Halleloo, Orlando! You’ve an viewers with drag royalty on Wednesday, Feb. 1.
Drag icon Shangela, identified out of drag as D.J. Pierce, has a profession chock-full of firsts. She was the primary individual to compete on three completely different seasons of RuPaul’s Drag Race, the primary individual to stroll the crimson carpet in drag on the Oscars and the primary individual to compete in drag on the American model of Dancing With the Stars — and her Absolutely Lit headlining tour is yet one more milestone so as to add to this checklist.
The Absolutely Lit dates are Shangela’s first go at touring as a solo headliner throughout the nation, with an extravagant manufacturing that pulls out all of the stops, visible and performance-wise.
“I’m actually excited to have the ability to reconnect with my followers on this manner. The Absolutely Lit tour is strictly what it seems like. It’s stuffed with high-energy performances, it is stuffed with hilarious, never-before-told tales and likewise only a nice evening of enjoyable,” Shangela instructed Orlando Weekly.
Absolutely Lit kicked off in Boston on Jan. 19 and is touring throughout the USA at a really heated second, within the wake of a lot ginned-up controversy and misinformation surrounding the drag scene fabricated by some Republicans and cultural conservatives.
“You understand, there’s a conservative lot that exists in and across the metropolis of Orlando, and naturally within the state of Florida, so returning now at a time the place there’s so many items of laws and exercise that’s focused towards the LGBTQ+ neighborhood and the freedoms and the equality that we hope to exist inside that area … I had by no means skilled that head-on in such a manner that I did once we have been filming We’re Right here,” says Shangela.
We’re Right here, the Emmy-nominated HBO present co-hosted by Shangela, Bob the Drag Queen and Eureka O’Hara, just lately premiered its third season. The collection focuses on the queens touring throughout small-town America. And the ultimate two episodes of the third season have been each set in Central Florida.
We’re Right here took Shangela and her co-hosts to the Villages and Kissimmee, the place Shangela stated she was proven one other facet of the Orlando space. These Florida-focused episodes allowed the queens to indicate viewers among the realities LGBTQ+ Floridians face within the time of conservative laws limiting gender-affirming healthcare and the “Don’t Say Homosexual” legislation.
“Expertise it for your self first, earlier than you solid judgment. I might encourage every one that has a query in regards to the drag neighborhood, earlier than you choose any neighborhood, have an expertise your self,” says Shangela, “and permit that that will help you construct what your opinion or judgment goes to be.”
Out of drag, Shangela is concerned with activist organizations together with the Feed the Queens initiative, which supplied over $100,000 in meals grants to out-of-work drag entertainers in 2020.
Shangela says that she hopes her tour will help unfold a message of unity and convey better visibility and illustration for her neighborhood.
“[We’re Here] allowed me to satisfy some lovely folks which are true warriors for equality, with regard to the LGBTQ+ neighborhood,” says Shangela. “And now with this present, I’m undoubtedly going to be bringing again that very same message that I got here with in We’re Right here. And that could be a message of affection, that could be a message of hope, that could be a message of assist and hopefully a message that helps to unite us as a neighborhood.”
Shangela isn’t any stranger to the stage — a proven fact that’s grow to be much more obvious after her current stint as a finalist on Dancing With the Stars. Shangela stated that her time on DWTS was a particular profession spotlight, making her proud to be part of historical past and characterize her neighborhood to viewers throughout the nation each Monday evening on prime-time. She stated that watching herself on the second season of Drag Race and evaluating that to her performances on DWTS, she noticed particular indicators of progress and evolution.
“Once I first began out in drag — not even Drag Race, however after I first began out in drag — I used to be simply having enjoyable. It was nearly having this wonderful inventive outlet to get pleasure from and categorical myself and a approach to do it on stage. Once I grew to become part of Drag Race, it gave me a good better function in drag that I by no means foresaw myself having, however I’m so grateful for,” explains Shangela.
Additional, Shangela says she is going to by no means take the possibilities that Drag Race has given her with no consideration. “I’m very grateful for this chance and I really feel a way of accountability to at all times present up and do my best possible, not solely to characterize my neighborhood but in addition to assist to provide us better progress to maneuver us ahead,” she says.
Shangela says she admires the drag scene in Orlando and can’t wait to be again in the neighborhood of Orlando queens.
“I believe proper now, particularly with the political local weather that we’re underneath, that individuals should have an evening of enjoyable and nice leisure of drag,” she says. “And I do know that the Orlando scene has nice drag and I’m excited to deliver an much more fiery expertise so as to add to it.”
