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Drag queens are furious with Katy Perry for exploiting them in her latest business proposal
‘Some people need to pay rent’
You wouldn’t ask a professional chef to cook you a meal for free, and you wouldn’t ask a tax accountant to sort your life without pay.
So why would you take advantage of up-and-coming drag personas by begging them to perform in your music video, and pitching it to them as exposure? You wouldn’t.
Except that’s what Katy Perry just did.
According to a number of drag performers, the “Chained To The Rhythm” singer has been approaching them and “begging” them to perform for free in a new music video she is working on.
After inviting several New York City-based drag queens in May to perform her new single, “Swish Swish,” with her on Saturday Night Live, it comes as no surprise she’s interested in collaborating, but “collaboration” and “free labor” are two very different things.
Even that performance was riddled with tension, with Migos embroiled in a controversy stemming from homophobic comments they made to Rolling Stone recently, and rumors they refused to attend an after party because of drag queens.
But this week, Perry allegedly dug herself even deeper, implying that drag artists would benefit from her exposure, and thus don’t need to be paid to be on set for two days straight.
Entertainer and drag star Vicky Vox, formerly “V” in the drag girl group DWV, took to twitter to explain to Perry why performers like herself aren’t interested in making deals with artists like her.
‘There’s a pop star begging drag queens to do a video with no pay’
At first Vox didn’t name the artist as Perry
‘Bitch, this is fucking work’
‘Drag queens should not have to beg you to value them’
That’s when Vox threatened to whip out the receipts
‘Some people need to pay rent’
And then Perry’s name was mentioned
Vox was even a fan of hers once
And Vox isn’t the only one who feels this way
‘You were small once too’
If you need to beg an artist to join you, it’s because you know they bring something to the performance you can’t.
You’d think as a performer she’d understand the value of what artists do, but apparently not.