender fluid musicians, Sylvester embraced the gender spectrum at a time not particularly warm to the LGBTQIA+ community. His emotive and soaring falsetto voice was rooted in Gospel and Blues, creating a template that was long followed into the future by the Pop industry.

His life as a musician began at a young age during his church choir performances at regional Gospel Music events. Later as a teenager, Sylvester joined The Disquotays, a group of passionate and fearless black teenage drag queens, “somewhere between a street gang and a sorority house,” says a previous member to The Guardian. The group would courageously defy California’s law against public cross-dressing by wandering the streets in full-drag and throwing scandalous parties. They also joined the 1965 Watts riots, a series of violent confrontations by Los Angeles police and residents of Watts, caused by the arrest of an African American man by a white California Highway Patrol officer on suspicion of driving while intoxicated.

Outrageously gay, Sylvester was all about high fashion drama. He flaunted fur coats, satin and disco sequins in his soulful performances where he was known for his movie-like stage entrances. Ironically, he preferred to work with straight musicians as he would say, “There’s only room for one queen in this band and I’m it.” Despite his preference, in 1969 when he moved to San Francisco, Sylvester was invited to join the cabaret troupe, The Cockettes. There, he was given a star spot in one of their revues, signing ‘The Big City Blues’, becoming their main attraction. However, with critics not embracing the group’s stage insanity but Sylvester’s authentic Blues, he decided to go solo.

In addition to ‘You Make Me Feel’, he made other successful records such as ‘Dance Stars’, ‘Do Ya Wanna Funk’ and a live album called Living Proof. It is hard to pinpoint the root of his success as simply a product of his extravagant personality or outrageous style, but many agree that it is the modern figure he would portray as a woman one day and man the other during an era when this was unheard of. “Sometimes, folks make us feel strange, but we’re not strange. And those folks – they’ll just have to catch up,” says Sylvester to a New York audience in 1978 while enjoying the fame his record had brought him. In 1988 and only 41 years old, Sylvester was found dead in his bed in San Francisco of complications from AIDS.

This era-transcending record means Sylvester’s relevance as a staple of the 70s-music industry, and gender anarchist is still “mighty real.” He was a rebel and radical visionary who turned everything that could be the basis of his marginalisation into superstardom. Not bad for a queen who was just “trying to get on the radio.” 

Want to know more about drag history, see our article on a little drag through history.

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The Drag Queens Revolutionising the Brazilian Music Industry

From marginalised groups to national and international stars, Brazilian drag singers are opening doors within the music industry, breaking barriers, and conquering spaces unlike anywhere else in the world.

It’s difficult to start any conversation about Brazil’s drag queens without mentioning the one and only, Pabllo Vittar. She is far from being the first drag queen in Brazil but surely is the first to reach such great heights in her career, initiated with her 2015 single, ‘Open Bar’; a Brazilian version of Major Lazor’s song, ‘Lean On’. Pabllo’s hit has over 70 million views on YouTube and at the time, was even shared by Diplo, the original producer of ‘Lean On’.

In addition to winning the nation’s heart, Pabllo has started to gain international recognition in the past four years. She’s performed in Coachella and Europe Music Awards and participated in significant collaborations with artists such as Major Lazer alongside the queen of Brazilian Pop, Anitta, in the 2017 hit, ‘Sua Cara’. Recently, she even became the world’s most-followed drag queen on every social media channel, with a total of 22 million followers combined.

Pabllo Vittar, has paved the way for many other queens within the music industry; with Aretuza Lovi, Gloria Groove, Kaya Conky, Lia Clark and many others following right behind her. In 2020, Gloria won hit of the year for her single ‘Deve ser Horrível Dormir Sem Mim’ for Prêmio Portal Music BR awards and Lia Clark’s latest single, ‘Eu Viciei’, increased her number of unique listeners by 530% with over two million views on YouTube. These queens are revolutionising the Brazilian music industry, shifting the spotlight and bringing visibility to the LGBTQIA + community in a society still very much defined by machismo: “I will not be hypocritical and say that the prejudice is ending. But it is something we’re fighting against,” says Pabllo.

The Brazilian music scene may bring you a tropical breeze of Bossa Nova or the drums of Carnaval and Samba, but these genres just scratch the surface of what is a thriving and diverse music scene. Music is integral to Brazil’s national identity and society; as different people sought home throughout Brazil, they established different music styles, each accompanied by a unique form of dance. While drag queens are primarily represented in Brazilian Pop, they flaunt their talents within other music styles such as Forró, Funk and Sertanejo, the most listened to genre in the nation.  

