São Paulo’s important avenue was packed this month with 1000’s of individuals draped within the yellow and inexperienced of the Brazilian flag and captivated by a commanding determine atop a tractor-trailer rigged with audio system.
From above, the scene may have possibly handed for one of many many political rallies held in the identical spot by former President Jair Bolsonaro, the Brazilian far-right chief who has infamously declared that he may by no means love a homosexual son.
(Although, to be honest, the big rainbow flag could be a giveaway.)
It was, in actual fact, one of many world’s largest Satisfaction parades, and the particular person atop the sound truck was Phabullo Rodrigues da Silva, 30, the homosexual son of a working-class single mom in Brazil’s north.
But everybody within the crowd knew him as Pabllo Vittar, a 6-foot-2-inch drag queen in a glittering cutoff Brazilian soccer jersey and shredded jean shorts — one of many greatest pop stars on this nation of 203 million.
“It’s so stunning to see you in yellow and inexperienced!” Pabllo Vittar shouted to these within the crowd, many carrying fishnet and G-strings. She had referred to as on the revelers to put on Brazil’s nationwide colours to reclaim the Brazilian flag from Mr. Bolsonaro’s right-wing motion. “Let’s dance!”
RuPaul should still be the queen of queens, however the inheritor to the worldwide crown has arrived.
Over the previous seven years, Pabllo Vittar has change into, by some measures, the world’s most profitable drag queen. She has six studio albums (one gold, one platinum and two double platinum), her personal style launch with Adidas, a world advert marketing campaign with Calvin Klein and 1.8 billion streams of her songs.
She has toured the US and Europe; taken the stage at Lollapalooza and Coachella; carried out alongside Madonna at Madonna’s greatest live performance; and sang on the United Nations for Queen Elizabeth’s birthday.
Pabllo Vittar calls RuPaul, 63, the American drag queen pioneer, an inspiration, although they’ve by no means met. And RuPaul has shot down any speak of competitors. “I LOVE & SUPPORT @PablloVittar,” RuPaul wrote on Twitter in 2022. “Disgrace on you catty Twitter trolls making an attempt to create a rivalry.”
By the metric of the trendy web, nonetheless, it’s onerous to argue with the concept Pabllo Vittar has begun to surpass her childhood idol. Throughout Fb, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and YouTube, Pabllo Vittar has a mixed 36 million followers, 3 times that of RuPaul.
Within the course of, Pabllo Vittar has come to symbolize Brazil’s L.G.B.T.Q. paradox.
Along with being residence to a crew of breakout drag stars, Brazil has adopted a few of the world’s most expansive homosexual rights. Homosexual {couples} can marry and undertake youngsters; transgender individuals can legally select their gender; homophobic slurs are a criminal offense; and so-called conversion remedy, which seeks to make homosexual individuals straight, is banned.
But for years Brazil has additionally ranked among the many deadliest nations for homosexual and transgender individuals. Since 2008, greater than 1,840 transgender individuals have been murdered in Brazil, greater than double the subsequent deadliest nation, Mexico, based on monitoring by Transgender Europe, an advocacy group. Brazil has led the rankings yearly since monitoring started.
“We by no means know when it will likely be my buddy, when it will likely be my household, when it will likely be me,” Pabllo Vittar mentioned in an interview. “That is the most important aim of my profession: To make it so youthful individuals don’t really feel this concern after they exit.”
Pabllo Vittar has emerged as one among Brazil’s loudest homosexual voices towards a right-wing motion within the nation, led by conservative Christian teams, that has made a heterosexual imaginative and prescient of gender, intercourse and marriage a central a part of its political technique.
Pabllo Vittar was a harsh critic of Mr. Bolsonaro in the course of the 2022 election, drawing a proper grievance from the previous president’s marketing campaign after calling for his ouster from the stage at Lollapalooza. When Mr. Bolsonaro misplaced to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a leftist, Pabllo Vittar headlined Mr. Lula’s inauguration live performance.
“A drag queen taking the stage is already a political act,” Pabllo Vittar mentioned. “I present the kid and the mom within the again that they are often the place I’m, too, to not be afraid, to not hand over on who they’re.”
