During a show at the club Heaven in London on July 19, the recent winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race, Aquaria, was booed off the stage.
The 22-year-old performer was tapped to host the club’s weekly edition of Porn Idol, a stripping competition where 8 contestants vie for a £500 prize. The first 7 sign in with the club and the Ru-girl hosting gets to pick the 8th contestant from the audience. Aquaria decided to pick one of her friends, Love Bailey, who had come with her that night.
This upset the audience, and they began to heckle. After the booing continued, Aquaria walked off stage.
On Reddit, one fan explained: “I was there too, and whilst yeah obviously it’s silly to pick your friend to win the £500 cash prize, I think booing is incredibly disrespectful and crass. She was just trying to let everyone see her friends amazing performance skills. And when Aquaria asked if they were gonna keep booing, the audience booed louder and she said she’ll go if they do it again and of course the messy fags booed EVEN LOUDER so she walked off stage. Like, the level of extra…far too much. No wonder Aquaria was over it.”
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Don’t fucking play this. I’m not the fucking one and the fact that y’all probably treat performers like this all over the world is fucking disgusting. This is why girls loathe doing their jobs sometimes. Respect yourself and respect others. pic.twitter.com/NlZW54Y7dr
— Aquaria (@aquariaofficial) July 20, 2018
Aquaria shared video of the incident on her Twitter, with the caption: “Don’t fucking play this. I’m not the fucking one and the fact that y’all probably treat performers like this all over the world is fucking disgusting. This is why girls loathe doing their jobs sometimes. Respect yourself and respect others.”
Many fans pointed out that Aquaria still did the meet and greet she was required to do after the show. However, it looks like fan were disrespectful towards her during that in a different way. She tweeted, “Don’t wrap your greasy reeking underarm around me at a meet and greet if you smell like shit. Do not.”
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decampbell
1. Sounds like she had that coming.
2. To the the Redditor who thinks booing is too crass, if you think booing is crass how do you feel about nepotism?
3. Her follow up tweet (and subsequent comments) about sweaty fans at the meet & greet only dig Aquaria’s grave even deeper.
voyy
Fine line between supporting a friend and cheating…Audience felt that line was broken.
OzJosh
Maybe there’s a fine line somewhere, but this wasn’t anywhere near it – it was unequivocally cheating. And booing a rigged competition isn’t “disrespectful and crass”, as the Reddit fan suggests, it is standing up for what is fair and just.
gskorich
why would she pick her friend and why would some one condone her behaviour? she was in the wrong and should apologise. sounds like she is trouble. sure hope that doesn’t affect her future bookings?
prarie pup
Hey there, Aquaria. If “the girls loathe their jobs sometimes” I saw a help wanted sign at Denny’s yesterday.
Mickeebee68
Ooohh gurl, you went there. I was thinking it but you said it. You shady and I luv your werk. ?
Tony1129
Lol, good one!
CarlIsle
What made me laugh about the “the girls loathe their jobs sometimes” was that it implied that they do it as a favor to the patrons of gay venues.
Newsflash to Aquaria (and other drag queens who think this way): we will be just fine enjoying the company, music and drinks in bars and clubs without you.
Colin Clout
Aquaria was justified. As a gay man who has gone to drag shows for the last 20 years, I can honestly say that drag shows today are unbearable because of the audiences–mostly loud, drunk straight girls who never tip, yell at the performers, and have NO knowledge of drag history (or gay history). I wish club owners would do something to limit these obnoxious, horrid “fans.”
ElPillo
This was a gay crowd, and her behavior wad tactless. We criticize our government officials for nepotism and abuse of position, why would this be ok?
geb1966
Wasn’t impressed with her on the show; even less impressed with her now. She didn’t deserve Asia’s crown. Too immature to handle fame. The meet & greet comment was completely unnecessary. Nowhere near as professional as other DR queens I have encountered. She knew picking her own friend for the contest was unprofessional and then got mad when they reacted negatively.