Now, without further ado, let us meet the phenomena of the Brazilian music industry-ladies and gentlemen, the queens who take composing, singing and performing to a whole new level! 

Reddy Allor and Sabrina Angel the Queens of Sertanejo

These incredibly talented queens are best known to fans of Sertanejo, a type of music originating from the countryside of Brazil in the 1920s. Its lyrics spoke of life in the countryside and later developed into Sertanejo Universitário, a sub-genre focusing on young-adult life and care-free relationships. Despite the rise of feminejo, a term used to describe the increase in female singers within the genre, this is a field still very much dominated by men. So, you can only imagine the challenges Reddy and Sabrina have faced and continue to battle when building this path for other upcoming queens.

As Reddy says, “For existing as LGBTQ+, we already suffer prejudice with stares, jokes and worse, so, it is inevitable that being a drag queen in Sertanejo has made me go through several difficult situations.”

Reddy, who recently released her newest album, ‘ASCENSAO’, started her career at a young age. As early as 12 years old, she began singing professionally in a duo with her brother. She later developed her dragnejo (a term combining drag and Sertanejo) career around 2018 with her single ‘Tira o Olho’ and was the only drag queen in the Sertanejo market at that time. “What inspired me was the desire to feel included, because I always loved Sertanejo but I never felt represented,” she says.

Reddy often sings of self-identity and self-reflection such as in her song ‘Deixa Ela Voar’ which speaks of a broken relationship and of letting her go and liberating her smile. “What I feel and how I feel it, I have always expressed myself through music,” she says. For her, the art of drag challenges gender stereotypes, and when combined with music, “allows for the message to arrive faster and in a way that moves people to a point where we start questioning our own lives.”

When asked to describe the movement with one word, Reddy chooses ‘resistance’. “This evolution is certainly happening and will not pass as a moment. We are here to show our existence and above all, resistance, as people and artists who deserve their space in the industry just like any other.”

For Sabrina who recently released ‘Video Chamada’, their roles go beyond entertainment. “We are here to deconstruct and contribute to society,” she says. “Having names that represent the LGBTQIA + community present on TV programs and on the charts has a significant objective. It shows a large portion of the population what happens in a sector that until recently, was very segmented and viewed with disdain by society. After all, what we all want is respect, equal rights and representation. We want to feel included, and end prejudice once and for all.” 

She reveals that producers and studios refused to record her songs and music clips. “When I would contact them introducing myself as a drag queen, they would increase the prices or say they had no available time slots. However, when I’d introduce myself without mentioning drag or anything related to the LGBTQIA+ community, I would find out that the price was four times lower and that they were available on the same day.”

For Sabrina, music allows her to learn and teach that drag queens, too, have their place and value in society as they do in the music industry. Her main goal with her art is to be happy. Secondly, she also wishes to touch people in some way. “When I realised that I could carry a message and be heard by uniting the two things I love, that is music with drag art, I had the certainty that this was my main way of contributing to our LGBTQIA+ community.”

A word that exemplifies the movement for Sabrina is ‘love’. “It is the love for our art, for our community and mainly for the desire and responsibility to make a difference in this society where the majority are sexist, transphobic, homophobic, and oppressive that we are increasingly producing music and clips, making our voices heard.”

Yara Aquino the Forró Diva

This Northeastern queen has recently entered the world of Forró, a popular type of music in the north of Brazil which originated in the end of the 19th century. The style is marked by the sound of the zabumba, a type of bass drum, and a combination of the triangle and accordion. It is represented by a dance between couples, who with bodies almost glued together, drag their feet on the floor.

Yara began her career only one year ago, mainly drawing inspiration from Pabllo Vittar, Gloria Groove and Lia Clark. Since, she has already released her first single, ‘YARA’, which tells a love story between her male alter ego and her drag persona being betrayed and manipulated by him; to later realising this and her journey overcoming it. Having grown up with the genre, Yara thanks it for moulding her into the person she has become; with every special moment in her life having a Forró soundtrack behind it. Even her name has references to Forró singers, Yara Tchê and Silvana Aquino.

