Atomic Kitten star Natasha Hamilton hints at possible Drag Race UK guest role
Atomic Kitten’s Natasha Hamilton.(Getty)
Atomic Kitten singer Natasha Hamilton has teased a potential turn as a RuPaul’s Drag Race UK guest judge, suggesting that she’s had talks with show’s bosses.
The musician and reality TV star is best known for being part of Atomic Kitten, the pop purveyors behind “Whole Again”, one of the all-time best-selling singles from a British girl group.
In recent years, the Liverpudlian singer, 41, has “been a bit quiet” but she has big plans for a comeback, she exclusively told PinkNews.
Last week, she dropped club break-up banger “Edge of Us”, her first ever solo single, and her first music release since Atomic Kitten’s “Southgate You’re The One (Football’s Coming Home Again)”, a 2021 remake of “Whole Again” to mark the UEFA Euro 2020.
While she’s got a solo EP coming next month and will then “start on the album” – due for release next year – Hamilton is also keen to make a TV return, via one of her favourite shows: RuPaul’s Drag Race UK.
“Hell yes, I’d absolutely love to be on the panel,” she said, when asked whether we could be seeing her alongside RuPaul, Michelle Visage, Graham Norton and Alan Carr any time soon.
“I watch it with my kids; my kids love it as well,” she continued, referring to her five children – the oldest of whom is 21, and the youngest is just under a year old.
Hinting that she’s already in talks with the show’s bosses, she added: “I think we might be chatting at the moment, so we’ll see what happens.”
With new music and a Natasha Hamilton renaissance on the cards, that inevitably means some live performances too, and there’s one festival she’s very keen to get on the line-up of.
“Myself and [Atomic Kitten member] Liz [McClarnon] did attend Mighty Hoopla about three years ago now, it’s great. It was insane, the response we got was mega,” she explained.
Atomic Kitten also performed at Mighty Hoopla’s Big Weekender festival in January this year. Hoopla is known in the UK as one of the biggest LGBTQ+-inclusive festivals featuring queer favourite pop acts: this year’s main summer festival, which took place on 1 and 2 June, featured Nelly Furtado, JoJo Siwa, Jessie Ware and more.
“I suppose the ultimate [goal] would be [to be] on the main stage, putting on a show, new music. That would be insane,” Hamilton added. “Obviously, I am available next year, Hoopla!”
Hamilton revealed that she first realised she had an affinity with the LGBTQ+ when she was just a child, because all her best friends were gay.
“We came together, we got each other,” she shared. “I also think growing up in Liverpool in a predominantly white area, being from a mixed race background, being the ginger kid with the braces and the freckles – I was a minority, I was picked on. Life was hard growing up.”
Her popularity with the queers reached its peak during her Atomic Kitten years, as she performed at London’s biggest LGBTQ+ club Heaven on numerous occasions, as well as at Pride events.
“We’d come to London and we’d play Heaven, and it was just acceptance. We didn’t have to be anything else other than who we were, three cheeky girls from Liverpool.”
Despite Attomic Kitten’s last album Ladies Night coming out over twenty years ago, Hamilton still feels the love from the community to this day.
“We were just taken by the arms of everyone in the community and that’s just stayed,” she shared.
“It means so much; I feel seen in your presence, which is wonderful. Life is tough. There’s a lot of sh*t out there. There’s a lot of negativity. You can’t do nothing without someone saying you sound sh*t, you look sh*t, you’re a sh*t person.
“You do not get that in the [LGBTQ+] community. You get love. You get respect, and you feel accepted. It’s f*cking great.”
“Edge of Us” is out now.
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