PHOTOGRAPH BY STEVENS AÑAZCO FOR TIME
If Pabllo VIttar Is makIng headlInes,
they might be about her smash hit songs,
her astonishing Fashion Week outfits,
her disruptive political statements or
some combination of the three. Over the
past four years, the 24-year-old Brazil-
ian drag queen and pop star has seam-
lessly integrated the personal with the
cultural and political—using her platform
as a musical star to demand equality for
LGBT communities in Brazil and beyond.
In a music ecosystem made global by
streaming, Vittar, who identifies as gay and
gender fluid, has emerged as one of South
America’s most popular exports: she has
garnered half a billion Spotify streams and
a billion YouTube views for earworms that
gild Brazilian rhythms with an American
pop sheen. She’s forged partnerships with
superstars from around the world, danc-
ing alongside Charli XCX in “Flash Pose”
and making out with Diplo in “Então Vai.”
On Instagram, she has 9 million followers—
more than double the number of her drag
idol, RuPaul. “It’s so cool to see drag-queen
art and LGBTQ art going mainstream,”
Vittar says of her own success as well as
that of RuPaul’s Drag Race and FX’s Pose.
Vittar has used her global megaphone
both to celebrate her identity—performing
at the World Pride parade, the U.N. Head-
quarters and Rio’s Carnaval— and to speak
out against dangers. “I feel ashamed to
be a Brazilian sometimes because of this
President,” Vittar says of Jair Bolsonaro, a
self-professed homophobe elected to the
presidency last year. In 2018, 420 LGBT
people were killed in Brazil, according to
the country’s oldest gay-rights organiza-
tion. “People are dying. People are hav-
ing their home and rights taken away.”
The backlash has only inspired Vittar
to fight more fiercely for queer rights. She
has a new trilingual album on the way—
the first half of which comes out Nov. 1—
and will continue to champion other drag
queens during her world tour. “As an art-
ist, you have this duty to take a stance on
things,” she says. “If speaking out will put
me in a risky spot, let us all die trying.”
Pabllo Vittar
A drag queen for the world
By Andrew R. Chow
BRAZIL
Next Generation Leaders