What Bob the Drag Queen Is Listening to Right Now
Bob the Drag Queen is best known as the season-eight winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race, but soon she’ll become an HBO fixture. In the network’s new docuseries We’re Here, Bob and fellow Drag Race stars Eureka O’Hara and Shangela hit conservative American towns in the hopes of building bridges to acceptance. The queens put on drag shows with natives who seek out the artform as a way to work through aspects of themselves. In the premiere, one of the newly minted drag daughters is a mother who, upon her own daughter’s coming out, asked her church to pray but has since shed her antiquated worldview. The show is funny and heartwarming, but it also doesn’t flinch from looking at the bigotry that pervades the American consciousness.
Bob’s music taste similarly hinges on an inquisitiveness about human behavior. In her live shows, she likes to perform to her own music as well as songs by Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, Ella Fitzgerald, and Kesha (one of her all-time favorites). “I don’t wanna say my taste is eclectic because everyone always says, ‘I listen to everything’ and the truth is I don’t listen to everything. I listen to hip-hop and R&B a lot, and every once in a while random artists and genres will creep their way into my earbuds,” she says. “But I also love really gay music.”
Below, Bob shares what she’s been jamming to while hunkered down at home in Washington Heights, Manhattan. She may not want to call her taste eclectic but her choices say otherwise.
Billy Joel: An Innocent Man
Bob the Drag Queen: Six years ago, I decided to listen to this album from beginning to end just because I wanted to hear the song “The Longest Time.” Now I find myself referencing the album to make a lot of different points. On the song “Keeping the Faith,” he says the good old days weren’t always good, and tomorrow isn’t as bad as it seems, which is a really great way of saying you can look forward. “Tell Her About It” is about not letting your ego get in the way of having a chance at a great connection with someone, and a reminder that when you’re with someone, tell them you love them, tell them they’re great. The best line in that song is, “Even though you may not have done anything wrong/Will that be a consolation when she’s gone.” Are you really gonna stick your own neck out on the line? Is it really worth losing the person you love just because you don’t want to let go of your ego? I could do this with almost every song on the album.
Shea Diamond: “I Am Her”
This is a great look at what it means to be othered in America from Shea Diamond’s perspective as a trans woman. Her voice is just to die for. She does the theme song for We’re Here and I’m so excited to even have a connection with her. I first heard her song “American Pie,” which is about deciding you’re allowed to take up space and deserve a piece of the pie like everyone else despite being othered, despite being black, despite being trans. “I Am Her” is a bop that stays forever playing for me.
Todrick Hall: Haus Party series
I just love music that celebrates queerness unabashedly, and I’d love Todrick even if I didn’t know him. A lot of mainstream queer artists will still change pronouns in their songs so people feel more comfortable. Todrick is like, I’m gonna use the pronouns I wanna use, I’m gonna get dressed in full drag, and I’m gonna—pardon the expression—be faggoty, and let people see how celebrated you can be being an out, queer artist. Having an artist like this really embracing queer culture and being hired to choreograph for Beyoncé, or Taylor Swift giving him a producer credit for the “You Need to Calm Down” video? That’s a big deal.
Originally Appeared on Pitchfork