For the future songs that Yara states are already written and ready to be released towards the end of this year, she hopes to convey the north-eastern culture in rhythm, aesthetics, and stories. “I have no interest in singing other genres, I want to bring and represent the northeast through Forró like the women I watched when I was a child, wanting to be them, to be on stage. And I hope I can make this dream come true.”

For this diva, the drag queens have arrived to completely change the Brazilian music industry. One word to describe this revolution is ‘innovation’. “I think that the drag singers are the future of music. They’re already shaping music both in its style and aesthetics, so for the future, drags in charge, always. I mean, they already are, but I would like to see more drags bringing new music and rhythms.”

Larissa Santel and Sarah Mitch Take Over Brazilian Pop

These drop-dead-gorgeous queens don’t go unnoticed when it comes to Brazilian Pop, a modern genre and important aspect of the Brazilian culture, popularising sounds and voices which were previously hidden in small niches.

For Larissa, who is soon to release her single at the end of May, Pop was where she found herself. Her eyes would shimmer while watching international Pop singers, hoping to one day, obtain the same success in Brazil. “I chose to work with Pop as it involves not only music but also dance, fashion and culture. It’s a genre that takes many musical styles from different regions to the public in a much more commercial way.”

She also says how the divas of Pop have always embraced the LGBTQIA+ community with Lady Gaga and ‘Born This Way’, a hymn for the drag community. Like many queens, she also praises Pabllo Vittar, Gloria Groove and Lia Clark for bringing visibility by making songs that extended beyond the community. “Drag art in Brazil is splendid, we have artists who overcome incredible barriers and I can’t wait for all of them to show their art to the world. And in the music industry, we already have incredible singers who unfortunately still do not have the space they deserve but are battling to achieve their place here in Brazil and in the world”. Larissa is doing just that, fighting for her art to be recognised, “We’re strong and we have to take every bump in the road with a smile and platform-15 high heels,” she says.

When it comes to Sarah, she knows the Pop industry from inside and out, having even been featured in legendary programs such as ‘Amor e Sexo’ from Rede Globo, a talk show with weekly guests who discuss topics and taboos related to love and sex. For her, the movement is surreal. “I come from a time when there wasn’t a place for drag and music. People thought I was crazy, wanting to sing live in the clubs 20 years ago! Then I saw Pabllo, and her success made me complete. Having this representation with such success, paved the way for a very relevant discussion in broad media channels. It’s surreal! It doesn’t matter the genre or theme of the songs, what matters is who is there appearing and singing them! This is very important for the LGBTQIA+ community. This is what really matters, besides putting everyone on the dance floor!”

Sarah always tries to convey a message in her music, be it profound or not. Her latest single, for example, ‘Janela’, talks about a personal loss. She also addresses those who simply seek “to dance”, for instance, with her 2013 song, ‘Bad Girl’

Both queens, coincidently, chose the word ‘warriors’ to describe the drag singers changing the industry. “In addition to the successful drags, there are hundreds of invisible artists who fight for space every day, just like me!” says Sarah. Similarly, Larissa focuses on the strength and determination needed to enter an industry that remains very closed to anything other than the norm, one which heavily excludes the drag community.

Lilo, Feminism and Funk

Similar to Lia Clark, Aretuza Lovi and Kaya Conky, Lilo is making history when it comes to Brazilian Funk. With its roots in the peripheries of the south zone of Rio de Janeiro, Funk began in the 1950s inspired by USA’s Rhythm and Blues and Gospel. The genre is characterised by its unique beats and has been a medium for many marginalised voices to represent themselves, especially their lives in the favelas. Funk has long been stigmatised due to its controversial lyrics which tend to normalise sexism, ostentation culture, crime and even rape culture. However, the rise in drag queens within the industry is a clear sign of its evolvement.

Lilo started her singing career about five years ago with her first Pop/House single, ‘I Want You’ in 2018. She recently got into Funk with her latest song, ‘Coitado’, which brings together a new sub-genre of Funk called Brega Funk and Funk Pop. Similar to MC Pocah’s, ‘Não Sou Obrigada’, her new single, which translates to “poor you,” talks about unfaithfulness, moving on quick and realising ones’ value, showing in the end, that it was his loss. The theme of women empowerment and revenge is extremely prevalent within the feminist movement in Funk, changing traditional roles present in Funk and society of women as submissive, also representing an unruliness and transgression from normative discourses on gender and sex.

