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Eureka!
Eureka O'Hara
Photo:
Bird Lambro |
Media sensation Eureka O’Hara – RuPaul’s Drag Race all-star, We’re Here trailblazer, singer-songwriter, actor, advocate, proportionzer, and self-declared Elephant Queen – has released the video HERE to her biggest and boldest single yet, “Big Mawma.” The “Big Mawma” track is produced by House of Queens HERE, via PEG Records/Warner Music Group/ADA is available HERE
Building on the message established by past proudly large-and-in-charge anthems like “Stomp” - HERE, “Body Positivity” - HERE, and “The Big Girl” - HERE,” Eureka’s latest tour de force “is an empowerment song for bigger women, first and foremost -- but also it's an empowering song for anyone that is made to feel less-than by society.”
“This love is what the world needs to be reminded of. We all got Big Mawma love in us and around us. We just gotta remember to treat it right, accept that we are worthy of it and respect it!“
Read more about Eureka’s Re-Transitioning Journey in People Magazine HERE
“Big Mawma” was inspired by the most important women in Eureka’s life: her recently departed mother and grandmother, who in general inspired the Eureka persona that millions of fans came to love via Drag Race Seasons 9 and 10 and All Stars Season 6. “Growing up as a 6’4”, colorful, flamboyant, genderqueer kid in Bristol, Tenn., I didn't have a lot of friends, and the people that gave me a purpose and taught me how to love were these big women,” she explains. “When my grandma passed away in November, I went into a really dark place, but then I noticed that there were all these other people in my life that had that Big Mawma spirit. One of my favorite lines from the song is: ‘It don’t matter where you come from/Daddies, aunties, uncles too/Big Mawma’s spirit lives in you.’”
The “Big Mawma” music video, the first project from Eureka’s new production company House of Queens HERE, a collaboration with tech industry executive and venture capitalist Aidan Madigan-Curtis. (“It's been a dream of mine forever to just create queer content, and a place for other queer entertainers to work and get advice”), House of Queens, whose tagline is “Join the royal family,” produces socially-impactful content featuring stars from the LGBTQIA community. With House of Queens, Eureka and Madigan-Curtis have teamed up to bring the tech sector’s capital and the entertainment world’s creativity to the world of drag.
Eureka shows off her acting chops like never before -- taking on dual male and female roles a la her idol Divine/Glen Milstead in Hairspray. Eureka, who memorably, uncannily impersonated Divine for Drag Race All Stars’ “Snatch Game” challenge, feels a kindred spirit in Milstead, and hopes to continues to storm through the doors that he helped crack open decades ago.
“Divine inspires everything I do. I feel like my life has run very parallel with Glen Milstead’s, as far as my passion for acting and wanting to be taken seriously as an artist,” explains Eureka, who studied acting in college long before she even got into drag. “Glen so desperately wanted to be taken seriously -- but how serious was the industry going to take the drag queen that was known for eating shit, you know? And that duality always resonates in me, because my Eureka character is everything it's not ‘supposed’ to be. I'm big. I'm sexy. I have shape. I wear things I'm not supposed to wear as a bigger person. I do music. I do splits and kicks and twirls, and I can out-twirl any skinny girl, any day. It's all because I have to work 10 times harder for industry people to take someone like me seriously.”
Eureka is “Big Mawma’s” chief songwriter, but the single finds her joining fierce forces with The Voice powerhouses and fan favorites Sarah Potenza HERE and Katie Kadan HERE, whom she jokingly says she “harassed the shit out of on social media” in order to convince them to sign on. “I was like, ‘Honestly, I just feel like we should just be a trio. Why not be Destiny's Child, but Big Mawma-style, honey?’” Potenza and Kadan penned their respective verses to put their own spin on the “Big Mawma” message, which is aimed at “anyone that's willing to love unconditionally” and “just happens to be extremely represented by three big women to show how sexy and delicious we can be. There's a very sexual and beautiful side to us too. Just because we have big hearts, don't forget our big asses!”
“I’m such a Eureka fan. Doing a collab with her is a dream come true. The concept of the big mawma spirit is so special to me. I’ve always tried to live my life with kindness and generosity, to create a community for those who need that big mamma energy. And this song is a celebration of that vibe, it’s our anthem!” – said Sarah Potenza, while Katie Kaden shared – “In 2021, Eureka reached out to me thru social media, and I felt an instant connection. She approached me with a potential collaboration idea and introduced me to Big Mawma. What started out as just an idea, has now come to fruition as a song, a music video, and a beautiful friendship. It was such a special collaboration, experience and journey for me to be a part of. Big Mawma is here to remind us all that there’s love, home, compassion and beauty in all the Big Mawma’s of the world. Go big or go home! I love you Big Mawma!”
The industry has no choice but to take Eureka seriously at this point. In addition to her recent star turns on AJ and the Queen, American Horror Story, and Love, Victor, Eureka -- who says she is willing, ready, and able to take on acting roles of all genders -- will appear in a top-secret landmark episode of Showtime's The L Word: Generation Q this year. And on Nov. 25, she returned to tv screens alongside Drag Race alumni Bob the Drag Queen and Shangela for Season 3 of HBO’s Emmy/GLAAD/Imagen Award-winning reality series We're Here.
Check out Eureka in all her fabulous glory HERE
The current season of We’re Here features a groundbreaking, multi-episode storyline, inspired by Eureka’s life-changing encounter with a 70-year-old trans woman, that chronicles Eureka’s complex, real-life gender journey. Having lived as a trans woman for five years before making the difficult decision to detransition and later identify as nonbinary -- because of the struggles she faced living in Tennessee -- Eureka now realizes, “I made these choices for other people, to make other people comfortable. Now, my gender expression and gender identity match for me, and for who I’m going to be happy living as.” Eureka additionally explores gender expression and fluidity on “Big Mawma,” singing in her male voice for the first time. “It's something I should celebrate, regardless of being trans or not. This is the voice I have, so I should be proud of it,” she explains.
In addition to her many music/acting projects, as well as her non-profit organization Influence the World (which harnesses the power of social media influencers to give back to people in need), Eureka, always a consummate entertainer, will appear onstage throughout 2022 and 2023. She’ll star in her own “Eureka’s Castle” popup concerts produced by House of Queens, and she’ll return to Las Vegas’s successful RuPaul's Drag Race LIVE! revue alongside other queens like Asia O’Hara, Derrick Barry, Kameron Michaels, Naomi Smalls, Vanjie, Jada Essence Hall, Plastique Tiara, and Trinity K. Bonet. “Whenever I’m available to go back to that show and give them love, I do it,” she says. “I definitely owe Drag Race a debt, as far as them helping me find my placement in Hollywood. I will always owe them that gratitude.”
Now Eureka’s place in Hollywood is well-established, and the time is finally right for the Elephant Queen to fully ascend her showbiz throne. “Hollywood is going to be ready for me because it has to be ready! And because I'm not going stop until I get where I need to be and what I want do,” asserts Eureka. “I know what my talent is, and I know where my passion lies. I just had to get to a fully realized version of myself, and be authentic, to get where I need to be. I think what I was scared of is what's going to end up being the glory in my life.”
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