![]() ![]() In January, OUTtv co-promoted the cross-Canada Tea With Tati Tour, featuring season 2 and RuPaul’s Drag Race: All Stars queen Tatianna, a fan favourite with a big social media following. ![]() Women and teens were also a big presence at this year’s RuPaul’s DragCon in Los Angeles. Not only has the audience of gay men expanded, but more straight women in their 20s and 30s and teen girls are stopping by OUTtv’s Pride booths to say how much they love it. In Canada, the show and its spinoffs have aired on specialty channel OUTtv since the second season.Įxecs have watched it grow from niche series to top-10 cable show across key demos. Since debuting in 2009, RuPaul’s Drag Race has expanded its pop culture footprint, attracting a dedicated following in the fashion world and introducing catchphrases such as “Sashay away” and “Lip-synch for your life” into the zeitgeist. Cheol Joon Baekĭrag Race fans packed the Danforth Music Hall in May for the Werq The World Tour Ironically, drag is more visible at a time when hard-won LGBTQ rights are under threat from the regressive Trump administration and the racists, homophobes and bigots it has emboldened.Īs RuPaul’s Drag Race wraps up its ninth season, who and what the show represents is as much a point of discussion as who the winner will be. That probably was not planned when it was first conceptualized.” It’s incredible that the show has transcended barriers. “I went to dinner last night and met a cis straight couple from Texas who noticed we were with the queens ,” says Jon Norris, a senior events manager for New York-based Voss Events, the company behind Werq The World. Meanwhile, the kickoff of the RuPaul’s Drag Race Werq The World Tour in Toronto attracted a capacity crowd to the Danforth Music Hall in May, and many who paid $60 or more for tickets were part of its growing audience of young women. This month, publisher Palgrave is releasing RuPaul’s Drag Race And The Shifting Visibility Of Drag Culture: The Boundaries Of Reality TV, a collection of academic essays about the show’s global impact. Drag Race stars are heavily sought after on the Pride and club circuits, commanding thousands in performance fees. Queens have gone on to tour the world, star in commercials, release albums and appear in fashion campaigns, movies and comedy specials. An episode of Drag Race has become the gay equivalent of a pro-sports game.įor contestants, Drag Race has become a potentially lucrative launch pad. It’s not surprising, given that fans gather in bars and homes for viewing parties. across platforms – ahead of Orphan Black and Keeping Up With The Kardashians. According to social-media measurement service Shareablee, the June 9 episode ranked as the eighth-most-viewed prime-time series in the U.S. Ratings tripled for season 9’s Lady Gaga-focused premiere. Last year RuPaul won an Emmy for outstanding host for a reality or reality-competition program, a sign the show was breaking out.Īfter eight seasons on LGBTQ cable network Logo, Viacom moved the World of Wonder-produced series further up the dial to sister channel VH1. ![]() Velour landed on Drag Race at an auspicious time. “But I represent a world of drag that maybe hasn’t had its moment yet on the show.” “I’m certainly not inventing anything new with drag,” she adds. She is bald in tribute to her late mother’s battle with cancer and defines drag as “a performance of gender that allows gay and queer people to push outside of the binary. Over 13 episodes, Velour – aka Sasha Steinberg – earned a rep as a stylish and conceptual queen who thrived by exploiting her academic bent to comedic effect. (The other finalists are Shea Couleé, Peppermint and Trinity Taylor.) “Standing on that stage with RuPaul is a surprisingly emotional experience,” explains Sasha Velour, a Brooklyn-based season 9 Drag Race queen, Fulbright scholar and comic artist. They’ll find out who wins when everyone else does – during the finale broadcast on Friday (June 23). To ensure no one leaks the winner, producers shot alternate endings of the finalists claiming the title, which comes with a cash prize of $100,000. The four queens still in contention on drag icon RuPaul’s cult reality competition series’ ninth season are appearing during Pride Toronto. Spoiler alert: she may or may not be quoted within these pages. RuPaul’s Drag Race is on the verge of crowning America’s next drag superstar. GREEN SPACE FESTIVAL: STARRY NIGHT with PEPPERMINT, SASHA VELOUR, SHEA COULEÉ, BROOKE LYNN HYTES, SOFONDA COX, TYNOMI BANKS, FAY SLIFT and others at Barbara Hall Park (519 Church), Thursday (June 22), 5 pm-midnight. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |