On a dazzling night in Bengaluru, the city’s drag community gathered to honour Dolly Parton, the legendary country music icon who passed away on August 25 at the age of 80. Three drag performers and a handful of live musicians came together, each carrying a small piece of her spirit into their performances.Rather than recreating Dolly’s signature blonde hair, sequins and country glamour, Sylveria Frost, Izzy B and Lilith drew on different facets of her personality, style and legacy, putting their own spin on what the Queen of Country means to them.‘I wanted to turn Dolly into a doll’For Bengaluru-based drag performer Sylveria Frost, Dolly Parton first entered the picture through RuPaul’s Drag Race. Watching queens take inspiration from Dolly’s signature shimmer, tassels and glamour sparked curiosity about the singer. What drew Sylveria further was not just her music, but her personality. “The way she sang, the way she embodied herself every time, being so humble, really attracted me,” she says.Sylveria was also drawn to Dolly’s enduring glamour. “She was so shimmery, sparkly and full of life,” she shares. For the tribute, Sylveria wanted to recreate Dolly beyond her familiar country singer persona. “Everybody knows Dolly Parton as a proper country singer, but I wanted to show how her doll would look like,” she adds.‘She is an icon in the LGBTQIA+ community’For drag performer Izzy, Dolly’s connection with the LGBTQIA+ community was central to the tribute. “She is an icon in the community,” she says. Dolly’s famous line — ‘If I hadn’t been a woman, I’d have been a drag queen’ — has stayed with Izzy. “That quote stays with me all the time,” she says, adding, “We believe that Dolly is a drag queen in a way. She carried herself like a drag queen too, with big hair and extraordinary outfits.”For the tribute, Izzy went for an imagined ‘Dolly in heaven’ look, wearing a stunning white gown and blonde hair. She performed Dolly’s popular song Jolene before joining the other performers for I Will Always Love You. “It is our way of thanking Dolly for what she has done for us so far,” Izzy says.‘We all took inspiration from Dolly and gave it our own twist’Drag performer Lilith took the least literal route of the three. Leaning towards high-fashion aesthetics rather than the conventional big-hair, glamorous drag look, he performed Olivia Rodrigo’s Bad Idea Right?, Kesha’s Your Love Is My Drug and Lady Gaga’s Disease, in a mini skirt, green top, fishnets, layered necklaces and black-and-green hair. “I know the theme is Dolly Parton but I don’t look anything like Dolly,” says Lilith, who instead wanted to channel Dolly’s energy. “Dolly, as a character and just as a person, was very bubbly, sexy and a very fun-loving person.”Lilith says he carried Dolly’s message of being comfortable with oneself into the performance. “Dolly would always say, ‘Just be who you are… Don’t think about what other people say.’ I was trying to be Dolly in her energy: just being true to myself,” he shares.That freedom to interpret rather than imitate was, for Lilith, at the heart of the evening.“When someone thinks of a Dolly tribute night, they might think that everybody would look like Dolly Parton, but none of us really did,” he says, adding, “We all did our own interpretation of Dolly. Not taking things literally, but taking inspiration and putting our own twist on it can also be a form of tribute.”
