Interview: Monét X Change

In the penultimate episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars season seven, the queens are invited to participate in a variety showcase. Tasked with wowing RuPaul and the fellow judges with their miscellaneous talents, most queens choose to go down the traditional route – lip-syncing or live singing their own songs. But for one queen, the episode provided the perfect opportunity to share one of their first loves: opera.

“I came to find my voice in college,” Monét X Change says about her introduction to the artform. We’re catching up about her upcoming Edinburgh Fringe debut Life Be Lifein', in which she fuses her comedy chops with her insanely impressive operatic skills. “I think that since I did that operatic performance on All Stars, people have been really excited to hear me sing. To me, it's so wild to see people responding in such a big way to classical music because growing up and taking lessons and getting my degree in it, I never thought that people would be so excited to hear a bass baritone sing.”

It was Monét’s middle school teacher that initially encouraged her to sing, which led to her auditioning for an arts high school before going on to study music at college, where she discovered and fell in love with opera. “I had a very fierce voice teacher that was... some would describe her as a bitch. I would describe her as a really great teacher that made sure you did your shit. And because of that, I was able to randomly pick an aria like two days before the talent show [on Drag Race] because of that amazing training I had.”

Draped in a glorious cream dress, with a sky high wig styled to perfection, Monét sang Vincenzo Bellini’s ‘La Sonnambula’ with the kind of gusto and emotion that left the judges wide eyed and open mouthed. But even before this standout performance, Monét X Change had long been a fan favourite. On her very first appearance on Drag Race in 2018, she broke the internet during the first runway challenge, crafting a dress made of kitchen sponges and initiating a sea of memes in the process. She was then inducted into the All Stars Hall of Fame alongside Trinity the Tuck after winning RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars season four in 2019, becoming the first Black inductee into the Hall of Fame.

Monét X Change, photo by Victor Jeffreys II

Outside of Drag Race though, Monét has cast herself as an all-rounder; a multifaceted talent in music, film, podcasting, presenting and more. In February this year, for example, she starred as the Duchess of Krakenthorp in the Minnesota Opera's production of The Daughter of the Regiment.

“It was so exhilarating to get to see my two loves – opera and drag – coming together. I haven't done a role or been back in that world since 2013 so I was nervous going in. But when I got the chance to do it, I found myself dusting off my old music books, using all those skills that I learned so long ago and activating them and really being a good little musician.”

Though this role was her first foray back into the world of opera in some time, Monét has still managed to weave the artform into her general creative practice. On her 2019 debut EP Unapologetically, for example, she opened with a gorgeous version of ‘Ave Maria’.

“I wanted to really give people a taste of all the types of music that I like,” she explains of the EP. “I opened with ‘Ave Maria’, which is so near and dear to me and is how I first learned to sing. But then I wanted to end the EP with ‘Gently’ because R&B is such a big part of my life too.”

Later this year, Monét will be releasing her first full-length album, which she hopes will showcase even more of her musical tastes and the diversity of her musicality. “Unapologetically was a taster to that,” she adds, “and my new album is going to be a full dive into the musical queries that are Monét.”

Away from music, Monét has her fingers in many pies, all of which have led to that aforementioned fan favourite status. She previously had her web talk show The X Change Rate, and then there’s the multi-award-winning Sibling Rivalry podcast, which she hosts with her drag sister Bob the Drag Queen, and which she believes was “the first Ru girl podcast”. But despite being booked and busy, Monét’s sights are set firmly on Edinburgh.

“I want to make the show the best thing I've done in my career so far,” she says. “When people leave my Edinburgh show, I want it to be like, ‘Oh, holy shit. Monét X Change is on the next level’. I'm putting a lot of heart and a lot of soul into it, and I really think people are really going to be pleasantly pleased and surprised at how fabulous the show's gonna be. I'm already so proud of it.”

Drag has held significance in numerous artforms for centuries, from the classical dance-drama of Kabuki in 17th century Japan to the plays of Shakespeare in Elizabethan England. Though Baroque operas included early examples of drag, in contemporary contexts, drag and opera don’t make for a conventional pairing. But Monét is changing that perception and believes that drag has a transformative power in every artform – literally, physically and internally.

"I think that people respond to the liberty and freedom that drag offers," she notes. "Drag is one of these art forms where it really helps people to discover who they are. I didn't start doing drag for Drag Race; I started doing drag because I learned so much about my identity. I learned so much about who I was and how I interact with the world. Drag was something that really made me grow up; it taught me a lot about myself."

"I was so content just doing drag in New York City," she continues, "and had I never ever got on Drag Race, I would still be doing drag happily, proudly, freely in New York City. Just living my best life.”

Drag Race Alumni in Edinburgh

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