BEBE ZAHARA BENET RELEASES “HEAVY”
Photo Credit: Darin Kamnetz
Watch “Heavy” HERE
BeBe Zahara Benet, the iconic winner of the inaugural season of RuPaul's Drag Race, returns today with her thumping, bass-laden single, “Heavy.” “Heavy” follows Benet’s 2022 double release of “Waiting” and “Smoke Signals” and chart-topping AfroPop anthems “Banjo” and “Body on Me.” Fifteen singles in, the new release marks a sonic departure from Benet’s Afrobeat roots, but showcases the artist’s slick flow, sharp wit and uncanny ability to brag with charm.
Photo Credit: Darin Kamnetz
“As an artist, it’s always important to surprise my audience and keep them on their toes,” Benet says of the brassy banger. “‘Heavy’ is unexpected but is very much aligned with where I am as a person and as an artist in this moment. I’m telling my story and having fun.”
“Heavy” arrives with a futuristic and fashion-forward music video helmed by Assaad Yacoub, who previously directed Benet’s viral “Jungle Kitty” and “Banjo” visuals. “Heavy” is written by Ben Obi (producer), BeBe Zahara Benet, Taylor Hamilton and Diego Wyatt; and is released via Producer Entertainment Group/Warner Brothers/Savannah Street.
BeBe’s debut comedy special (Africa is Not a Country) is out now via Amazon Prime and Apple TV. BeBe is currently featured on the debut season of Drag Me to Dinner, out now on Hulu. She’ll bring NUBIA: A Brave New World to Seattle’s Moore Theatre on Juneteenth.
News about BeBe Zahara Benet’s forthcoming debut album and headlining solo tour will be announced shortly.
About BeBe Zahara Benet
International recording artist, TV personality and spokesmodel BeBe Zahara Benet breaks the drag mold. Born and raised in the Western African country of Cameroon, BeBe moved to Minneapolis 20 years ago to complete his college studies and be closer to his family. In that time span, he has left an indelible mark on the entertainment world.
BeBe’s first major performance was alongside pop diva Cyndi Lauper in a performance of “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” during LGBT Pride. Soon, BeBe was wowing audiences with his international flavor and regal stage presence. In 2009, BeBe was crowned the winner of the inaugural season of RuPaul's Drag Race. He got right to work churning out hit music and unforgettable live shows.
BeBe Zahara Benet: Facebook / Instagram / Twitter / YouTube / Spotify
Photo Credit: Alvin Washington
Photo Credit: Alvin Washington
TAMMIE BROWN’S HALLOWEEN SPOOKTACULAR PREMIERES OCTOBER 21ST ON OUTTV
Tammie Brown and Kelly Mantle are thrilled to return to OUTtv with their brand-new holiday special, Tammie Brown’s Halloween Spooktacular. Premiering October 21 and streaming throughout the trick-and-treat season, the show stars everyone’s favorite comedic drag duo as they fight ghouls, goblins, and crazed fans to keep their Halloween Spooktacular afloat. The hilarious hour of comedy and hijinks includes negligent bodyguards, botched fashion shows, and meet-and-greets gone wrong. Luckily, Kelly Mantle is there to take matters into her own hands… so what could go wrong? Tammie Brown’s Halloween Spooktacular features two new singles by Tammie Brown, “Soothsayer” and “Pumpkin Blaster,” and guest star appearances by Sonique Love, April Carrión, Fena Barbitall, Todd Glass, and the Sugarbaker Twins.
“I love the variety show format,” says Tammie Brown, the drag persona created by Keith Glen Schubert who is best known for her stand-out appearances on RuPaul's Drag Race and RuPaul's Drag Race All-Stars. She has released four music albums including the popular hit singles, “Port-A-Potty Prostitute” and “Schubert,” and regularly performs all over the world. “Tammie Brown’s Halloween Spooktacular will introduce new music, hilarious sketches, and a myriad of dynamic guests. It will be a rip-roaring event,” she promises.
