Last month, Montreal, arts interculturels (MAI) transformed their gallery space to be the thrust stage of our dreams for 3 Queer Happenings: Cosmic Drag-Pop Double Feature and we haven’t been able to stop thinking about the cosmic duo BiG SiSSY & Bijuriya.

The two drag artists and musicians came together for two sets of live music featuring their original songs, collabs, and cosmic covers as part of the greater series.

Starting off the evening was Bijuriya, inspired by her South Asian heritage and appreciated for her proud, festive, wacky, and critical outlook on Bollywood and other elements of Desi culture.

Her performance brought us through many different emotional moments. She began with her melancholic baroque opera piece Cold Genius Aria, composed by Henry Purcell, to having the audience laughing hysterically through her throwback original song “Les bouchées doubles”.

Bijuriya closed the performance off with a magical piece called “Geeta”, written from the perspective of Geeta Dutt, one of her favourite Indian singers from the ‘50s and ‘60s film industry. Geeta’s husband was a filmmaker and had cast another woman in Geeta-like roles while having Geeta sing for the character. Allegedly, there was a love triangle between the two of them and this other woman — a story that has since inspired this beautiful piece by Bijuriya to give Geeta her voice back.

Popping-in for a duet with Bijuriya in the first act—and dominating the second act with her witchy prowess—was BiG SiSSY, a favourite of Also Cool. BiG SiSSY is a drag/performance artist, vocalist, and producer who makes pro-Black, pro-sex, and beat-driven music. Mixing post-disco beat machines and electro-clash looped guitar riffs, SiSSY's subversive lyrics are drenched in Afro-futurism, humour, and blunt honesty.

The performance started out with some classics, contextualizing BiG SiSSY as an alien from the fictional “Black Starr Planet”. The songs are stars of her upcoming EP release Black Star, including the song “Black Supremacist”: “Whiteness will be your demise / Salvation lies between my thighs… / She was a Black Supremacist / The worst, reverse-racist queen.”

BiG SiSSY dazzled with her signature green glowing hair and stellar vocals.

The duo collaborated on two songs throughout the eve. There was one original by Bijuriya called “Problematic Fantasy”, which was an ode to the objectification of men whose morals/existence are objectionable (hilarious), as well as a cover of Jamiroquai’s “Virtual Insanity”.

A highlight of the performance was when BiG SiSSY asked for a volunteer from the audience. A very enthusiastic volunteer raised their hand; she then deemed them “Cilantro”, and reminded everyone that it was Black History Month and Cilantro would be bringing around a hat for the audience to fill with their cash.

The lighting and costumes were beautiful – the stage at the MAI really elevated the performances, and made sure audience members were soaked in red for one of BiG SiSSY’s climactic pieces: “The Period Song”. After this performance, BiG SiSSY and her assistant blasted red party-poppers out into the audience as we all shouted “free bleed”.

The show ended with BiG SiSSY’s latest release “Cake”, featuring BACKXWASH (another Also Cool favourite), where she wants to “have [her] cake and eat it too.” You’ll have to listen to the lyrics for that one to get the full picture…

To experience the fun for yourself, join us at the BiG SiSSY EP release on April 6th. We’re also looking forward to seeing Bijuriya again quite soon – stay tuned!

BiG SiSSY

Black Starr EP out on all platforms April 6

Instagram | Bandcamp | Website

Bijuriya

Bijuriya Chamke out now

Instagram | Bandcamp

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