By Kevin Ferrisi –
Rupaul’s Drag Race season 3 winner Raja returns to Connecticut, this time to Troupe429 in Norwalk. Raja was the headliner at last year’s Pride in the Park, also in Norwalk, and this year she is back for an intimate performance at the southern Connecticut community bar. This special event was hosted by drag legend Jasmine Rice LaBeija from The Royal House of LaBeija.
Drag fans of all ages lined up outside the door to the John Gram Photos studio, which is located on the second floor, directly above Troupe429, to attend a sold-out meet and greet with the drag royal herself. Fans were greeted by both Raja and Jasmine Rice LaBeija during their photo opportunity.
Jasmine Rice LaBeija started the night with a lip-sync that paid homage to Raja’s Asian roots. She did a mashup of a spoken word lip-sync comedic stand up with Disney’s Mulan, ‘Reflection’. The performance was a perfect way to honor and then introduce Raja to awaiting fans.
The moment the eager crowd was waiting for was upon them. The drag legend hit the stage, performing ‘Déjà Vu‘ featuring Sia by Giorgio Moroder and drag fans were living their best lives. After Raja finished her first number, Jasmine asked her what her favorite thing about Connecticut was and her response was, “My favorite thing about Connecticut so far is bar Troupe429!”
Jasmine closes the first half of the show with a powerful lip-sync of her idol, Whitney Houston’s ‘All The Man That I Need’.
After a short intermission, which gave fans a chance to work their best moves on the dance floor, Raja returned to open the second half with an amazing lip-synced rendition of ‘Black and Gold’ by Sam Sparro giving us Goddess realness.
What happened next gagged the audience! Jasmine Rice LeBeija sang live to Queen’s ‘We Are The Champions’. She sounded amazing and fans were screaming, begging for more.
Raja Gemini or simply Raja, from California, is a drag queen, makeup artist, model best known for her work on the reality TV show America’s Next Top Model, as well as being the season 3 winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race. She later returned to All Stars 7, the first All Winners season of Rupaul’s Drag Race. She placed 5th and won the ‘She Done Already Done Had Herses’ lip-sync tournament.
Jasmine Rice LaBeija comes from the Royal House of LaBeija, a prominent drag family founded by Crystal LaBeija and Lottie LaBeija in 1968 in New York City. Jasmine is known as New York City’s opera-singing Queen. She also was recently featured on Hulu’s new series, Drag Me To Dinner.
Raja closed out the night with one last lip-sync serving us a version of ‘Love To Love You Baby’ by Donna Summer in a sexy sultry silk ensemble she wore on stage. For this number, Raja let go of all inhibition, diving deep into the melody, and became one with the music. She let us know she felt the outpouring of love Connecticut had to share with her.
You can check out Troupe429 here to see their list of scheduled shows.
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