Hi hens! Today, we travel (virtually) to one of our fave places on earth that’s been put on the drag map recently again (and rightfully so!) when Lawrence Chaney and Ellie Diamond showed the UK what Scottish unicorns can do and the former even brought home the crown for RPDR UK season 2! We have been to Scotland various times and can‘t wait to go back and dance our night away in AXM and see a show featuring the amazing talent that this country has to offer!
Until we can do all that again safely, our very own contributor Nathan Warren interviewed one of the big names of the Scottish drag scene for all of us. You may know her from Lee Dawson‘s Rucaps and she also has her own monthly show in Glasgow that will hopefully resume soon. So, ‘everybody say yeah‘ as we enter the land of Lola Fierce to talk music, inspirations, future projects and of course, all things drag!
Dragadventures: Hi Lola, so tell us how long have you been doing drag?
Lola Fierce: I have been doing drag for 3 years this month actually. I mean I did dabble with makeup before and went out once or twice before then, but the first time that I performed in drag is when I count starting drag from. My drag anniversary is the 11th of April so I always try to do something about this time to celebrate it.
Dragadventures: How did you first get into it?
LF: I was in college and my lecturer told me to sing a song that would suit me from a musical called “Kinky Boots”. It was right before I went to New York for the first time. I loved the song and when I was over there, the musical was on. So I hinted at going to see it, then on the last day, we did. From that moment on I fell in love with the show and wanted to be Lola. I knew though that I would probably never get to play the part (unless it’s in Amateur theatre) so I thought, how can I bring it to life in my own way. It was actually the following year though that I started dabbling with makeup after having seen the show a bunch more times and having done a production of “Priscilla Queen Of The Desert”. I came back from my trip to London having seen the show, started working on some new music but… I just didn’t want to do it. I wanted to be Lola. So it kinda just happened then and April the following year is when she was born.
At first I started off going to local shows and competing in local competitions. From there I kind of just grew and grew.
DA: Where did you get the name Lola Fierce?
LF: You know it seems very obvious my first name but I actually didn’t want to be called Lola at first. It felt far too obvious that I would call myself it. However the more I was practicing with makeup and rehearsing ‘Land Of Lola’, it only felt right to be called “Lola”. So that part comes from ‘Kinky Boots’. I had to think of a second part to my name and I mean who doesn’t love Beyonce. She is a pop star I love and one of her records I love is “I Am…Sasha Fierce”. Fierce just jumped out at me and the next thing you know, Lola Fierce just clicked. It’s actually really funny too because my first ever drag performance was a lip sync battle to “Love On Top” by Beyonce. So it felt like fate that part of my name came from her.
DA: Who are your inspirations?
LF: Apart from the musical ‘Kinky Boots’ which is probably my main inspiration in drag. The artists that I look up to and are inspired by are Ariana Grande, CJ Banks, Laganja Estranja, and Courtney Act. I just love the music that Ariana does, her looks, and everything. I’ve seen her live quite a few times and honestly her ‘Sweetener World Tour’ was one of the best shows I’ve ever been to. I went and just had such a good time. I felt like I could be my queer self, sing along, dance and have such an amazing night that I wouldn’t forget. That is how I want people to feel when they come to a Lola Fierce show.
Courtney Act was one of the first ‘Drag Race’queens that I loved on the show but also her music was something that made me love her more. Her music is incredible and I felt like I could relate a lot to it, the music she makes definitely inspires my music. She also is one of the sweetest people ever. I’ve been very lucky to have danced with Laganja a few times prior to doing drag and once after having started drag. Getting to spend a lot of time with her and get some amazing advice was something that I won’t forget. She has such an incredible work ethic that just inspires me so much too. I learned some amazing moves from dancing with her too.
CJ Banks is someone that inspires me every day, she is such an amazing, talented, and fierce queen. I am so lucky to have her as a drag mother. She gives amazing advice and is always there for me, she has taught me a lot and helped me to become the queen I am today. I know that she will always give me her honest opinion on things too which is amazing. CJ is so supportive of everything I do and I can’t wait for people to see something this summer that I am doing with her.
DA: We love CJ Banks too. Such a lovely and warm queen. Where could our readers see you perform?
LF: Sadly nowhere right this second but there are a lot of performances on my Youtube channel for people to watch until shows come back. I do have a monthly show called “Curtain Up” in Glasgow which hopefully will return when shows come back to Scotland this summer. You can normally catch me performing all over the scene and country. Just keep your eyes peeled on my Facebook page for some exciting announcements in the near future.
DA: You are a huge fan of musicals. If you could be in any musical, what would it be and what would your ideal role be?
