Whether we like it or not, the COVID-19 pandemic acts like a huge upheaval in many things, including the local drag scene. Maybe it's because the pandemic drove the rise of many homegrown queens who found their first audiences on livestreams on the likes of Facebook and Kumu. Maybe it's because Drag Race Philippines Season 1 was filmed around the tail end of 2021, and as the lockdown restrictions lifted, the show debuted and changed a LOT of things. It also marked the clearest entry of a new generation of O Divas.
Last night was the birthday show of Elvira B and Dero, two queens who joined O Bar after the bar was able to reopen. Many of O Bar's more tenured queens were on hiatus (secretly because of DRPH Season 1), and there was a strong need for new talent. And with every new season of the show, we've seen longtime O Divas move on to a different scale of drag, including concerts, TV shows, and what have you. The likes of Elvira and Dero represent some of the already more tenured queens who have been with the bar for a number of years, and their growth as drag artists has been wonderful to witness.
Elvira has always been quite the firecracker, given her strong personality and even fiercer lip syncing. We got to know her first through livestream performances and were happy to see her among the new queens at O Bar when they first reopened. I love how her flair for fast-paced lip syncs (think rap), but also her amazing physicality. It's easy to dismiss bigger girls as dancers, and Elvira is one of those who repeatedly put such misconceptions to rest. Thus, her part of last night's show featured all of her strong points - numbers with a lot of attitude and personality, opportunities to showcase her dancing, and some very blitz-speed lip syncs to boot. Oh, and how can I forget how Elvira always does her part in showcasing Filipino music alongside the international stuff that most queens celebrate. Elvira clearly knows who she is as a drag artist, and that's always worth celebrating.
Dero came a little later and is actually a drag daughter of Captivating Katkat, a longtime O Diva and winner of DRPH Season 2. I admire that she set out to be a strong dancer, and it took a lot of time and effort for her to fully grow into that performance mindset. She totally could have been "just" a look queen given her height and stature, but she didn't, and that has helped to make her a more striking queen overall. And it's not just about wanting to dance more, but from the very start, she aimed for performances that are really up there in terms of what many drag queens aspire to - Beyoncé numbers. Until you've actually seen a drag show (or maybe a Beyoncé concert), you may not appreciate just how HARD it is to execute those numbers well. And I've watched Dero pour herself into these numbers time and time again, and she's come out all the better for it. Last night's show was a great celebration of this, with at least two high-octane Beyoncé medleys and one more emotional one in the second set. Those numbers alone made me so proud of her progress. And what's crazy is that I feel she still has so many potential avenues for growth - who knows what else she's going to bring to the stage in the years to come.
I almost titled this blog post as some about the next generation of drag, but I realized that's not really true. There are already many younger queens out there, including the likes of Xitrina, who better represent the true "next" generation of O Diva. But I think the likes of Elivra and Dero represent the next superstars of drag - true headliners among the O Divas that will carry on the bar's legacy for drag excellence.
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