On Being Invited In

This past weekend, we visited Play in Nashville for the first time. I’ve wanted to visit the club for a while now but with one my of my favorite drag queens (and RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 2 winner) Alaska 5000 coming to town, I had to go.

So we got in to Play and I wasn’t quite feeling it at first. I knew it’d be a big crowd, given the show for the night and reminded myself to not feel weird being a straight girl at the gay club with her husband (I want to make sure that when going places like this I don’t do anything to make it uncomfortable for the group that the place is made for. It’s just a courtesy thing I have and maybe I’m a little weird with it but yeah…).

So when we walked in around 10, we grabbed a spot to see the end of the show and saw a few performances by some Nashville queens. The performances were awesome but something wasn’t quite feeling right for me- I get uncomfortable being in new places and not knowing how things work.

The third performer up was The Princess. I follow her on Instagram and love her aesthetic (I didn’t realize she had been on season 4 of Drag Race, this girl has gone back as far as season 5). I gave her a follow after seeing her awesome costumes and the fact she’s based in Nashville and it was super comforting to see someone I “knew” on stage. Princess rocked a Lady Gaga song and was super energetic, had an amazing look and just pulled me in. Once she came on stage, I was ok, I was welcomed in and I felt good.

As she emceed the night, the Princess did some other amazing numbers and was hilarious. My favorite number had to be when she did Katy Perry’s “Firework” in a killer silver gown that just made me smile. The overall feeling that she put out was one of love, acceptance and opening up this community to everyone there. This number made me almost cry, thinking about the words and how everyone is amazing and great in their own way. She spread love. I’m a fan of The Princess for life.

We’re going back in March to see Katya at Play but I have to say, if we could find a random weekend to go, I would drive the two hours just to see The Princess perform. I always appreciate people who are so welcoming and positive and spread the love out there.

Thank you for being you, Princess- I hope to see you again very soon (and say hey and grab a photo hopefully!)