Third year of Dragworld arrived and with that comes the ever fabulous Drag ball, the perfect event to kick start the drag weekend festivities. Keeping with third year tradition we had UK queen Meth look after the crowd, starting with her lip-sync followed by an ever funny introduction to London, the drag scene and the approaching weekend in which we all know the pain our bodies would endure by the end.
The first year of the Dragball gave us surprise guest Biblegirl, this year saw her on the line up – rightly so after gaining a new wave of UK fans/support status. Arriving onstage to a screaming applause from loyal fans, this performer launched right in a Lip sync to the iconic Britney Spears, a woman we all know Bible looks up to incorporated a range of Britney classic videos in the background. Bible herself reminded us why she is the wild child of drag, withering around the stage in a high energy routine.
Next up came Phi Phi O’ Hara, who stood centre spotlight singing her heart out to Jessie J’s ‘Who you are’ an emotional number which had the crowd transfixed and definitely made us feel the love so many audience members have for this multitalented performer!
Miss Shea Coulee came to slay, whilst that may of been her opening line for Season nine of Rupauls Drag Race, she truly meant that at the ball. We haven’t been lucky enough to see Shea perform, both watching mouth agape is never lady like but Shea literally left us in awe with her performance.
Photo by @Sparklesandemotions
Photos by @Sparklesandemotions
It reminded us why we love drag, the sheer art form, the precision and fun that came through Shea using drag race clips behind to mix along with her lip syncing skills was just everything. It was from that moment we fell in love!
We got to see the iconic Ginger Minj perform cult classic ‘Sweet Transvestite’ from Rocky Horror Picture show, if the crowd weren’t already hyped up after Shea the singalong proved just how much fun everyone was having. Seeing Ginger perform is always a special time, she has so much raw passion and her onstage persona always shines through ever so brightly.
Everyone’s cool mom Jinkx Monsoon gave us a dazzling version of David Bowie’s’ Life on Mars, we always get goosebumps when listening to Jinkx singing this. Its emotional, passionate and she captures the room with that set of powerful pipes. Pipes so powerful she can’t believe how good she is herself, stumbling through some words. Another reason we love to see Jinkx perform is how she has the crowd in the palm of her hand. Storytelling time is always a favourite pastime of Jinkx’s whether you’ve seen her hundreds of times or first time you find yourself holding to every word. Telling us about her love for the UK, her British boyfriend and how much she thoroughly enjoys Dragworld.
Back to the second half where the line up shifted to showcase the moment we had all been waiting for…. Phi Phi as Bellatrix Lestrange. The lead up to Drag ball saw Phi Phi tease Twitter promising a one of a kind performance, and boy did she deliver. Every Harry Potter fan was living for the mix up of their two favourites things, a magical routine appearing before in pure Lestange get up the look was uncanny. The screams,cheers and applause was deafening proving once again just how loved Miss O’Hara truly is in the UK.
Photo by@Sparklesandemotions
Photo by@Sparklesandemotions
Thus followed the same line up with host Meth making the audience cry to her rendition of paraody ‘Look on the bright side of life’ whilst mashing up heart wrenching moments from our favorite childhood classics, ie Simba mourning his dead dad and Dobby dying…..we werent crying we had something our eyes!
Shea and Ginger once again wowed the crowd, we got treated to Shea performing her new track ‘Rewind’ showing just how talented she is with her stunning black and white music video in the background. Ginger gave us what we all wanted, stealing our hearts/souls with The Little Mermaid track ‘Poor Unfortunate Souls’ which of course in true Ursula style proves why so many fans campaigned for her to be cast in the latest live rendition.
Our cool mom Jinkx Monsoon rounded the evening off with our fave song ‘Cartoons and Vodka’ taken from her latest new album ‘Ginger Snapped.’ We were treated to this during 2017’s Heels of Hell and it was all we would sing on the way home. So to hear it live almost two years on was so much fun, we had some more audience interaction with Jinkxy, until Meth declared the party over.
But wait…..we all know there’s a surprise guest. If you’ve been to the drag ball previously then you kind of hoped that a surprise was on its way. Who could it be? First year we had Biblegirl, second year Dragula winner Biqtch Puddin’…. this year we were all introduced to one of Florida’s finest young queens Kat Wilderness. We’ve been to so many shows we’ve lost count, but let us tell you the screams and uproar when Kat came out was insane. It was fantastic to see such a reaction to a very talented queen, consisting of a six minute number which looked exhausting. From start to finish all eyes were on this sunshine queen, concluding with a speech about the excitement of appearing at Dragworld, many times stopping due to the sheer volume from the crowd it was a heartwarming moment to see how happy Kat was.
Far too soon, for our liking,the ball was over and we were treated to a onstage group farewell complete with balloons, seeing the queens interact was the little cherry on top. Sounds weird, but seeing Ginger Minj and Kat swap wigs, Phi Phi in half drag and everyone enjoying themselves set everyone up for the best weekend of the year. Drag ball 2019 you out did yourself once again, see you in 2020!biblegirl, drag, drag queens, dragball, dragworld, dragworld 2019, feature piece, ginger minj, jinkx monsoon, Kat Wildernes, meth, phi phi o hara, show reviews
Kat Wilderness by @Sparklesandemotions