Tammie Brown’s Halloween Spooktacular also sees the return of Kelly Mantle’s zany alter-ego, Sheila. “People love Sheila because she has no filter, no censor and no shame,” Mantle explains. “She says what we’re all thinking. She’s bold and blunt, but it goes down smooth like a Pumpkin latte mixed with Southern Comfort.”
Kelly Mantle made Oscar history by being the first openly non-binary person to be approved and considered by The Academy for both Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress for their role in the feature film, Confessions of A Womanizer. Mantle is a graduate of Second City in Chicago and has appeared on television in RuPaul's Drag Race, Lucifer, Modern Family and Mike & Molly, among others. Their uncle is the late great Mickey Mantle.
Tammie Brown’s Halloween Spooktacular is directed by John Mark, who also created Tammie Brown and Kelly Mantle’s half-hour comedy series, The Browns, available on OUTtv.
Tammie Brown’s Halloween Spooktacular will be available to stream OUTtv.com and on AppleTV+ via the OUTtv Channel on October 21.
Follow Tammie Brown on IG @planettammie
Follow Kelly Mantle on IG @kellymantle, Twitter @thekellymantle, and FB @ Kelly Mantle
Follow John Mark on IG @johnmarkcreative
RuPaul’s Drag Race Night of the Living Drag
The North American Halloween Tour
Fresh off RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 7, Yvie Oddly stars as The Boogieman in RuPaul’s Drag Race Night of the Living Drag, an extravagantly produced live stage production that draws inspiration from Dante's Divine Comedy. Joining Yvie Oddly in the annual Halloween spectacular will be a cast of sinful RuPaul’s Drag Race queens that have been summoned from the depths of the Boogieman’s fiery hell, including Aquaria the Sloth, Asia O’Hara the Envious, Bosco the Lustful, DeJa Skye the Greedy, Kim Chi the Glutton, Lady Camden the Proud, Rosé the Vain, and Vanessa Vanjie the Wrathful. Presented by Voss Events, in collaboration with World of Wonder, RuPaul’s Drag Race Night of the Living Drag will take place in eight North American cities including in Chicago (at the Rosemont Theatre on 10/25) and New York (at Kings Theatre on October 30).
“Prepare for chills and thrills in this year’s production of Night of the Living Drag,” promises Yvie Oddly. “As the ultimate queen of curiosities, I am excited to host a fierce and frightful exploration into all of world’s most wicked sins.”
RuPaul’s Drag Race Night of the Living Drag will feature spine-chilling performances, haunted scenery, and macabre costumes; all meant to shock and amaze. “We are pulling out all the stops with this production,” says the live show’s producer Brandon Voss. “It will be an immersive experience with horrifying tableaus, state-of-the-art lighting and a spook-tacular sound system. We advise audiences to prepare themselves to be dragged into the deepest depths of the Boogieman’s hell.”
The RuPaul’s Drag Race Night of the Living Drag tour launches October 20th in Houston and runs through October 30 in New York with stops in Chicago, Boston, Washington DC, and more.
Tickets for RuPaul’s Drag Race Night of the Living Drag are available at VossEvents.com. Ticket prices range from $50 - $99. There are also a limited number of VIP passes that include a pre-show meet-and-greet available for $249.
CAUGHT IN THE ACT: A MEMOIR BY COURTNEY ACT
Behind SHANE JENEK’s rise to global fame as beloved drag queen COURTNEY ACT is a story of searching for and finding oneself. Told with Courtney’s trademark candor and wit, CAUGHT IN THE ACT: A MEMOIR (Pantera Press: September 13, 2022) is a hilarious, often scandalous, and at times heartbreaking, peek into the entertainment icon’s journey towards understanding gender, sexuality and identity.
