Michelle Visage’s Romance with Aotearoa | Now to love

If you’ve ever noticed RuPaul’s Drag Race Judging by Michelle Visage in Auckland, it’s easy to mistake her for a local. When the former pop star comes to town, she’ll dine at the iconic Ponsonby restaurant Prego, spend a rainy Sunday at a nearby Barre class, or get her nails done in Papatoetoe – which she says with her absolutely flawless Maori accent!

And as if we weren’t already convinced Michelle should be made an honorary New Zealander, the reality TV superstar reveals that if she ever had to give a public lip-sync performance for life, she’d get in line. members of the royal family by our own Lord.

“Every time a drag queen performs this real song, there is a different interpretation, and it’s very powerful,” says the 55-year-old. Women’s Day. “When you see it done right, it’s breathtaking because it’s slow. You cannot sha-blam and throw yourself on the ground. You can’t do it or act it out, you can only perform it.

Michelle knows what she’s talking about. Rising to fame in the late ’80s with her girl group Seduction amid New York’s LGBTQ+ ballroom scene, she honed her expertise on more than 30 seasons of the show. Drag Race all over the world.

Her instincts have only become sharper since she inherited the role of host Drag the race down under from her best friend RuPaul Charles for the show’s fourth season, which wrapped filming in March in Oakland.

Michelle says: “Having been my best friend for so long, Roo was like, ‘I need you to do this. Just do it. I want you to do it your way. I trust you.’ All I could focus on was giving these queens the best time possible, making them feel like they deserve it, which is incredible, and letting them know how talented they are.”

The experience also allowed Michelle to continue her love story with Aotearoa. “I love your beautiful country so much,” she enthuses. “This is literally heaven on earth. Even when I go to Australia, New Zealand is completely different.”

Correction, Michelle – actually better!

Laughing, she says: “Spoken like a real Kiwi. This has its own magic. It feels like you’re just on this gem in the middle of the water.”

Michelle’s own jewel is a green stone around her neck, which she wears in photographs. Drag the race down under.

“This is really important to me,” she says. “The color of this one is especially beautiful and it gives me strength when I wear it. I buy poonama as gifts for very important people in my life. I try to support local artists and pay good money.”

Michelle wears it not only here in Godzon. “He really travels with me,” she says. “I always carry it with me and wear it when I need energy. It’s a beautiful stone.”

Michelle is very close to South Auckland. “There’s a family atmosphere here—togetherness,” she says. “I can’t put into words how much I enjoy learning about culture.” American education, she notes, offers little in the way of learning about the Pacific region and our cultures.

“When I meet Māori, I have so many questions and so many things to ask,” she says. “I love turning on the local news channels and seeing the Maori language. Seeing how far you’ve come and how far you continue to go is amazing. There is a sense of community.”

To her surprise and delight, Michelle found herself in town for this year’s Auckland Pride parade, which was a bit more low-key than her performance at the 2021 Big Gay Out, where Drag Race fans gravitated to her like moths to a flame.

“Nobody knew I was here,” she laughs. “I was just walking down the street, going to get ice cream at Duck Island, and everyone turned around, like, ‘Is that Michelle Visage?!’

When talk turns to the new generation of Kiwi and Australian queens on this season of Drag Race, Michelle says: “You’ll be very impressed. Ru will agree that this is the strongest season yet. You will be shocked, which makes my job as a host and judges very difficult because there is no low hanging fruit. It’s just power plant after power plant after power plant!”

Season four Drag the race downr premieres Friday on Wow Presents Plus.

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