In 2015, we hosted our First Annual Stiletto Awards, a night of pomp and glamour designed to recognize the best of the best in the previous year’s drag. Our weekly show, the Sunday Revue, was about to celebrate its first anniversary, and it seemed fitting to have a night showcasing the evolution of Edmonton drag.
Here are some highlights of those first awards. Chanelta Shanaynay was recognized for her dazzling, spinning hoop performance during 2014’s Search for Alberta’s Next Drag Superstar; “All The Lovers” nabbed her Best Choreography AND Performance of the Year. Tiara Manila, who won that first ANDS, won Best Costumes. Empress 14 Leah Way and Empress 15 Twiggy were the first inductees into our Stiletto Hall of Legends. The Show of Shows 2, a massive night featuring all the active houses in group work, took Favorite Event. Ruby Hymen won Favorite Out of Town Guest; maybe that’s why she moved here, because Edmonton loved her then and loves her still! And ANDS2014 Runner-up Rosell Kristina took home the big award of the night: Performer of the Year, AND then she was crowned our first Miss Evolution.
The 2016 Awards now had more to build on. We knew we’d be crowning a replacement for the irreplaceable Rosell, but that meant we needed to build a step-down performance for her into the night too. The scene was expanding ever more, as evidenced by the sheer talent in Breakthrough Performer; future Canada’s Drag Race star Melinda Verga lost that award to Divina Diefor. Her endless five-more-minutes-on-the-mic landed Sister Mary Clarence the Best Host Stiletto, after she’d won the previous year’s Most Missed Queen before moving back. Lilith Fair‘s hilarious “Turn Down For What” took Performance of the Year, and Alberta’s reigning Drag Superstar Tiara Misu landed Performer of the Year. As for Rosell’s replacement, there was only one choice: our very own Twiggy!
2017 was the year of the House of HOMO-CIDAL, with Lilith Fair taking Funniest Performer, for the second time, Chelsea Horrendous winning Best Face, JBR winning Best Host, Eeden winning Breakthru Performer, Goblynn Dixx winning Most Theatrical, Mask4Mask winning Favorite Drag Event, Kat Marlowe Minorah winning Performance of the Year for “Reasons to Vote For Me”, and Sucreesha Minorah winning Performer of the Year. To complete the sweep, Lilith Fair ended the night crowned as the next Miss Evolution! Lilith had also just stepped down as Alberta’s Drag Superstar, so it was truly the year for her!
Another important highlight was Dragging Our Heel’s Knight and David winning the Drag Supporter Stiletto that would eventually be named for them!
2018 was brought to you by the letter “V”. Voula Callas took home Breakthrough Performer AND Performance of the Year for “Mommie Dearest”. Vanity Fair took home Best Host, and she and Lilith Fair (no relation) snagged Favorite Duet for their amazing “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?”. Rosell of the Queens of the Orient and Lilith of HOMO-CIDAL joined the Hall of Legends, after Godiva, Tequila, and Vanity all were inducted in previous years. Drag was definitely starting to get to be too much to be contained in one bar though; Sister Mary was bringing it all over the city, even snagging the Favorite Non-EVO event for Hail Mary and Have Mercy.
And Vanity Fair took home the crown, as Miss Evolution 4.
2019 saw Ivy League, Most Improved the year before, crowned the next Miss Evolution.
Gogo Fetch‘s Yellowhead Drag Brunch took Favorite Non-EVO event. Imagine a time when Drag Brunches were a rarity? Now, they have their whole own category!
The ISCWR’s Moulin Rouge won Favorite Event, while HOMO-CIDAL’s “Archie’s Weird Mysteries” took home Favorite Group Performance. And Performance of the Year? Kat Marlowe Minorah knocked out another one, with “Taking Up Space.”
2020 shook things up.
We had already had years and years of burlesque amazingness happening at the bar and we decided to try recognizing that by combining both drag and burlesque in that year’s Stilettos; it didn’t really work though, and the plan for 2021 was to have two separate awards. At the time of that decision though, we had no idea what the rest of 2020 would bring.
2020 shook things up for Ivy too though. After losing ANDS only to be crowned EVO, Ivy swept the awards, getting Performance of the Year for her ANDS number “I Want That Trophy” as well as Performer of the Year before passing on her EVO crown to Bambi Dextrous.
And then the whole world crowned Miss Rona. But in one of the many relaunches, we doubled up our EVO crowns, giving Bambi a partner in crime who was already her partner in life, Mr EVO 1 Ferris Fair.
As the world tried to find it’s new normal, we took the opportunity to recognize that drag that kept us entertained during the pandemic, whether it was rare in person inside, park shows , or Zoom shows. And we crowned ourselves some new EVOs: Audrina Linn and Gemma Nye, who was our first Mx EVO. Even if we had to wait another year to catch our new titleholders unmasked!
And sweeping the awards was not-new-to-Edmonton but new-to-Edmonton-now Pepper, back from Ontario and slaying the scene!
By 2023, things were as close to normal as they can be, but in a world where drag is ever more under attack, celebrating the talent and pageantry of our local artists never felt more important. Edmonton drag is a diverse, wonderful, and ever evolving scene, and the nominees and winners in 2023 made that clear. From the classic pageantry of Favorite Drag Event Eleganza Xtravaganza, to the growing king scene (Brad Diesel winning Favorite Out of Town Guest), to alt drag like Best Costumes winner Emmonia, to mainstream festivals embracing drag leading to Favorite Group Work for Legs and Dairy at K-Days, drag was BACK in Edmonton. Not that it ever truly left.
And the crowning of Miss Evolution 8 Rexy Resurrection and Mx EVO 2 Tugs Cuchina really drove home what the title, and the night, are all about – unconditional support of Edmonton drag in all its forms. That, combined with kindness and a certain degree of drama-free participation in the scene, is what the EVO titles stand for.
(Which honestly is why this year’s winner or winners felt like an easy choice – but if you wanna know who’s next to be crowned, you need to be at the 2024 Stiletto Awards, happening Sunday February 18 at #yourpridebar!)
Congrats to all 2024’s nominees and eventual winners!
