Checking in with drag superstar Bebe Zahara Benet

GayCities’ New York Editor, JJ Keyes checked in with Bebe Zahara Benet, performing artist, model, spokesperson, winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race, and star of Queendom! at Don’t Tell Mama

Home: New York
Hails from: Cameroon
Relationship Status: Single and mingling
Career: Model/performing artist
Favorite City: Paris

Bebe Zahara Benet!  You have been all over the world since winning the first season of RuPaul’s Drag Race. Tell us all about Queendom!

Queendom is a one-woman show which creates an oppurtunity for the audience to have an experience with African royalty.

Song and dance?
The music is all original and fuses tribal and western sounds together, there will be story telling, great visuals, and the show will take you to another place you have not yet visited.

Don’t Tell Mama is so much fun.  We can get dinner there and see the show, right? Anything on the menu you recommend?
Well I recommend myself from the menu lol lol

Would you consider yourself an “uptown girl” or a “downtown girl”?
I blend in all areas, you know they say, “Do what the Romans do” when you are in Rome.

Now, we became huge fans of the sensational Bebe Zahara Benet on Season One of RuPaul’s Drag Race on Logo. You were fabulous!  What have you been up to this year?
I have been working on this one-woman show, which I am going to do an international and national tour with it this summer/fall, also working on my next single coming out the end of May.  All exciting stuff.

What was it like watching Season 2?
It was great watching it, the girls represent another side of the art form, I just hope they enjoy the ride and remember we are all ambassadors of our craft.

People must recognize you on the street all the time.
I am recognized all over but the one that got me was me in the subway sitting down and this guy kept staring at me, when I got off at my stop he got of too and followed me and walked closer to me. Then he stopped me and asked me if I was Bebe, when I said yes, he started tearing and said that was not his stop but he could not let himself go without finding out who I was.  He talked about how my persona inspired him and some hardships he’s gone through. That hit home. But you know what?  Even when I try to wear glasses or disguise myself somehow, people still know me.

Your video for “I’m the Shit (Picchiotti)” is amazing.  I love the runway sequence.  You actually started out in the fashion industry as a male model in Paris.  Who are some of your favorite designers? Anyone we should keep an eye out for?
Me lol. I love D&G, Cavali, Christian Dior, Galiano, Valentino, Giorgo Armani, Givenchy, Jean Paul Gautier, Christin Lacroix, and many African designers like Alphadi, Hamara, Tobaz.

New York performers?
I love Perppermint and Amanda Lepore.

Best places in New York to catch a good drag show?
Lips is good with shows, as well as Escualita.

Queendom will surely give us a run for our money.
Queendom is not a drag show–it is a musical performance.

Well I’m sure I’ll have such a high from the show I’ll want to stay out all night and grab a mimosa at Elmo heading to bed.
Mimosa’s are not good and healthy for you that late so you will be going to bed without one. lol.

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