Yvie Oddly reps for the weirdos and raps for her life leading the RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 11 Tour
The self-proclaimed "feisty bitch" literally bent over backwards to show her charisma, uniqueness, nerve, and talent on the show.
At least one RuPaul’s Drag Race winner seemingly had the race sewn up from the moment the queens entered the workroom. Throughout her march to victory, season six champ Bianco Del Rio looked like the crown was hers for some other queen to try to knock off her bouffant.
Then, there are Drag Race winners like Season 11’s Yvie Oddly, who have risen to the occasion right before the eyes of the audience, the judges, and her competition. The self-proclaimed “feisty bitch” literally bent over backwards to show her charisma, uniqueness, nerve, and talent. And despite her sincere, understanding demeanor on the show, she also clearly had come to slay.
“I’ve just always been really hyper-competitive,” says Yvie. “Ever since I found out about Darwinism, I was like, ‘Oh shit, I’m gonna have to compete to survive.’ But also, it’s just something that I really enjoy because I feel like the best chances you get to learn who you are and how to grow are when you’re competing.”
The performer, now touring the U.S. and Canada alongside her season 11 sisters, points to the lack of competition as the key difference between performing on the hit reality show and taking their acts on the road. “When you’re working together on the show, you’re directly competing,” Oddly says. “So while it is possible to form friendships and really bond with the girls, when you’re all out on the road and your goal together is to just put on a good show, you really get to learn and enjoy these girls a whole lot more.”
Fans who check out the Season 11 Tour live — with a line-up that includes Nina West, Silky Nutmeg Ganache, Brooke Lynn Hytes, A’keria C. Davenport, Plastique Tiara, Kahanna Montrese, and Ariel Versace — might learn a whole lot more about their girl Yvie Oddly. Following up her Drag Race victory by releasing the gritty-goofy trap track “Dolla Store” and her hip-hop team-up with Cazwell and Craig C. on “Weirdo,” it turns out that rapper Yvie Oddly spits rhymes like a boss.
“I always joke-rapped with my friends, or I’d make these angry raps whenever I was being grounded by my parents,” Yvie recalls with a laugh. “But I never thought of myself as a rapper because it felt like a different skin that I had to wear and one that wasn’t necessarily mine. But jumping into it from just this perspective of, ‘I want to have fun and I want to see what it’s like to make music,’ I really enjoyed tapping into this side of myself that I didn’t even know I had.”
Voss Events presents RuPaul’s Drag Race: Season 11 Tour performs Thursday, July 18, at the Lincoln Theatre, 1215 U St. NW. Tickets are $37 to $120. Call 877-435-9849 or visit www.thelincolndc.com.
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