go2shawn
Loud drunk straight girls is my new Twitter handle
theWorldyouMade
I love you Aquaria, but I would have to agree with the crowd that you were given the responsibility of being a fair judge, and any fair contest means that at random you would pick someone from the crowd. I’m sure that a lot of people got extra ready in hopes that they would be picked, it’s like playing the lottery, you know your probably not going to win, but there is still always at least a fair chance. Aquaria, if you chose your friend, you took that small chance away from everyone else and so they responded negatively to a direct action that you did, think of cause and effect. Which is exactly why you posted the comment of someone that didn’t smell so great trying to touch you, cause and effect. I hate to say this, but being in the spotlight comes with a lot of responsibility and every move you make including your own actions and reactions will be heavily judged by everyone in any way imaginable, but please take this event as a learning lesson, you can’t control the way people react, but you can guess how they would react if you were in their shoes. So please break the cycle of pointing fingers and temper tantrums, be a leader, which your crown represents and own up to what caused this. No one is perfect, in hindsight from this situation, take charge and first apologize to the crowd and make it like a joke, just kidding, now let me really pick someone at random, see if the crowd is ok with that, then roll with it, keep your cool and move on with the show, they will still be upset for awhile, but you corrected it, so let them cool off and then all will be well, try that next time, Good luck…
bookworm
Agreed—she may have handled the situation better. However, as has been pointed out, she is extremely young and perhaps not so mature at this point. She is newly crowned with all the “fame” that brings. Considering that, I guess I’m not overly surprised the situation occurred. Hopefully, at some point in the future, she’ll look back at this, roll her eyes, and wonder why she didn’t handle it better…
mcflyer54
If she just wanted the audience to see her friend’s talent then she should have included him as a non-compete for the cash prize 9th performer. Everyone wins, the friend gets to perform and show off his talent and the audience get an extra performer.
gayjim1969
I’ve got news for you, Aquaria–you need the audience, they don’t need you. If it weren’t for the audience, you would be a sad, immature, self-absorbed, prissy nobody, instead of a sad, immature, self-absorbed, prissy minor celebrity who’s letting her “fame” go to her head. Keep running your thankless, ungrateful mouth about how terrible your job is, and your “fans” will disappear in a whirlwind of wigs, feathers, and sequins–it’s nothing more than you deserve.
Someone might think I’m not a fan of drag; not true, I am. I’m just not a fan of you.
Tony1129
I love it, well said and I concur.
My2Cents
Very well said!
b2rocketfan
Ok, so the club picks 7 and Aquaria picked her friend as the 8th person to compete. She was the host, not the judge. So I’m assuming her friend would have danced and then probably not won. I guess that wasn’t the best idea, but it was her choice to pick a contestant. Oh well. I wanted Eureka to win anyway.
marigela
I appreciate your article, it’s easy to understand and detailed, thank you for sharing.
temple run 3
BGinBigD
Who the F cares????? This is sooooo uninteresting and not worthy of a side note much less a lead story. Is this the best Queerty can muster in the gay world?
artoir
She reeks of immaturity just by the smell comment. She lived it, got through without death or makeup loss, so she gets revenge by body shaming all over the internet? Really? Grow up gurl.
spiffy
It doesn’t matter how talented her friend is — she should not have picked her own friend to be in the contest. It just had impropriety written all over it even if that wasn’t her intention.
(And sorry, she won that crown fair and square — and this is coming from a Cracker fan.)
masterwill7
Don’t know her, but it sounds like she’s an asshole!! Thinks really big of herself. You don’t choose a friend of you in a competition for cash!!???! And then Twitter about the behavior of the audience?? Lol
Tony1129
I think she needs to get over herself! A poor piss additude never wins, you made yourself look like a fool.
You get pissed because you knew your ass was in the wrong, grow the fuck up.
My2Cents
1. The rules for this contest were ridiculous and of course would lead to charges of being rigged.
2. Two a performer who can’t figure out how to get the audience on their side should leave the stage.
3. Tell me again what her “talent” is?
tham
Wow, I couldn’t care less.
I mean, if there’s money involved…then there should have been a judge panel.
If it’s for shits and giggles, then the MC should pick…
Regardless, a drag competition at a bar…couldn’t care less.
Crystix
but you sure read the article and then felt the need to comment. Seems like you could care less
Kevan1
She is young and has some growing to do. You do pick a friend you came with (no pun intended) to compete in a contest your judging or involved with. The reason is it looks suspisious. She should get that. The fact she was clueless shows her lack of exposer and experience.
Kevan1
Sorry DO NOT pick a friend you came with.
Kevan1
exposure.
DCguy
So she tried to fix a contest to give her friend, in American Money, about $650.00 and the audience booed her for trying to cheat the other contestants.
Aquaria, at the beginning of Drag Race showed the tendency to be completely self-involved with zero ability to understand things outside her own skin. Drag Race gave her the redemption edit and she seemed to get it, but trying to cheat, getting caught and then blaming others seems like she’s still the same as she was in Episodes 1 and 2.
Crystix
exactly. thank you
Crystix
This is why 22yos shouldn’t be crowned. Aquaria still has a lot of growing up to do, and treating her audience with respect is paramount. She deserved everything she got after stacking the deck and getting caught.
Suck it up buttercup.
CarlIsle
What makes me laugh about this is that Aquaria seems to think she’s doing the audience a favour by appearing in nightclubs. I would rather see just about any other RPDR queen over her.
Casinoguy
Is it possible her “friend ” was actually the “best performer” and therefore deserving of the prize?