The audience packed into the Centretown gay bar Flamingo, ready for a flashy and fabulous show full of sparkles, spectacular wigs and music.
The stage was set Feb. 23 for four performers to compete for the title of Ottawa’s drag superstar, and the opportunity to go to New York City in May for the after-party of RuPaul’s Drag Race, a television show in GLTBQ circles, where drag queens go head to head to see who is the best performer. It airs on Mondays on OutTV, a specialty gay and lesbian television network.
Before she went on stage last month, Jade London said she was extremely nervous.
After about a minute in front of the crowd, she relaxed, danced, lip-synced and wowed the audience and judges.
London took the drag queen title and a pink flamingo prize home from the competition.
Each contestant performed two numbers during the night and the five judges rated their performances.
American drag queen Manila Luzon, who placed second in the last season of RuPaul’s Drag Race, was a guest judge. Luzon also performed her single, “Hot Couture.”
By day, London is an unnamed make-up artist and hair stylist, but transforms when dressed up as London.
“The main goal for drag is erasing everything about you and creating something different,” London says. “When I’m dressed up, I’m Jade London.”
London says she is “a little more fierce” than her shy and conservative day-to-day identity.
London transformed into Beyoncé for her first number, complete with a long blonde wig and dramatic makeup.
After being asked to be a back-up dancer for drag queen Robin de Cradle at Capital Pride in 2008, London began creating her persona.
Getting into drag was “kind of an accident,” London says.
A 20-year veteran queen, Dixie Landers, says she fell into it too. Friends in Halifax dared Landers to dress up for a contest and if she won it, she’d win the bet. “It was purely financial,” she says with a smile.
Landers, involved in Ottawa’s drag scene for 12 years, now says there is “a lot of new blood" participating in the drag superstar competition.
“My life is all about entertainment,” London says. Born and raised in Ottawa, singing and dancing were always important in her life.
London says she has plans to “build an empire” that includes music and fashion. She says she has worked to set a “really, really high” standard for queens in Ottawa.
She has even recorded a song called "Go Away", a remake of the song by South Korean pop band 2NE1 and has plans to shoot a music video in the spring. Often drag queens only lip sync, so this makes her unique, London says.
With this win, London says she will have the chance to network with people involved in the drag scene in New York Ciy.