Free at last, Costume Drama at Eurocovers

This week we are saying our sad goodbye's to John Inman, alias Mr. Wilberforce Clayborne Humphries.
The British actor who has done more for 'costume drama' in the classic sitcom Are You Being Served? than any other actor or fashion designer. Always camp but never vulgar, always with a big heart, Mr. Humpries' role in Grace Brothers involved a lot singing and dancing and taking dressing-up to absolute perfection.
My favorite moments are the dancing shows, where the show would finish with a big number all the Grace Brothers employees had practiced hard for, only to be outshined by Mr. Humpries extravagant entrance.


Eurovision 2007: Ukraine picked their entry last night and they chose Verka Serduchka (Верка Сердючка) with the song Dancing Lasha Tumbai. Serduchka is the drag tzarina, owing more to Mrs Doubtfire than to RuPaul. Her song, careless as it may sound, is some sort of finger to Russia. Fabulous is the word of course. and Tanzen!
Serduchka is already the second drag act to be selected for Helsinki as Denmark chose DQ with the song Drama Queen.


But we're at Eurocovers here, so let's get some dragqueens doing coverversions. Eurovision Diva's are of course the perfect subject for any costume change and then there's ABBA, probably imitated more than any Judy, Yma or Shirley.

ABBAlicious (FigJam entertainment) is a show by 9 New York drag acts. Their CD features 14 versions of ABBA songs and Waterloo, featured here, is sung by Edie.
ABBAlicious should not be confused with the New Zealand ABBA tribute band of the same name.

On a more local level there's Wintersport by Amsterdam talkshow host and superstar Sally Bowles (with Claudette Ball in this song). Their wintersports version of the 1969 Spanish winner Vivo Cantando was released on a CD by the Gaiety Bar, where Sally frequented with her shows. (1992, Een avond at the Gaiety)

Paco Clavel may not be a drag queen per se, but has been know to dress up occasionally. One occasion was an exposition in Madrid 'Exposition Eurovision 2000' for which he recorded a special issue cdsingle. The song featured here is a medley of Spanish entries: Eurovision Cañi includes Que Bueno, Que Bueno, La La La, Vivo Cantando & Quien maneja mi barca







related post: If you're really hard and totally non-gay you can find a AC/DC style spandex version of Waterloo in this Eurocovers post.