For Lilo, it’s more than just the culture these queens bring, noting that if Funk is already marginalised in every aspect, imagine drag within Funk. “We break gender and sexuality paradigms and stereotypes with our art, showing different ways of doing gender. Little by little, we are conquering spaces and a deserved recognition. We already have big names, artists that certainly opened doors for new ones and so on.”

Finally, when asked to describe these queens in one word, she chooses ‘unique’. “The future is already here! We’re already living it, and the industry needs to adjust to it; be more representative, more inclusive. I have a lot of faith that this will become real, drags in mainstream music, on the radio, on open TV, series, films, everywhere.”

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Morganaclair: “Girl…I look beautiful, perfect, I am drag.”

On the verge of almost giving up on drag to overcoming her battles and embracing her scars. Meet the extravagant Morganaclair, a small-town boy from Brazil with dreams larger than life. 

“Sometimes I stop to think about how much I have been through for my age and it seems unreal. First and foremost, my name is Sharon. I’m 20 years old. Yes, a baby, right? I’m a typical countryside boy from Espiríto Santo, Brazil, who grew up in a small city called São Roque do Canaã. I went through all the struggles and difficulties that most gay teenagers go through in school and society. I was bullied, beat up by girls and boys, was left out of football classes during PE, and when I did play, the boys would do everything possible to hurt me. I’ve had my head put inside the toilet, clothes ripped; really anything you can imagine has happened to me during school. 

I didn’t have a father figure present for a significant time in my life, so I grew up with my mother and stepfather. I didn’t get along with my stepfather, so when my mother left for London, I went my own way too. I moved in with my friend Alexandre, who was the fuse to the start of my drag queen journey. The small town we lived in was extremely conservative; everyone was very narrow and closed-minded. We were the only openly gay boys in the city, and I think that Moraganaclair came to me as a refuge. For me to find myself as a person. As gay Sharon, people thought I’d have that gay boy attitude. The one where I’d repress myself and when you put yourself in a place that others put you in, you give them the power to do whatever they’d like. Whereas when I came out as a drag queen, it was written all over my face: “yes I am gay and I’m not ashamed of it,” then the oppressor feels repressed to do anything to you. When I started with Morganaclair, I thought, “Wow, this takes me out of that dark place that I feel people put me in and brings me back to who I am.”

It all started when I was 14 years old and Alexandre introduced me to RuPaul’s Drag Race, it was all new to me; I had never heard of drag, nor ever seen a king or queen. As we started watching the show together, something new awoke inside me. I’ve always loved makeup. I must’ve come out of the crib with a makeup brush and when I started watching RuPaul, I thought, “I like this, I think this is what I want to do.” So, I borrowed a wig from my grandmother, got some “bathroom makeup” and did a whole makeup look; I looked a mess, but I thought I was fabulous. I took a photo of myself and sent it to my friend saying, “Girl… I look beautiful, perfect, I am drag.”

Then came my drag’s name, and the process was long. Alexandre and I thought of so many names; Paloma, Tiffany, Princess, Patricia… but I was like, sis, these are not it. Then I remembered this cartoon that I used to watch as a kid called Castelo Ra-Tim-Bum, where the witch’s name was Morgana. She was fab. But we still needed more, something that would fit with Morgana. And there we were, one day, two gays walking around the mall looking at store names that would match, and we found Clair. Morganaclair it was. After the name, came the construction of my identity. I always try to portray the woman figure as closely as possible. I try to bring a more feminine and delicate woman and sometimes a mulherão, you know, that Brazilian woman, who’s all empowered. 

Once that was all set, I started performing in school when I was 15. This was my time to shine. When the big day arrived, I looked ugly as hell but felt fantastic. It was incredible because I received a very unexpected reaction from people. After all, Sharon as a gay boy, he was rejected in school, no one respected him. Then people saw me in drag… I remember going down the stairs in my school building and when everyone saw me, they were like, “wooowww” and everyone started screaming. I really hadn’t expected this, and it gassed me up so much. I knew I needed to feel that again. I wanted to, and I would. After that, everyone talked about me; I was the centre of attention. That is why I say that Morganaclair brought me comfort; it was through her that people got to know me better.

Morganaclair’s first time performing

Although drag was a gateway for me, I have also suffered a lot because of it. I’ve been mistaken as a transgender boy; on the streets, people would stop to ask me how much the program cost. I felt this lack of acceptance in relation to everything, employment, social inclusion, even my family wasn’t accepting of me, only my mother because the rest didn’t take me seriously; they thought that being gay was alright but drag was too much. But eventually I said fuck it, they weren’t the ones who raised me anyways. 

