What do a ballerina, a wrestler, a cheerleader, a comedian and a contortionist have in common? They’re all drag queens.
Cheered on by a roomful of the who’s-who of local drag at Eastside Bowl, 12 drag queen contestants were given 90 seconds to do anything but a lipsync performance. Cya Inhale and Vidalia Anne Gentry (VAG for short) — hosts and co-founders of local drag competition SiSSi — challenged queens to show their versatility as they kicked off the first round of the competition’s eighth cycle on April 26.
Versatility and uniqueness are important in the current climate, Gentry insists. Everyone knows what drag is, and everyone has an opinion on it — a fact that she argues was amplified not only by shows like RuPaul’s Drag Race, but also Tennessee lawmakers’ aggressive attempts to restrict it. (Readers may recognize Gentry from her role as an advocate against Tennessee’s anti-drag legislation, which gained national attention in 2023.)
Natalia Stylles
“Drag entertainers are gonna have to really start being ‘drag queens and,’” Gentry tells the Scene. “They’re really gonna have to find what’s their thing that they can do beyond just getting up in glam and lipsyncing somebody else’s music for three-and-a-half minutes.”
For the judges — Inhale, along with last year’s winner Lucy Skrews, musicians The Kentucky Gentlemen and choreographer Chaz Sanders — the contest’s criteria are simple: Did you like it? Were you entertained? Gentry and Inhale wanted something that is less rigid than typical drag pageants, so there is no rubric — just a combined point total derived from judges’ scores and audience votes.
The top-ranking contestant of the first night of competition was Acacia Mercury, who sewed her own pull-away piñata-themed look. Donna Sivan, who performed as a WWE-style wrestler, took second place. Thanks to a twist from “Big Sis” — the competition’s omnipresent but invisible overseer, sort of SiSSi’s Wizard of Oz — one of the bottom four will lipsync against eighth-place contestant Dove Lillian during the second round of competitions on May 10. That night, the contestants will share a performance based on a theme — video games. The top four will proceed to the third and final round, which is scheduled to take place on May 24.
Inhale leads the Music City PrEP drag nurses program, and the HIV prevention organization — along with its neighbor, gay bar Canvas — is a sponsor this year. It’s the first time that SiSSi is donating to Oasis Center’s Just Us program for LGBTQ youth — the organization is matching a $1 donation from every ticket sold.
P!nk!e Thee Al!en
Contestants this year are both longtime performers and novices. One contestant, Nece Sexton, has been doing drag for more than 20 years and took runner-up last cycle, while Allure Ellington Dupree had been doing drag for about a month at the time of the show’s promotional shoot. However, with her art background, Dupree (who is the drag daughter of Play Dance Bar’s Nichole Ellington Dupree, making her Gentry’s sister in the drag family tree) has her makeup down pat.
“I found most people who are successful in drag, this is not the first artistic thing they’ve done in life,” Inhale tells the Scene. “They’ve typically done theater, music, art, painting or graphic design. It’s interesting seeing how those skills do translate. The physical-art people are great at makeup, and the people who did theater typically are more comfortable onstage.”
Gentry is savvy enough to clock the fact that the state’s attempts to ban drag in certain spaces wasn’t ever really about drag anyway.
“It was really all about manipulating the national opinion of Tennessee to say gay is not OK here,” she says. “I think they did manage to be successful in that, because I feel like we’ve seen a decrease in gay tourism — at least in Nashville.”
“I’m not saying that it’s perfect here,” Inhale adds, “but people will assume it’s significantly more hostile than it actually is.”
Over the past eight cycles of competitions, SiSSi has continued to prove that Nashville has a deep drag roster. It reflects what’s already here, while creating a new generation of queens. For Cycle 9, Gentry and Inhale are contemplating an “All-Stars and Legends” theme.
“I do think there is a lot of power in helping people come up, and helping people find their footing with things,” Inhale says. “I remember the people who helped me, and I am always thankful for them and have tried to give back when I can.”
Inhale and Gentry are examples of two queens who have formed an alliance to take each other further than either could manage alone. Besides, Inhale predicts some of the SiSSi competitors will one day be the head bitches in charge, and she wants to be in their good graces.
