There were two moments on last year’s Drag Race: All Winners season where it suddenly looked as if All Stars 4 victor Monét X Change was pulling into the lead for the crown of all crowns. First up was her outrageously brilliant spoken-word lip-sync from 80s sitcom Designing Women. Clad in an acid-yellow skirt suit and latex fascinator, like a psychedelic incarnation of a British royal, she assassinated odds-on favourite Jinkx Monsoon in a head-to-head mimed monologue.

The second was in the penultimate variety show. Poised in a shimmering Grecian robe, she sang the aria ‘Vi ravviso, o luoghi ameni’ from Bellini’s 19th-century opera La Sonnambula, in a perfect operatic bass. The word ‘iconic’ is overused, but when we talk about those moments on Drag Race (the ones that make you drop the stem of your coupe glass; the ones that burn your laptop screen with repeated rewatches), no other will do. It was iconic. 

‘On All Stars 4, I had mentioned it to Ru in one of my walkthroughs,’ X Change says of her singing ability, over Zoom from LA where she sits with an eye-popping number of shoes behind her, filling up half her back wall. ‘I remember his eyebrows (the little bit he has left, like me) kind of stood up on his head. I should have taken that as a cue that I should do this.’

In the end, despite an overwhelming reaction to the aria, she placed as runner-up to Monsoon. But it is moments, and not just crowns, that make drag superstars, and X Change’s status as one of the most accomplished, versatile and constantly surprising queens on the world stage was sealed. 

Since that appearance, X Change has seen her opera career take off, having made a debut with Minnesota Opera earlier this year. Happily, she has also integrated opera performance into her new solo show, Life Be Lifein’, which forms her first outing at the Fringe. 

‘I’m going to be in beautiful hair, beautiful make-up, just taking my booming bass voice to really celebrate,’ she says. What X Change loves most about singing bass while presenting as feminine is ‘the mindfuck of it all, the gender fuck. It’s just . . . it’s so shocking. It’s jarring, but so sexy and so fierce.’

The show will, as drag does, showcase more than one skill, and comprises storytelling and stand-up alongside opera. Like all queens, X Change has had to become a polymath in fashion, emceeing, make-up, lip-syncing, dance, comedy and more. But her first inroad into drag was through performing and music. She started singing in sixth grade and went on to take a BA in opera performance and music education. One day she dreams of starring as Sarastro in a drag version of The Magic Flute (which we are here for with bells on).

Since RuPaul launched Drag Race in 2009, X Change says she has seen the art grow more accessible and gain more recognition. ‘Drag queens are entrepreneurs, drag queens are on morning chat shows, drag queens are winning Emmys,’ she notes. But in recent years, the scene in America has entered a dark period, with pressure from the far right resulting in drag being effectively banned in several states. 

‘I think the worst thing we can do is run away and hide and to ever give these people an inkling of a thought that they have won,’ X Change insists. ‘Because when they think they have won, it empowers them more and they want to keep doing it.’ Instead, she says, it’s important for drag allies to stand alongside queens, support local drag shows, and tell the world that drag is a beautiful art. ‘Fight with us and show up with us, as opposed to letting us fight for ourselves.’

Monét X Change: Life Be Lifein’, Underbelly Bristo Square, 2–15 August, 9.15pm.