This month, São Paulo’s main boulevard was packed with thousands of people clad in the yellow and green colors of the Brazilian flag and drawn to an imposing figure perched on a tractor-trailer fitted with speakers.
Seen from above, the scene could have taken place at one of the many political rallies held at the same location by former President Jair Bolsonaro, the Brazilian far-right leader who infamously declared that grandfather can never love a gay boy.
(To be fair, though, the giant rainbow flag would be a telltale sign.)
In fact, it’s one of the world’s largest Pride parades, and the man on the radio truck is Phabullo Rodrigues da Silva, 30, the gay son of a working-class single mother from northern Brazil.
However, everyone in the crowd knew him as Pabllo Vittar, the 6-foot-2-inch drag queen in a sparkly low cut brazilian soccer jersey And faded jeans – one of the biggest pop stars in this country of 203 million people.
“It’s so beautiful to see you in yellow and green!” Pabllo Vittar shouted to those in the crowd, many of whom wore fishnets and G-strings. She urged attendees to wear the colors of Brazil’s national flag to reclaim the Brazilian flag from Brazil’s right-wing movement. Mr. Bolsonaro. “Let’s Dance!”
RuPaul still can Queen of QueensBut the heir to the global crown has arrived.
Over the past seven years, Pabllo Vittar has become, by some standards, the most successful drag queen in the world. She has six studio albums (one gold, one platinum, and two double platinum), her own fashion release with Adidas, a global advertising campaign with Calvin Klein, and 1.8 billion online streams. her songs.
She has toured throughout the United States and Europe; performed at Lollapalooza and Coachella; performed with Madonna at Madonna’s biggest concert; and sang at the United Nations to celebrate Queen Elizabeth’s birthday.
Pabllo Vittar calls RuPaul, 63, the pioneering American drag queen, an inspiration, even though they have never met. And RuPaul has denied any talk of competition. “I LOVE & SUPPORT @PablloVittar,” RuPaul wrote on Twitter in 2022. “Shame on those bullshit Twitter trolls trying to create competition.”
However, by the numbers of the modern internet, it’s hard to argue against the idea that Pabllo Vittar has begun to surpass her childhood idol. Across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and YouTube, Pabllo Vittar has a total of 36 million followers, three times more than RuPaul.
In the process, Pabllo Vittar has come to represent Brazil’s LGBTQ paradox.
In addition to being home to a crew belong to overate drag starBrazil has adopted a world number most expansive gay rights. Same-sex couples can marry and adopt children; transgender people can legally choose their gender; homophobic rhetoric is a crime; and so-called conversion therapy, which aims to turn gay people into straight people, is banned.
However, for many years Brazil has also been ranked among the most dangerous countries for gay and transgender people. Since 2008, more than 1,840 transgender people have been murdered in Brazil, more than double the number in the second-deadliest country, Mexico, according to Followed by Transgender Europea lobbying group. Brazil has topping the charts each year since the start of follow-up.
“We never know when it will be my friends, when it will be my family, when it will be me,” Pabllo Vittar said in an interview. “This is the biggest goal of my career: Helping young people not feel afraid to go out.”
Pabllo Vittar emerged as one of Brazil’s most vocal gay voices opposing the country’s right-wing movement led by conservative Christian groups, which has made heteronormative views on gender, sexuality, and marriage central to its political strategy.
Pabllo Vittar is a fierce critic of Mr Bolsonaro in the 2022 election, draw up a formal complaint from the following former president’s campaign call for his overthrow from the stage at Lollapalooza. When Mr. Bolsonaro lost to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a leftist, Pabllo Vittar Lula’s inaugural concert headline.
“A drag queen taking the stage is already a political act,” says Pabllo Vittar. “I show the child and the mother in the back that they can be where I am, without fear, without giving up who they are.”
For Pabllo Vittar’s gay and transgender fans, she is a powerful inspiration.
“She gives us a feeling of security,” said João Rabelo, 28, a public relations expert from the northern Brazilian city where Pabllo Vittar was born. “Today, I can comfortably walk on the street with my boyfriend and not be afraid of death.”
While the public largely sees Pabllo Vittar dressed as a woman, the star lives his life as a man. Gender “is a social construct,” said Rodrigues da Silva (the star’s real name). “The most important thing is how we feel inside. I feel like a boy, and when Pabllo Vittar comes out, that doesn’t make me a woman.”
As for pronouns, she’s indifferent — when not in drag. “If I’m wearing drag, use the feminine word, for God’s sake,” she said.
In a way, this lifestyle has created two separate lives: Phabullo, a man, and Pabllo, a drag queen.
Phabullo is a reclusive person who lives with her mother, stepfather and sister in a luxurious house in a small city that is the equivalent of Brazil’s Midwest. As Pabllo, she lives in a small apartment in São Paulo, Latin America’s largest metropolis.
Phabullo is shy and hates talking about himself. Pablo is the opposite. “If the blonde was here, she would flirt with you,” the star told me in an interview, not in drag, when talking about her alter ego. “She’s clever. She’s spoiled. I’m not.”
And yes, he talks about his drag act in the third person. “Because she really is the third person,” he says. “When I do something as Pabllo Vittar and it spills over into my life, where I feel embarrassed and I hate it. I want to crawl into a hole.”
Mr. Rodrigues da Silva was born in Maranhão, Brazil’s poorest state, to a single mother who worked as a nurse technician. By the age of 5, he was looking for a stage, starting in the church choir. “I just wanted to sing,” he said, “and I wanted people to see me sing.”
He said he was ridiculed by his classmates for being effeminate but his mother always supported him. By his teens, he was singing on YouTube and in bars. Then, at a Halloween party at a gay club on his 18th birthday, he tried drag.
“I’ve never experienced such a powerful sense of freedom – being able to express what’s going on in my head,” he said.
At the same time, a video of him singing a Whitney Houston song went viral. The club’s owner, Yan Hayashi, is also a music producer, Rodrigo Gorkyquickly saw potential and began managing Mr. Rodrigues da Silva under the name Pabllo Vittar. (The name was an homage to the drag queen Mr. Rodrigues da Silva had known before.)
Pabllo Vittar quickly landed a gig with the band on a late-night variety show. She then started releasing music and by 2017, she had the number 1 song in Brazil.
Pabllo Vittar has since become one of Brazil’s most reliable attractions, with her soaring vocals, intricate dance moves and energetic shows. She has also developed a moderate international following, primarily in the LGBTQ community, but is currently working on a hybrid album in English and Spanish.
Owen Mallon, a Chicago native who is one of Pabllo Vittar’s three managers, was tasked with figuring out how to turn a Portuguese-speaking drag queen into a bankable international star. Still, he’s been impressed with the response.
“Even though people don’t know the language, they love her and what she stands for, and then the show speaks for itself,” he said.
Her music ranges from pop to electronic to Brazilian. Her latest album includes popular music from the north and northeast of Brazil, where she grew up, including forró, with accordion, and tecnobrega, with synthesizer.
After sitting for an interview as Mr. Rodrigues da Silva, she emerged hours later as Pabllo Vittar at charity concert in her home state of Maranhão. The transformation usually takes three hours. (Like an athlete collecting free sneakers, she amassed a collection of 200 donated wigs from a wig maker in London.)
She wore a tight state flag top, a blonde wig, white boots, a tiny dress and a G-string. Waiting to take the stage with a male dancer in the Brazilian heat, her hairstylist used a fan to cool her butt.
“My favorite place in the world,” she said. Then she strutting on stage and the crowd exploded.
