The rain last Wednesday night didn’t deter the crowds from attending the Grand Final of the Kudos ‘Ms Drag Queen Contest 2005’. Every month since January, Kudos has hosted a drag queen competition; over the year more than 120 contenders have vied for the title and each month has yielded a finalist. Wednesday night was the Grand Final, when the finalists competed against each other for the coveted title.

Each contestant was judged on the merits of her talent, performance, looks, costume, dancing ability, choreographic skills and stage presence. Another of the requisites of a drag queen is her originality, versatility, and ability to impersonate a number of different characters – whether it be Britney, Whitney, Madonna or Tina Turner. The panel of judges announced that they would choose the winner and that the runner up would be selected by the audience.

The diverse performances were slick and professional, and the costumes were stunning. Some of the drag queens employed sexy back-up dancers, both male and female (I think… but this is where the borders can get a bit hazy!). After much deliberating, the judges announced the winner – la crème de la crème – and the very pretty Miss Dita was crowned ‘Miss Kudos’ for her superb and slightly risqué Britney impersonation with the help of her two back-up dancers. The excited spectators, meanwhile, selected Miss Tita as audience favourite for her performance of a traditional Indonesian pop-dangdut number, backed by four female dancers all wearing beautiful lime green costumes.

Miss Dita was then called back on stage to perform an encore. These lucky ‘girls’ are gonna get some great prizes and pampering supplied by the sponsors of the event, and let’s hope there were some talent spotters in the audience cos this could lead to the possibility of contracts, new careers, travel, fame and fortune.