TLC (DStv 135) – home to popular wedding shows like Say Yes To The Dress – has a brand-new show for wedding lovers and people who just love love. Dragnificent! (also known as Drag Me Down The Aisle) features RuPaul’s Drag Race superstars Jujubee, Alexis Michelle, Thorgy Thor and BeBe Zahara Benet as fairy godmothers, helping women prepare for their upcoming wedding days, along with some other major life events.
It’s a full-makeover extravaganza as the awesome foursome help their clients with embracing the positive aspects of femininity, and finding their inner diva to allow them to do the stride of pride down the aisle. “We’re using our drag superpowers to help people look and feel great,” says Jujubee. Alexis adds, “We can help you find something that will make you feel really comfortable and confident in your own skin on your wedding day.”
In some respects, the queens offer practical assistance, in others, spiritual. They’ll be bringing their own vulnerabilities to the fore as they show the brides how they confront body image issues, and self-esteem issues stemming from not fitting into current gender norms. Expect pauses for tears throughout the show, as for many of the women, this will be their first time articulating some of the pain that they’ve lived with their whole lives. When a bride-to-be cries during a wedding dress try-out, digs her heels in and hates everything she tries on, the Queens don’t see a bridezilla; they see a girl who’s looking in the mirror and seeing every single way that she doesn’t fit the picture of bridal beauty. It’s like being told all about the most exciting party ever, as a child, for weeks and weeks and weeks, and then being told to your face that you are not invited.
If that breaks your heart, hang in there, because the awesome foursome will be going all-out to turn things around for their brides. There will be no weeping willows left by the wedding day (or the dreaded high school reunion, or weight loss celebration), only tears of joy.
It’s not all tears, either. The queens will be sneaking in little makeovers on the side. In episode 1, for example, a tough bride saw her fiancé enter the wrestling ring in full drag for the (re)proposal of a lifetime.
And after a joyful wedding, the queens will find their own way to celebrate their victory at the reception. “It's just very engaging. It is very exciting. It's full of heart. It's full of compassion. It's full of fun. I'm very excited that people get to see drag in another light, on another platform and get a better understanding of the different layers that make us who we are as individuals. Take away the make-up and everything and what are you left with? We also have other gifts other than just looking the way we look and performing the way we perform and with Dragnificent!, you get to see a lot of that,” says BeBe. Now meet the Queens…