sissinashville.com<\/a><\/p>\nVersatility and uniqueness are important in the current climate, Gentry insists. Everyone knows what drag is, and everyone has an opinion on it \u2014 a fact that she argues was amplified not only by shows like RuPaul\u2019s Drag Race, but also Tennessee lawmakers\u2019 aggressive attempts to restrict it. (Readers may recognize Gentry from her role as an advocate against Tennessee\u2019s anti-drag legislation, which gained national attention in 2023.)\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"4.28.2026.Sissi-3144.jpg\"](\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe\/WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==\")
<\/p>\n
Natalia Stylles<\/p>\n
Photos: Angelina Castillo<\/p>\n
\u201cDrag entertainers are gonna have to really start being \u2018drag queens and,\u2019\u201d Gentry tells the Scene. \u201cThey\u2019re really gonna have to find what\u2019s their thing that they can do beyond just getting up in glam and lipsyncing somebody else\u2019s music for three-and-a-half minutes.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n
For the judges \u2014 Inhale, along with last year\u2019s winner Lucy Skrews, musicians The Kentucky Gentlemen and choreographer Chaz Sanders \u2014 the contest\u2019s criteria are simple: Did you like it? Were you entertained? Gentry and Inhale wanted something that is less rigid than typical drag pageants, so there is no rubric \u2014 just a combined point total derived from judges\u2019 scores and audience votes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The top-ranking contestant of the first night of competition was Acacia Mercury, who sewed her own pull-away pi\u00f1ata-themed look. Donna Sivan, who performed as a WWE-style wrestler, took second place. Thanks to a twist from \u201cBig Sis\u201d \u2014 the competition\u2019s omnipresent but invisible overseer, sort of SiSSi\u2019s Wizard of Oz \u2014 one of the bottom four will lipsync against eighth-place contestant Dove Lillian during the second round of competitions on May 10. That night, the contestants will share a performance based on a theme \u2014 video games. The top four will proceed to the third and final round, which is scheduled to take place on May 24.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Inhale leads the Music City PrEP drag nurses program, and the HIV prevention organization \u2014 along with its neighbor, gay bar Canvas \u2014 is a sponsor this year. It\u2019s the first time that SiSSi is donating to Oasis Center\u2019s Just Us program for LGBTQ youth \u2014 the organization is matching a $1 donation from every ticket sold.<\/p>\n
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P!nk!e Thee Al!en<\/p>\n
Photos: Angelina Castillo<\/p>\n
Contestants this year are both longtime performers and novices. One contestant, Nece Sexton, has been doing drag for more than 20 years and took runner-up last cycle, while Laura Ellington Dupree had been doing drag for about a month at the time of the show\u2019s promotional shoot. However, with her art background, Dupree (who is the drag daughter of Play Dance Bar\u2019s Nichole Ellington Dupree, making her Gentry\u2019s sister in the drag family tree) has her makeup down pat.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI found most people who are successful in drag, this is not the first artistic thing they\u2019ve done in life,\u201d Inhale tells the Scene. \u201cThey\u2019ve typically done theater, music, art, painting or graphic design. It\u2019s interesting seeing how those skills do translate. The physical-art people are great at makeup, and the people who did theater typically are more comfortable onstage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gentry is savvy enough to clock the fact that the state\u2019s attempts to ban drag in certain spaces wasn\u2019t ever really about drag anyway.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was really all about manipulating the national opinion of Tennessee to say gay is not OK here,\u201d she says. \u201cI think they did manage to be successful in that, because I feel like we\u2019ve seen a decrease in gay tourism \u2014 at least in Nashville.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not saying that it\u2019s perfect here,\u201d Inhale adds, \u201cbut people will assume it\u2019s significantly more hostile than it actually is.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Photos: Angelina Castillo<\/p>\n
Over the past eight cycles of competitions, SiSSi has continued to prove that Nashville has a deep drag roster. It reflects what\u2019s already here, while creating a new generation of queens. For Cycle 9, Gentry and Inhale are contemplating an \u201cAll-Stars and Legends\u201d theme.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI do think there is a lot of power in helping people come up, and helping people find their footing with things,\u201d Inhale says. \u201cI remember the people who helped me, and I am always thankful for them and have tried to give back when I can.\u201d<\/p>\n
Inhale and Gentry are examples of two queens who have formed an alliance to take each other further than either could manage alone. Besides, Inhale predicts some of the SiSSi competitors will one day be the head bitches in charge, and she wants to be in their good graces,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eva Ladiva Photos: Angelina Castillo What do a ballerina, a wrestler, a cheerleader, a comedian and a contortionist…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221749,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[87330,1358,10584,1360,9,24,63,122,124,123,87329,87332,87331],"class_list":["post-221748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-cya-inhale","tag-drag","tag-drag-queens","tag-lgbtq","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-sissi","tag-vag-for-short","tag-vidalia-anne-gentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}