To Pabllo Vittar’s homosexual and transgender followers, she has been a strong inspiration.
“She provides us such a way of safety,” mentioned João Rabelo, 28, a publicist from the northern Brazilian metropolis the place Pabllo Vittar was born. “At this time I can stroll on the street with my boyfriend relaxed and never concern dying.”
Whereas the general public largely sees Pabllo Vittar dressed as a lady, the star lives life as a person. Gender “is a societal assemble,” Mr. Rodrigues da Silva (the star’s actual title) mentioned. “What’s most necessary is how we really feel inside. I really feel like a boy, and when Pabllo Vittar arrives, it doesn’t make me a lady.”
On pronouns, she is detached — when out of drag. “If I’m in drag, use the female, for the love of God,” she mentioned.
In a method, the approach to life has created two separate lives: Phabullo, the person, and Pabllo, the drag queen.
Phabullo is a shut-in who lives together with his mom, stepfather and sister in a luxurious residence in a small metropolis in Brazil’s equal of the Midwest. When working as Pabllo, she stays in a small condo in São Paulo, Latin America’s largest metropolis.
Phabullo is shy and hates taking about himself. Pabllo is the other. “If the blonde was right here, she’d be hitting on you,” the star informed me in an interview, not in drag, talking about his alter ego. “She’s saucy. She’s naughty. I’m not.”
And sure, he talks about his drag act within the third particular person. “As a result of she actually is a 3rd particular person,” he mentioned. “Once I do one thing as Pabllo Vittar and it spills over into my life, the place I’m shy, I hate it. I wish to crawl right into a gap.”
Mr. Rodrigues da Silva was born in Maranhão, Brazil’s poorest state, to a single mom who labored as a nurse technician. By age 5, he was already searching for the stage, beginning with the choir at church. “I simply wished to sing,” he mentioned, “and I wished individuals to see me sing.”
He mentioned he was mocked by classmates for being effeminate however his mom at all times supported him. By his teenage years, he was singing on YouTube and in bars. Then, at a Halloween occasion at a homosexual membership on his 18th birthday, he tried drag.
“I had by no means skilled such a strong sensation of freedom — to have the ability to categorical what was occurring inside my head,” he mentioned.
On the similar time, a video of him singing a Whitney Houston tune was going viral. The membership’s proprietor, Yan Hayashi, and a music producer, Rodrigo Gorky, shortly noticed the potential and started managing Mr. Rodrigues da Silva as Pabllo Vittar. (The title was in homage to a drag queen Mr. Rodrigues da Silva knew earlier.)
Pabllo Vittar shortly landed a gig fronting a band on a late-night selection present. Then she started releasing music, and by 2017, she had Brazil’s No. 1 tune.
Pabllo Vittar has since change into one among Brazil’s most reliable attracts, with a high-pitched voice, elaborate dance routines and a excessive vitality present. She has additionally gained a average worldwide following, principally among the many L.G.B.T.Q. neighborhood, however is now engaged on an album that mixes in English and Spanish.
Owen Mallon, a Chicago native who’s one among Pabllo Vittar’s three managers, is tasked with determining make a Portuguese-speaking drag queen a bankable worldwide star. But he has been constantly impressed with the response.
“Though individuals don’t know the language, they love her and what she represents, after which the present simply speaks for itself,” he mentioned.
Her music ranges from pop to digital to Brazilian. Her newest album covers well-liked music from Brazil’s north and northeast, the place she grew up, together with forró, with its accordions, and tecnobrega, with its synthesizers.
After sitting for an interview as Mr. Rodrigues da Silva, she emerged as Pabllo Vittar hours later at a charity live performance in her native state of Maranhão. The transformation usually takes three hours. (Like an athlete gathering free sneakers, she has amassed a set of 200 wigs donated from a London wig maker.)
She wore a good prime that imitated the state flag, a blond wig, white boots, a tiny skirt and a G-string. Ready to take the stage together with her cadre of male dancers within the Brazilian warmth, her hair stylist used a fan to chill her butt.
“My favourite place on this planet,” she mentioned. Then she strutted onstage and the group erupted.
