Exclusive Interview - Ella Vaday
Ella Vaday, welcome to Spill the Tea my darling! To start, how did you get into drag?
Well since drag race began I have watched it, my friend Dale had been away in America introduced me to it and I was immediately hooked! I’d never been to a real life drag show so this was really the only drag I knew at this point. It wasn’t until 2017 when I joined The Book Of Mormon I was part of the west end drag charity night called ‘ A Mad Drag Night’ , raising money for the amazing Mad Trust, I’d been to see it the year before and really fancied a go and Ive always loved a bit of dress up!! Fast forward to 2019 and I was leaving the show and I decided that I could add drag to my skill set and attempt to earn to some extra money where I could, to help pay my way through fun employment.
How did you choose your Drag name? Did you have any rejected names and if so, what were they?
I’m totally not one of those cool cats that can pull off a one word name , so I knew I wanted a punny name...my previous drag name was Ella Vanasse because I have always padded a big bum and it was a pun on ‘ell of an Ass, but it got lost in translation when I would say it, people would say ‘elephant what?..” so after a while I decided to change it to Ella Vaday!
Ella Vaday comes from always being so busy and over doing it! When I was in Wicked and then The Book Of Mormon, I ran my own dog walking business to save up extra money to be able to buy a house, so would be doing an 8 show week, walking dogs 5 days a week, cycling to and from work, and going to the gym at least 3 nights after the show, so every day was ‘ell of a day!
How would you describe your Drag style?
My drag style is colourful, curvaceous and silly, I don’t take myself too seriously, and see drag as a way of escapism for the audience and the performer so I like it to be as fun and garish as possible!"
What emoji describes your Drag?
🌈 I love wearing all the colours and also serving CAMP.
RuPaul’s Drag Race has helped catapult Drag into the mainstream, but it goes beyond Drag Race, what one other Queen deserves a shout out from you?
I’ve always adored Paul Ogrady as Lily Savage, quick witted humour, the leopard print the outfits, just perfect! And I love watching all the filming outtakes on YouTube, so , so funny. I would say he is the epitome of British drag.
You released a cover of ‘Tainted Love’ with the Leontas. How did that collaboration come about and why that song?
So My brother is actually the drummer in the band and I’d sent him a video of a cover of Tainted Love and jokingly said, we should do a version of this! Next minute we’d recorded a cover and video! It’s not very often you see a band like Leontas collaborating with a drag queen and I thought it was a really cool thing to do, and something really fun and brave for them to dare to do! Ive always loved the original Gloria Jones version of the song and sang it anyway in my set, so it was cool to give it a new rocky flare.
Would you ever release your own original single in or out of drag?
Totally! I could’ve never imagined in a million years that I would have a song on Spotify! I think out of drag I would be far more reserved about doing such a thing, but I would love to do more music and record singles and albums in the future! Who knows maybe I could be in the charts! But it was such a fun experience and definitely something i would love to do more of.
When performing what is your go to lip sync song… or do you only sing live?
I don’t ever lipsync actually, my bookings are always live sets, I figured as a professionally trained singer that I would stick to what I am good at (allegedly) but if I had to choose, I would go for whenever wherever, which I love singing and you can’t beat a good yodel!!!
Covid has changed the way we live dramatically, especially for the arts! Hitting your career twice if you like, as you are also an actor! How has this last year been for you for both acting and drag wise?
My goodness it’s been testing to say the least, I was on day 3 of rehearsals for Hairspray when lockdown happened, within a week I was working at Morrison’s stacking the shelves. Was definitely hard and very stressful at first, having already waited for 6 months for the job to start, and suddenly finding myself completely unemployed with no idea of what the future would hold. I used the time I had free to do drag at home, try new things and started to post a lot more often, and connect with everyone else who was also stuck at home. It was great to stay creative and to have an outlet to be able to focus on something for a few hours and de-stress, without this time I wouldn’t be at the stage I am now! Theatre is still at a standstill almost a year later, but I found myself between lockdown 2&3 able to earn enough money by doing drag, so drag has really saved me in lot of ways this year!
Looking forward to more positive days what does the future hold for you?
I just want to carry on having fun, learning and growing as a drag performer. Drag is a huge passion of mine and something I know I will do forever. We’ve just got to wait and see what happens in the future, you can never plan these things! Sometimes the worst thing to do is to set too many goals, as over time we change and grow. I’ve learnt that in the last 12 years as an actor and dancer, you find out what your good/not good at and essentially what you enjoy doing. I pretty laid back and like to go with the flow as things tend to work themselves out for the best in the end.
Any last shout outs?
Just to my amazing boyfriend Marco for being my rock throughout all these tough times, and my dog Wally for all the cuddles and endless licks!
