Carmen Dior brings solo drag show back home to Sudbury

Due in part to the popularity of the television show RuPaul's Drag Race, pop culture has seen the rise of drag as an art form and as entertainment. 

Sudbury-born Carmen Dior has embraced drag wholeheartedly and is excited to bring her solo show to her hometown February 1.

Dior says that she's admired many female pop stars ever since she was young but knew that the pop music route wasn't for her. She explains that Carmen Dior is a way for her to express herself and take inspiration from the iconic and powerful women she admires.

"I just feel incredibly confident and expressive and I'm just able to live my true authentic self through music and through dance and through art," said Dior.

She describes Carmen Dior as an intergalactic pop princess.

"You see a lot of colour . . . a lot of pink and purple, very inspired by Harajuko fashion and a lot of pop influences . . . and she looks like she walked out of a candy store."

Dior learned how to do her own makeup and it was very important to perfect it before bringing Carmen into the public eye.

Becoming Carmen Dior is a long process. "You have makeup. I have to glue down my eyebrows. I have to pad. I have to put all my tights on. I have to do the lashes and nails. But the final look in the mirror is what makes it all worth it."

Dior has recently returned from Japan. She had been living and working there for the past year under contract with Universal Studios Japan, putting her musical theatre skills to use as a member of the Frog Choir in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

Living in a different country and being immersed in its culture changed Dior. "It taught me so many things about myself that I would have never known if I hadn't done it," she said.

Dior also did her first headlining show as Carmen in Japan, "I walked off that stage going 'that is who she is and that is who she forever will be'."

She gets a little emotional when he talks about coming back to Sudbury for her solo show. Wherever she travels in the world, she feels a responsibility to bring what she's learned through her art back to Sudbury.

"It means so much to me. My journey has not been easy and it's been a lot of hardship. To come home and have faces that I know and love so much . . . it's just so important to me."

Carmen Dior Live in Sudbury takes place Saturday, Feb. 1, in the lower hall at the Caruso Club.