On Super Bowl Sunday, Shi-Queeta Lee’s Tailgate Drag Brunch at Bethesda Blues & Jazz served up grits, wings and a huge helping of YASSSS!

Have you ever gone to karaoke and experienced physical pain because the person singing was off-beat, off-key or unconvincing? This brunch was the opposite of that. The beautiful and talented Shiqueeta Lee, along with Nellie’s Drag Brunch regulars Kabuki B. Lee, Sasha Adams, Riley Knoxx, Jessica Spaulding and Porcelain St. Clair lip-synced for their LIFE and let their personalities (and enormous wigs) fill up the entire room.

We were treated to the hits of divas like Tina Turner and Donna Summer, as well as excellent replicas of stage performances of Liza Minelli and Beyoncé. And you can’t do a Super Bowl event without paying homage to Lady Gaga. The commitment to the characters was just campy enough to be joyful and fun without being ridiculous. When not marveling at the spot-on impressions, I was being blown away by their dazzling outfits and sultry choreography.

Shi-Queeta Lee added an extra layer of entertainment with her hilarious emceeing. She never missed an opportunity to tease the audience or crack an expertly timed joke. To top it all off, she can SING. Ms. Lee serenaded several Aquarius attendees with Happy Birthday and ended the show with a beautiful rendition of Whitney Houston’s “I Have Nothing.” A bitch may be 52, but she’s also fabulous, fearless and funny as all get-out.

At a time when a man accused of fraud and sexual assault can become President and a team can blow a 25 point lead in the most watched sporting event in the nation, it’s nice to witness the magic of music and makeup. If you want to experience a beautiful escape from all the negativity, you can see the girls at Bethesda Blues & Jazz again on Sunday, March 12 for a Drag Salute to Dreamgirls or at their next drag brunch. Take some dollar bills to tip the performers and have a great time!

Final Grade: A

www.bethesdabluesjazz.com
www.adragsalutetothedivas.com/

About The Author

Stephanie Taylor

Co-Editor/Entertainment Reporter

She may be a traffic engineer by day (hence the ‘stopsigngirl’ alias), but do not let her technical skills or multiple calculators fool you. Stephanie Taylor has a way with words. She will destroy any opponent in Scrabble, and get 50 points for using all 7 of her letters in the word “destroy.” She can a-n-n-i-h-i-l-a-t-e you in a spelling bee, having competed in no less than ten as a child. She uses correct punctuation in her text messages. It’s no wonder that copy editing comes naturally to her, and she is happy to fine tune the work of other writers before it reaches TRR readers.

Proofreading is not all that Stephanie loves to do. Regular reading without the proof is just fine, and she also loves to write. In fact, Steph has been writing since the tender age of 6 when she penned her would-be bestseller Mouse in Jail. It “would be” if all literary critics were in Kindergarten. Since elementary school, Stephanie has helped publish newsletters, yearbooks, and the Arts & Entertainment section of The Rice Thresher, Rice University’s student newspaper.

Stephanie’s other gigs have included singing her heart out in the chorus of My Fair Lady in Houston, doing improv comedy in front of hundreds of people in Atlanta, and teaching A.P. English in Los Angeles. She loves to travel and have cultural adventures like tubing down a river in Ecuador, dancing in a South Asian festival, or riding a ferry from Italy for 19 hours just to get real Greek food. Cooking and Yoga are also among Stephanie’s list of favorite things to do, but she cannot do them at the same time.

This native Texan genuinely adores reporting on entertainment as much as she loves to entertain, and is looking forward to learning more about what the D.C. area has to offer and sharing that news with you.

Stephanie Taylor also likes to write about herself in the third person.

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