by kevin perry
When you emerge from darkness into light, the sensory overload can be bracing. The rods and cones in your retina churn valiantly to process a spectrum of candy-colored splendor, waltzing in kaleidoscopic precision from your irises to your suddenly magnified mind.
And once your vision is vibrant, there’s no going back into the proverbial closet.
“I was once limited in how I saw the world,” Monét X Change reminisced. “I thought that the world was only red and blue, and those eight colors you get in the crayon box at elementary school. And then I grew up, and I graduated . . . instead of having blue, I had cerulean. Instead of having all these muted and basic colors, I allow myself to play with everything. And the world is so much more beautiful and so much brighter. So I think that everyone should experience that. And that’s the drag. Let drag take you and transcend your perception in something bigger, better, brighter and fiercer.”
Monét’s artistry has yielded stardom, sisterhood, touring majesty and a stunning new album. But before we delve into the pot of gold at the end of the Grey Rainbow, let’s explore its inception, shall we?
HOW IT STARTED
In a lip-sync world, be an opera star. That’s the lesson we all learned from RuPaul’s All Stars Season 7, Episode 11 when the divine Ms. X slayed an aria.
That’s Italian for dayyum!
In one flawless moment, Monét not only ignited her already blinding star wattage, but she also elevated the perception of drag. This wasn’t a party trick or a novelty act; it was classical training on full, fierce, flambé display, and it was her entrée into drag divadom.
“A lot of it came through opera, weirdly,” Monét said. “I had just graduated. I had taught for a little while, because I got my degree in music ed, and I was like, ‘I’m over this.’ So then I got a really good opportunity to perform with the Portland Opera for a year.”
But — get ready to clutch your pearls — the skills don’t always pay the bills.
“I was home back here in New York,” Monét said. “I had no money, and RuPaul’s Drag Race Season Three had just aired and I was like, ‘That’s fun.’”
From understatement to unstoppable, Monét took the NYC scene by sassy storm. “I was working a full-time job at the hotel . . . and then I would go out every night from 11 pm to 5 am and start dragging. First I was just doing it for fun. Then I got my first gig and then I got two gigs and it just snowballed from there and I just quit my day job and I just took on drag full time.”
Monét was in the driver’s seat and her stylish stilettos were punching the pedal to creative nirvana. “Drag is such a multidisciplinary art form,” Monét said. “You are the writer, the director, the dancer, the comedian, the host. You’re doing all of these things to entertain a room full of people. And so I learned to do all these things in order to be a successful working New York City queen.”
And the rest is herstory. After winning Season 4 of All Stars, Monét rocketed into the drag stratosphere, which brings us to a bevy of show-stopping, jaw-dropping, eye-popping projects you simply must experience. Shantay and stay a whil
HOW IT’S GOING
If you haven’t heard Monét’s new album, Grey Rainbow Vol. 1 yet, drop everything and drop it like it’s hawt. Well, finish reading this article and THEN listen to the triumphant tracks. Monét fuses R&B longing, club urgency, and ol’ fashioned dreamy beats into a velvet audio experience that caresses your ear-holes (consensually).
“Becoming a recording artist is such an interesting thing, “ Monét said. “Anything in classical, any other little pops that I did before, being in the studio and finding harmonies and vocals and stacking vocals and making pads and making interesting vocal architecture was really fun for me. And kind of like the way I dove into opera music, I fell in love with it, and I got obsessed with the different ways of learning how to do it and making it unique to me. It’s kind of the same way I dove into this R&B. I wanted to infuse as much Monét into the music as I can to make it feel authentically like myself.”
Monét also pours herself proudly into the Sibling Rivalry podcast, a gabfest in which she collabs with the sublime Bob the Drag Queen. The dazzling duo are taking their show on the road, but prepare to clap like a kween if you want to hear their hits. “It’s just literally a live taping of the podcast; Bob and I are not doing any musical acts. I mean, when we did the show for Netflix is a Joke, if the audience is nice enough to us, if they are good enough, if they scream and clap loud enough, maybe at the end we might do a little bonus, little ditty, each take five minutes, five to 10 minutes, do our own thing on the stage. If the audience deserves it but that’s TBD.”
Aside from the potential promise of pop performance paradise, Monét vows to expose the (wo)men behind the curtain. “Bob and I are already so unfiltered, and we are not queens who feel the need to have some false perception or persona of who we are online. That’s never been our zhuzh. We’re really, really, really, really, really ourselves for better and for worse.”
As an aperitif, X Change serves some tea with a dash of shade. “We’re asking the hard hitting questions as to why am I so much more beautiful than Bob? We’re asking questions in real time, and letting people see how the magic happens on our Sibling Rivalry podcast.”
And if you miss the live show? Monét has a mantra.
HOW DARE YOU?
“Sibling Rivalry Live is probably the best show that you’ll see of 2024 and when it’s gone out of your city in San Diego, you’re going to be really mad, if you missed it. So I would recommend, personally, on a personal level, I would recommend that people do whatever they can. Send your kids to the babysitter. Let somebody watch your Nana for the evening. Come out to the show and have a good time with your good sisters, Monét and Bob.”
But Monét has more HOW DARE YOU up her silk sleeves. When the topic turns to the demonization of drag, Queen Monét becomes royally indignant.
“This is 2024. If you are letting politicians, pastors, faceless people on Twitter tell you how to feel about something, grow up. Watch something. Inform your own opinion. Experience the world how it’s meant to be experienced. Through your eyes, right? Go see a drag show. Go see a queen on Broadway. Go see a queen in an Emmy Award-winning show. See it for yourself. Don’t let people tell you how to feel. Why would you want anyone to tell you how to feel? No
Monét has seen the rainbow. She transformed it from Grey to gorgeous. Her vision has carried her to the heights of creativity, and she’s generous enough to bestow her beautiful perspective to the world. Let’s follow Monét’s example and bathe in humanity’s harmonious hues. Color us impressed.
Sibling Rivalry: Live Podcast, starring Monét X Change and Bob The Drag Queen, will be presented on Thursday, August 8 at Balboa Theatre in downtown San Diego. sandiegotheatres.org