Despite everything, I didn’t give up. This was primarily because of my mum. She was very supportive, both when I came out as gay and as a drag queen. I’ll never forget the moment when I came out. I was hysterically crying on my bed and my mum looked at me and said, “You will never stop being my son, not because of this or anything else, so don’t worry and go wash the dishes.” It was very gratifying because I wasn’t expecting this from her. I think that my persistence must stem from how tough she is. 

Another key person in my journey was Alexandre; my mum was the key, and he was the lock. He was already openly gay when I met him in school, so I had him as a point of reference. We formed a bond, a friendship, we had a romance for some time, broke up, were enemies, lovers again, best friends and now brothers. He has helped me with everything. I used to watch how he’d live his life, how he’d behave, how he’d walk, and I just admired him so much. He was and continues to be a significant person in all aspects of my life. He was the first person I came out to, he was my drag mum, the one who put the wig on my head, gave me my name, his home for me to get ready… I have so much to thank him for.

In these five years, I did take a break from drag when I moved to the land of Pão de Queijo (cheese balls), Minas Gerais. My mental health wasn’t good; I had just gotten out of a relationship and started to get depressed. I even started asking myself whether drag was worth all the worries. It wasn’t until I moved to London two years ago that I got back into doing it. I believe that if I hadn’t moved here, I don’t think I would’ve ever gone back to doing drag. And it’s funny, I didn’t know anything about this place, nor the language or the people. Still, I noticed how differently people are treated here. Regardless of their religion, gender, ethnicity, there’s a lot more acceptance. So, I bought my first wig here, and I knew I had to go back to drag. This is my world, this is what I like to do, this is Sharon. 

Now, I’m doing drag more as a hobby really, I don’t have performances as I did in Brazil. When I moved to London, my idea was to show the city my drag but due to the pandemic, I had a change in plans. I plan on doing a degree in design, or artistic makeup, but for now, I’m just a “bathroom drag” with her little stool, mirror and makeup. My main goal with drag though, would be to make a living out of it and become famous and recognised for my work. My ultimate dream is to have my TV show called ‘Good Morning with Morgana’. It can be for five minutes on SBT TV, it doesn’t matter, it would make me the happiest drag. Doing what, I don’t know, but I want my own show. 

If you’re thinking about starting drag, I would tell you to never lose faith in yourself. You’re going to go through many things that will make you want to give up but if you’re faithful and confident in your work, then I believe you can go very far. It’s about determination and willpower. If you’re thinking about doing it, do it, it will be the best thing you’ll ever do. It’s a choice you make that can change your life and who you are entirely. It transformed me as Sharon, and I know it can have the same effect on you as well.”

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real talk

Tammie Brown Exposed: A set of rapid-fire questions

Many queens have walked the stage of RuPaul’s Drag Race, but few have made such a lasting impression as the iconic Tammie Brown during the USA inaugural season one in 2009, and later in All Stars. Considered by many as the original comedy queen, she is known for her eccentric personality, cheeky remarks and on-the-spot humour which never flops. Remember the time she called out RuPaul for not walking children in nature? I mean, how could you ever forget.

Beyond cracking jokes, Tammie is very active on social media giving a glimpse into her life through the ‘Tales with Tammie Brown’ series and if humour is not your thing, she also gives great cooking tips on her stories. More than that, yes, there’s more, she is a singer/songwriter known for her most popular album, Schubert’ and an environmental and social-justice activist vocal about Indigenous rights of communities worldwide, as well as deforestation with a focus on boycotting palm oil and saving endangered animals- Tammie Brown is a queen with a cause.

I have had the pleasure of talking to Tammie over message and well, enough blabbing, the time you’ve been waiting for has arrived, get to know some facts about Tammie you may have not known of in this set of rapid-fire questions with a special focus on her love for Mother Earth.

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4 queens you will find in every season of RuPaul’s Drag Race

Although you could say that most queens would rather be associated with a fierce heather than with a hot mess booger, there’s no right or wrong when it comes to doing drag. It’s all a form of expression and art, and it’s all valid. As tweeted by @CrayolaTheQueen, “Drag is about destroying rules about gender. It is punk, subversive and transgressive.”

However, there are four types of queens that RuPaul’s Drag Race would be incomplete without.

Let’s spill the tea!