It’s a Drag Knock-out Week 5

OK, first things first. Yet again I failed to get any decent pics of the acts, but considering it’s all about the voice, the looks were just a bonus and so we don’t really need them this week.

Here we go again, readers, it’s another round of It’s a Drag Knock-out, the homegrown talent competition which pits drag newbies against each other in an epic battle for the ages. Their looks are sharp, their faces are beat and tonight the Sonorous Seven were making sweet, sweet music. It’s LIVE VOCALS week!

Conducting our symphony of cabaret was the masterful maestro Meth, who set the stage and introduced guest judge Silver Summers for a performance of Ave Maria/Maria by Blondie, as well as revealing the twist for this week: the acts were to rewrite the lyrics to a song of their choosing to either create a parody or tell a story. Move over Max Martin! step aside Sondheim! Go away, Bieber!

In the orchestra pit were the jazzy judges; the exquisite Virgin Xtravaganzah, soulful chanteuse Silver Summers and the rhythmic Ruby Wednesday… And Princess Julia! Yes, tonight the judge’s sofa had an extension as we added the iconic DJ to the panel.

The primo performer was the Lick Von Dyke, who gave an amazing cabaret-style performance of Bill Bailey‘s Love Song, with references to the London drag scene and a failed romance with Ruby Wednesday. Ms Von Dyke managed to bring a smile to the lips, and a tear to the eye with this whole experience. This charismatic, comedic turn truly felt like something you’d see on stage at Madame Jojo‘s, or even the Udderbelly!

Our second soprano was the tuneful Tess Tickles with Timber. I mean, Tinder. Yes, Tess rewrote the entire Ke$ha song to become a story about an average night on Tinder (“end of the night I’m going down”). Unfortunately, Tess sings just as well as I do, which is to say she can’t, and adding a rap to the mix only adds to the technical hurdles. It would have been OK for karaoke, but not in this competitive scenario.

Next was Aimee Rose. Now, Aimee has already shown in this competition that she is a very capable singer, being one of the few contestants who actually auditioned with a live vocal (the others being Veronica, Gingzilla and Claudia F) and as such there was an expectation here, and Ms Rose reached it. Now, I’ve gathered an idea of her being a very laid back, soulful singer, as established by her debut performance last month, as well as her song choices for the lip-syncs in previous weeks. As such, it was a bit of a surprise to see an attempt at the uptempo Bang Bang by Jessie, Nicki and Ari. I feel that this song choice, while showing variety, may have been too fast (or maybe too high?) to showcase her true vocal skills. This is just my opinion, remember, as you’ll see later… Oh, and a rap! That landed on its feet!

After the interval and entr’acte was Cherry Popper‘s cadenza, bringing the evening to the smaller screen in a reimagining of reality TV hit Gogglebox (or was that Gogulbox?) This was a very different act to the others so far this week, as it was a multimedia extravaganza. Using Bloc’s projector screen, she overdubbed classic TV moments from Big Brother, as well as a rewrite of ‘It’s a Jolly Holiday with Mary’ from Mary Poppins. Also, I can’t overlook how meta it was for expert lipsyncer Cherry to lip-sync to herself, but with the prerecorded footage being the mimic and the live on-stage prescience being the audio track. It’s enough to melt your brain, or maybe that was just the clip of Nikki Grahame.

Continuing with the layered, deep performance was concept queen, Georgia Tasda, who once again turned to the headlines for a political story to get her teeth into. This week? The Brexit, and how it’ll affect British LGBT people. Set to a haunting Kraftwerk number and accompanied by a slide whistle, she once again backed up the idea that drag is there to tackle difficult topics in a subversive way. As for the vocals, the German accent shouting phrases was a little meh, and fell flat after the weird Katie–Hopkins-fart intro.

(REALLY BAD PUN ALERT)
I saw her out of drag buying sleepy reptiles at a supermarket. Yeah, it was Boy Georgia Tasda! Geddit? I’ll let myself out

Bringing Raggedy-Ann Realness was Veronica Green, who once again wowed the crowd with her incredible singing voice. Rewriting Material Girl to tell the tale of a rag doll who is unwanted until she changes her label and recreates herself as vintage, before being fought over and torn apart. That’s the great thing about Veronica– whatever the challenge, she will also bring another challenge’s skills to it. A lip-sync? She’ll cosplay Ursula. A burlesque? Hope you’re ready for a tight lip-sync and costume changes. I honestly find it hard to fault, even though I’m a friend of hers. (I know, I’m biased. Sue me!)

Finally, we were hit by a collective Delirium, as Delirium hit the stage with a performance that felt like something that would be featured in the bohemian café in RENT. Opening the act with a chanting beat poem she then went into a politically-motivated rendition of Paper Planes by MIA while dancing around a hanging effigy of David Cameron (his second appearance with Delirium in this competition, and the second inflatable politician of the evening) Now, she has an alright voice, from what I heard in the intro, but the song didn’t allow that to show, and learning the lyrics seemed to be a struggle, even with the use of cue cards.

And with that it was time for Meth to explain the voting for any newbies in the audience- every audience member gets one free Meth Dollar, which they can use to vote for their preferred act in the gift bag ballot. For more votes and to increase the chances of their favourite act going through votes are also given with every £5 spent at the bar. The more you spend, and the more of you there are rooting for an act the more likely they are to be safe or even win the week’s challenge. And talking of challenges, this is when we found out next week’s task- CELEBRITY IMPERSONATIONS!

Yes, my fellow dragsters, it is almost time for the Snatch Ga- CELEBRITY IMPERSONATIONS round! The remaining six acts will be pulling out all the stops in a star-studded showdown, and will be mentored and judged by the incredible Fagulous, and silent showman Pi the Mime!

Ruby Wednesday followed this announcement with a punky performance that got the crowd going wild. In a pair of stiletto boots and net vest she gave a gritty, involving, table dancing show that was so different, and so uniquely Ruby. It truly shows the variety of the Family Fierce and the strength and importance of subversive British drag.

Which brings us to the culmination of the evening- the voting results, which saw Veronica and Cherry making it safely through to next week, followed by Georgia and Delirium. Receiving the winner’s title this week and a set of tickets to Virgin‘s Friday the 13th Xtravaganzah at the Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club (tickets available online) was the awesome Aimee, which left Lick and Tess in the bottom two, facing off with a Lip-sync for their lives to the theatrical staple Defying Gravity by original British Elphie, Kerry Ellis.

And what a battle it was! Lick brought a zany, coke-fuelled character-based performance, while Tess showed slick lip-sync skills and ability to really learn those lyrics. But, in the end it all came down to who put on a better show, and that was Miss Lick and her bags of the good stuff (icing sugar. I should know, I got enough of it in my hair and nose. Or at least that’s my excuse).

So, I’m sorry to say there’s one less fishy queen in this sea, as Tess moves on with a song in her heart and a rousing speech for us all to remember that we need drag, and drag needs us. And that is so, SO true. If this art form/movement is going to survive and flourish in today’s culture we need to support our local queens and kings, to put money into the bars and clubs, to allow people to express themselves in whichever way they want, and not to limit their acts to fitting the RuPaul’s Drag Race polished mould. It’s a welcoming, but underground art form that provides a home for nonconformist artists and a safe haven for anyone who needs it.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot… Next week as well as celebrity impersonations, there’ll be a double elimination. No biggie.

Wait!!! What?!?

See, it’s because it’s he was buying calmer chameleons. Boy George at Asda… Ok, I’m going!!