Drag Race stars explain queer people’s enduring love for Princess Diana: ‘She was outside the status quo’
Drag Race’s Divina De Campo explains her love for Princess Diana. (Getty/Harry Elletson)
Drag Race's Divina De Campo explains her love for Princess Diana. (Getty/Harry Elletson)
She was an iconoclast and a rule-breaker who set the world ablaze with one chic silk evening gown. But as The Diana Mixtape Musical arrives in London, its drag stars explain why Princess Diana had – and still has – deity status among queer people specifically.
The Diana, Princess of Wales story is at this point a parable; a vignette shared as an example of what it looks like to go against the grain, and the adoration that can come from doing so.
The story of her life – from the first time she met then Prince Charles when she was just 16, their ill-fated marriage, her courting of public affection, to her tragic death in 1997 – has been retold and reimagined more than almost any other figure n history.
Yet none of those retellings have featured five drag queens from RuPaul’s Drag Race, and none of those reimaginings have been set to Chappell Roan’s “Pink Pony Club” or Little Mix’s “Shoutout To My Ex”.
Until now, that is. The Diana Mixtape Musical, on stage at HERE at Outernet in London until 10 August (and then at Salford’s Lowry between 19 and 21 August), features Drag Race icons Divina De Campo, Rosé, Priyanka, Kitty Scott-Claus and Courtney Act all as Diana herself, tracing her life from her (not so) humble beginnings to the evening before that fatal night in Paris.
It’s set to a playlist that could’ve been nabbed from the now-defunct G-A-Y Late bar over the road, with pop queens including Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, JADE, Doja Cat and Olivia Rodrigo all featuring. Think Doja’s “Boss Bitch” soundtracking Diana’s post-divorce rise to global people’s princess, or Gaga’s “Paparazzi” as the score to her frictional relationship with the press.
Unsurprisingly, this show is drawing the gays, much like Diana herself did. But why? The stars of The Diana Mixtape Musical have their say.
“Diana has had such a lasting impact particularly on the gay community because of the way that she was one of the first celebrities to go into an AIDS ward [and] shake hands with victims of the AIDS crisis,” Divina De Campo said.
Diana shook hands with people living with AIDS in a ward in 1987, at a time where public fear, misconceptions and homophobia related to the illness were at an all-time high. Diana is widely credited with helping to change the perception of HIV/AIDS at the time.
“She visited a couple of gay bars, did some drag herself, was a fan of drag queens, and [also] we love we love an underdog. That’s why we love Judy [Garland] so much, you know?” Divina continued.
“We could see how the establishment was treating Diana, and that’s a big part of why we were all rooting for [her] so hard. Plus the fact that she was fierce! She had great fashion. The things that woman said with her eyes…”
Courtney Act recalls growing up in the ‘80s and ‘90s and being attracted to Diana’s anti status quo attitude.
“There’s always been something about the heart of Princess Diana that spoke to me as a kid,” she recalled.
“There’s just a real innocence and niceness to Diana and a vulnerability that queer people connect with. If you think about queer icons, they are always women who aren’t status quo. They’re always just outside or off-centre like Cher, Tina, Turner, Madonna, Gaga.
“They’re all of these strong women who have forged their way and Diana, I think, was more vulnerable in a way, but she was also a woman who was outside the status quo.”
“It’s an authority thing,” added Priyanka. “Everyone looks at the royals or political leaders as the ones who can make change and let’s face it, nine times out of 10, ain’t nobody changing anything.
“Whereas for Diana to literally be of the royal family, but breaking barriers and being the badass that we all know and love… [it was] life-changing for so many people to see that, especially back then.”
Kitty Scott-Claus, who is the youngest of the Diana Mixtape Musical clan, doesn’t remember watching Diana while growing up, yet her impact was still felt.
“We love her because as queer people, she connected with us when it was so taboo to be going into the AIDS wards and touching people with HIV and hugging children and crossing the landmines,” Kitty said.
“She was such a revolutionary individual who rocked the world. To play her is such an honor. And the fashion? Oh my God.”
It all comes back to the Revenge Dress.
Tickets for the The Diana Mixtape Musical are available now.
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