In CAUGHT IN THE ACT: A MEMOIR, Courtney writes about growing up in Brisbane, Australia in the 80s and 90s and how adolescent Shane’s unconventional angst was pitted against the love of his traditionally wholesome parents. She shares tales of the thrill in discovering the Sydney drag scene and then unflinchingly recounts her adventures into its seedier side that led her to dabbling in methamphetamines and multiple sexual encounters with a broad spectrum of sexualities and genders including straight-identifying men.
Of course, Courtney also dives deep into her wild ride into the world of entertainment, losing so many TV reality shows and finally winning one. There's lots of Drag Race tea spilled, too, including her shaky introduction to Adore Delano and oh, the time RuPaul blocked her on Twitter.
In CAUGHT IN THE ACT: A MEMOIR, Courtney Act does what she does best: she dazzles and titillates. At the same time, her honest reflections help readers to reexamine and appreciate wrong choices they may have made that ironically helped steer them toward the right path on their own life’s journey.
Ash Gordon Releases New Single “Cosmic Colors” feat. Trixie Mattel
June 3, 2022 – LGBTQIA+ music maven Ash Gordon is making her long-anticipated debut as a solo artist with her new single “Cosmic Colors” featuring world-renowned drag queen Trixie Mattel. A feel good track complete with acid-trippy lyrics, “Cosmic Colors” brings a taste of early 2000’s girl bands and modernizes it for 2022 and is Ash’s self-proclaimed “favorite piece of ear candy ever.”
“Cosmic Colors” is available to stream now at https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/ashgordon/cosmic-colors-feat-trixie-mattel
On the new release, Ash shares: “If Scott Pilgrim vs. The World had a female lead, this would be the song you hear when she beats the bonus level and makes out with her manic pixie dreamboat.”
“My favorite songwriter in the world has teamed up with my favorite drag queen in the world,” adds Trixie.
Alongside the release, Ash Gordon has announced that her debut solo double albums, Ash Gordon and Ash Gordon II, will be available on July 15. Complete with collaborations from Trixie Mattel, Alaska Thunderfuck, BONAVEGA, Earl St. Clair, Bob the Drag Queen, and many others, the albums provide sixteen psychedelic songs that perfectly encompass Ash’s lipstick garage-rock vision.
Ash Gordon Tracklist
1. Alright Alright Alright
2. Good On Ya
3. I Wanna Be A DJ
4. Cosmic Colors (feat. Trixie Mattel)
5. Nice Personality
6. Feel Like This (feat. Marty James)
7. YES
8. Come and Get It (feat. Earl St. Clair)
Ash Gordon II Tracklist
1. Everyone Is A Little Bit Gay (feat. Alaska Thunderfuck)
2. WIN/WIN
3. Viva Electric (feat. Bob The Drag Queen)
4. Chicka Boom Boom
5. Hit Different
6. All I See Is Gold (feat. BONAVEGA)
7. Connection
8. I Want It
Ash Gordon is a guitar slingin' New Yorker residing in LA. As founder of The Blah Blah Blahs, she's been styling songs for music artists, film, and TV over 10 years and will be making her debut as a solo artist with an upcoming lipstick garage-pop double album featuring the likes of Trixie Mattel, Alaska, BONAVEGA, and many more.
Drag DJ-production Duo JAWBREAKERS Release Debut Music Video - "Boyfriend"
Kali Forni-Kate and Sabrina Babyslut are drag producer/DJs! Together, they are known as the Jawbreakers. In their first EP, Just A Taste - being released through Vicious Recordings, the label that discovered Avicii when he was a teenager, and released his first ten records - the duo dish out delicious dance, pop and tech house songs that reflect on their live DJ shows. "Boyfriend," the EP’s first single, is out now. It’s video emphasizes how Kali and Sabrina not only DJ their parties, they are their parties.
