VIVA VIDA LAS VEGAS

Staff Writers
April 20, 2008

Over-the-top gowns and gushing acceptance speeches -¦ slippery-slick production shows and video montages -¦ beautiful boys in rented tuxedos -¦ campness and drunken buffoonery -¦ it was all there in glittering spades at Monday night’s DIVA ceremony.

Nearly 900 guests attended the evening, held for the first time at Royal Randwick. Vida Las Vegas was the night’s big winner, taking out the gongs for Entertainer Of The Year and Sydney’s Most Popular Drag Queen, while her Arq show Twisted Elegance won the coveted award for best large-cast show.

The feeling is absolutely surreal, Vida told Sydney Star Observer shortly after accepting her Entertainer Of The Year award. It’s an indication that people are appreciating what I do and it’s an indication that I’m heading in the right direction. It’s going to give me so much drive and determination to go global.

The talented showgirl, who first took to the Sydney stage in 2000, will be appearing in Arq’s Sunday night show Twisted Elegance for a few more weeks, but revealed that she already had a new show in the works, which she said was going to be absolutely amazing.

While the DIVAs honoured several stalwarts of the industry (including David Wilkins, who was inducted into the DIVA Hall of Fame), it also recognised several up-and-coming ladies of the stage, including Dallas Della Force, who won the award for DIVA Rising Star.

Dallas told the Star that winning was a gorgeous surprise.

It makes me feel that my peers respect and admire me, she said.

The 22-year-old, who first donned drag at the age of nine, was enthusiastic -” and ever so slightly tongue-in-cheek -” about her year treading the boards as Dallas.

It’s been really interesting. I’ve had to deal with lots of really crazy things, like learning choreography, she said.

The evening’s entertainment roster included several barnstorming drag shows, and live vocal performances by Sophie Monk, Courtney Act, Cleopatra Coupe, Philip Filo and Shauna Jensen. The partying hardcore ventured on to Arq nightclub for the traditional bitch and boast event, which went on for quite a long time.

THE WINNERS: DIVA 2003