LF: Hmm this is a hard one but apart from the obvious of picking ‘Lola’ from Kinky Boots, I would actually say Elle Woods in Legally Blonde. It was the first musical I ever saw in the West End and I did a production of it when I was younger too in Youth Theatre. Elle is such a fun, complex and amazing character that I think would be fun to play. “So Much Better”, “Legally Blonde”, “Find My Way” and the whole part she has in the opening are bits that just make me feel a lot of different emotions that if I got to perform them I think that would be incredible. Also, I think she is a very relatable character as she starts off as someone who got laughed at a lot, got told she wasn’t good enough, and worked her butt off to get to where she is now, proving all the haters wrong which is something I feel I can relate to.
DA: Would you ever apply for Rupauls Drag Race UK? – KEEP OR TRASH?
LF: Never say never. I definitely would love to be on the show for the whole experience but also to push myself even more. So if it ever happened then I would definitely take the chance.
DA: You’ve been releasing music for a few years, what’s your favourite song that you’ve released? Do you write all your own songs?
LF: That is a really hard one and I probably could pick two. “Losing Myself” is definitely one of my favorite songs I’ve ever released. It was a moment for me in my career that I really got to dive deep into my emotions and show everyone how I really felt but it got such an incredible response. So many people messaged me to tell me their stories, that me sharing their story had inspired them to open up which not even as an artist but as a person is an unbelievable thing to do.
The song tied as my favourite is ‘Scream’. I wrote this song about 3/4 years before it came out and it was one that I always wanted to release so to see it come to life was amazing. I think what makes this song even more special was that after I released it on my Debut EP, it got me a few gigs which led to meeting some amazing people that I call friends now. It also was the first song that when I went down to Manchester and performed it, people were singing back and that was an experience I won’t ever forget.
I do write all my own songs and every song after ‘Losing Myself’ apart from one which is my next single, I also have produced too. So that has been an experience and a half. It has been really fun though having all the control and the amount of pride I feel when I play a song back in the car after I’ve mixed it all, is over the moon.
DA: You’re gearing up for the release of your debut album ‘Fierce and Fabulous’. What can we expect from that album?
LF: This album has many different stories and different emotions that all tie together into this special record. It will make you laugh, smile, cry and hopefully maybe feel inspired. You never know too, I might not just be singing on the album, there is also a feature on the album too. I’m really excited for people to see everything such as the artwork and music videos too because I’m working with some amazing artists to bring them to life and I can’t wait to share them.
DA: You’ve got a new single out now called Born Again. Can you tell us all about it?
LF: ‘Born Again’ is all about reminiscing about the past, the amazing memories you had, the happiness you felt, and wishing you could just go back to live it all over again. It’s kind of how I felt a lot during lockdown so you could say this is like my ‘lockdown single’ and how I just wished I could be making new memories.
The music video kind of adds to that by taking you on a journey from doubting yourself about whether or not you should do what you love to some hateful things that some people say and how you have to push past that because you will go on to be amazing. The last section is a mini journey, the journey of the video with lots of pictures from my whole career till now. The whole theme of the video is to show that you shouldn’t let anyone tell you that you can’t be you and that words shouldn’t define you as a person.
DA: Have you got any other projects coming up that our readers can look out for?
LF: Apart from the album, I’ve got some really cool look series coming up and some more Youtube covers to before shows come back. There are some exciting shows in the works that I can’t wait to tell people all about soon. I would say the other project that I’m most excited for people to see is my second horror look series. I tried to push myself more with it and do things I wouldn’t have done before. So I can’t wait to see what people think.
DA: So, thanks to drag race, we got introduced to the Scottish talent of Lawrence Chaney and Ellie Diamond. Who else should we be looking at up there?
LF: Scotland is full of incredible drag. From drag queens, drag kings to drag artists. There are so many amazing people. If I had to pick a few though that everyone should check out, it would have to be CJ Banks, Rujazzle, Marie St Sandy, Queef, Andy Kist, Chanel O’Conor, Saturn, Salma Nella, Frans Gender, Ann Phetamine, Anne Spank, and Jordy Deelight. That’s just a few of the amazing artists that are Scottish Drag. Everyone should definitely make it part of their to-do list after lockdown to come to experience a Scottish drag show!
DA: What does the future hold for Lola Fierce?
LF: More music, more looks, shows. I would love to do a one-woman show to release “Fierce And Fabulous” then tour it all over the country. It’s a dream to do and hopefully, with a few things in the works, that might happen over the course of the next year. There might even be international shows too, there is might be a horror-inspired EP in the works that may or may not come out at Halloween. As for Christmas, I released a full Christmas EP last year so I probably won’t release any new Christmas music this year or if I do it will just be a stand-alone single but this is me so you never know. Ask me in August and I might tell you a completely different answer (laughing)
Thank you Lola for talking to us!
Be sure to check out their new single Born Again on all streaming platforms and check out their stunning looks on social media:
Twitter: @lolafierceuk
Instagram: @lolafierceuk
YouTube: Lola Fierce
Merch: lolafierce.bigcartel.com