Just A Taste, the debut EP from the drag-duo DJ-production team known as Jawbreakers, dishes out dance, pop and tech house songs suitable for clubs and partygoers at home enjoying a late-night kiki. “The EP is a sampling platter of beats with something for everyone,” says Kali Forni-Kate of Jawbreakers. “It’s Just A Taste, because there is 100% more to come,” adds her collaborator, Sabrina Babyslut. With songs like “This Is Dirty” and “Ciao Bella,” the EP reflects the group’s live DJ shows that emphasize how Jawbreakers are not only playing the party, they are the party. "Boyfriend," the EP’s first release, is a modern-day remake of Ashlee Simpson’s 2005 hit that chronicled her stealing Wilmer Valderrama from Lindsay Lohan. The Jawbreaker version features vocals from Amunda (formerly from Operator Please). Its accompanying music video, directed by Nyssa Mitchell, conceptualized by Jawbreakers with editing and FX by Zachary McSweeney, is a technicolor dream, with Kali and Sabrina dressed in eye-catching lewks. The Just A Taste EP is being distributed through Extrovert Music, a division of Vicious Recordings, and will be available on Apple Music, Spotify and all digital platforms on April 1. Jawbreaker’s “Boyfriend” music video is available on YouTube.
Kali and Sabrina first met in 2016, performing in a Britney Spears tribute show in Melbourne. They immediately clicked as both came from similar middle-class, nuclear family backgrounds, discovered drag via their passions for musical theatre, and began their individual adventures into the art form after high school. When they learned of their shared interest in music production, they decided to join forces as a DJ duo. They bought a mixer and six months later they were in business.
“The biggest hurdle was deciding who stands where in the booth,” Kali explains. “Sabrina is left-handed and I’m right. We had to fight over who uses the left and right DJ decks. Swapping throws off our groove!”
Their Jawbreakers name harkens back to the iconic candy from their childhoods and the 1998 teen film that starred Rose McGowan, Rebecca Gayheart and Julie Benz as the “it” girl clique who reign supreme in their high school. “It’s a reflection on how the drag that we do is heavily inspired by pop culture,” Kali continues. “Like the girls in the movie, we dress to have fun and through the music we play and the energy that we exude, it makes everyone want to party with us!”
The duo has already headlined several international festivals including Sydney Mardi Gras and Milkshake Festival in Netherlands. Their next big gig will be Summer Camp Festival where they will perform alongside Years and Years, Big Freedia and The Veronicas. They are also slated to perform the next Goodlife U18 event, as well as Adelaide Festival, St Kilda Festival and Melbourne Pride.
“We have been keeping an eye on Jawbreakers for several years,” says Damien Platt of Extrovert Music, a division of Vicious Recordings, the label that discovered Avicii when he was a teenager, and released his first ten records. “When Kali and Sabrina presented us with demos of the EP, we were instantly fans of the music. It's fun, its camp and its quality music.”
Jawbreakers is not Extrovert Music’s first foray into gay dance floor music. Label co-founder Andy Van, of the band Madison Avenue, had a #1 dance anthem with “Don’t Call Me Baby”. More recently, Sgt Slick’s recut of “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!” went gold and has become a major queer anthem. “Extrovert Music is focusing on dance pop/disco/commercial/cross over releases,” Platt continues. “A majority of our new signings and existing roster who identify as LGBTQIA+ are producing this sound.”
While Jawbreakers’ unique look has helped attract attention to their work, Sabrina admits that performing as hyper feminine drag artists has made it harder for fans and the music industry to take the duo seriously. “We’ve had straight DJs hit on us and others wonder who the random chicks were in the booth,” she explains. “But way more people have shown their support and their desire to see us succeed.”
“We’re lucky to live in an era when queer culture is proving that we can be a force in any and every industry,” Kali adds. “Never underestimate what a queen can achieve. It only makes us work harder.”
Jawbreakers’ “Just A Taste” is being distributed through Extrovert Music and will be available on Apple Music, Spotify and all digital platforms. The “Boyfriend” video is available now on YouTube. Follow on Instagram @ JawbreakersDJ
