Clockwise: Divine; Sylvester; Jimmy Somerville; and RuPaul.
Friday nights are a time to be finished with work and ready to go out on the town. First you gotta get your hair did, pick out just the right outfit, and be ready to make an entrance into the club, and be noticed by that cutie you have had your eye on. No one knows that better than a drag queen, how works that wig, and pounds the pancake into a near frenzy to have just the right look. Once they are out on the town, those girls know how to have fun, and just what it takes to make a girl hit the dance floor. Tonight, we will let our drag mothers be our guide, starting off with the magnificent Divine, Baltimore's greatest gift to the world, as she sings You Think You're A Man.
At a time when the only drag queens out there were the female impersonators in night clubs doing Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, and Judy Garland, Sista Sylvester James was singing in the San Fransisco clubs before heading into the studio to cut some amazing songs. Sylvester would perform in drag, and was unapologetic just being big, black and beautiful. Here is Sylvester asking the immortal question, Do You Wanna Funk?
In many ways, it seems like RuPaul has be the Queen of Drag for many years now, on television, in movies, and in the studio. RuPaul has her own talk show for a while, and now has been a franchise for LOGO, with RuPaul's Drag Race, as well as RuPaul's Drag U. But nothing could compare to the great music she made, and one of her best was Supermodel (Of The World).
Now, to the best of my knowledge and memory, Jimmy Somerville has not gone out of his way to perform in drag, but he did cover a song by the great Sylvester, and just wanted to include it tonight. When he went solo, after successful stints in The Bronski Beat and The Communards, he remade the great song You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real). If there was anyone who could honor a Sylvester song with a great cover, it would be Jimmy. This is a clip of him singing it live last year, still sounding as incredible as ever.
Dance the night away, my friends!
At a time when the only drag queens out there were the female impersonators in night clubs doing Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, and Judy Garland, Sista Sylvester James was singing in the San Fransisco clubs before heading into the studio to cut some amazing songs. Sylvester would perform in drag, and was unapologetic just being big, black and beautiful. Here is Sylvester asking the immortal question, Do You Wanna Funk?
In many ways, it seems like RuPaul has be the Queen of Drag for many years now, on television, in movies, and in the studio. RuPaul has her own talk show for a while, and now has been a franchise for LOGO, with RuPaul's Drag Race, as well as RuPaul's Drag U. But nothing could compare to the great music she made, and one of her best was Supermodel (Of The World).
Now, to the best of my knowledge and memory, Jimmy Somerville has not gone out of his way to perform in drag, but he did cover a song by the great Sylvester, and just wanted to include it tonight. When he went solo, after successful stints in The Bronski Beat and The Communards, he remade the great song You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real). If there was anyone who could honor a Sylvester song with a great cover, it would be Jimmy. This is a clip of him singing it live last year, still sounding as incredible as ever.
Dance the night away, my friends!
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