Metro Weekly

This town’s got talent to export…

Did you happen to watch America’s Got Talent last night? If so — and if you didn’t blink — you should have seen a couple familiar faces.

No sweetie, The DC Cowboys were on last year. This year’s high-profile gay D.C. contingent to appear on NBC’s novelty act show was a smattering of Town’s own drag queens and dancers. Shi-Queeta-Lee, Ba’Naka, Akasha Cassadine and Jessica Spaulding are the Ladies of Town’s Diva League who performed alongside seven X-Faction dancers. In the spring, they auditioned at the National Harbor for the show’s producers, who sent them on to perform at New York’s Hammerstein Ballroom for the show’s judges, David “I Heart Talking Cars” Hasselhoff, Sharon “I Heart Bumbling Rockers” Osbourne and Piers “I Heart Simon Cowell” Morgan.

“Yes, yes, yes!” Osbourne enthused after the Diva League performed a high-energy lip-synched and choreographed routine to the Pussycat Dolls’ “When I Grow Up.” The televised version went by so fast, all you’re likely to remember is host Nick “You Got Me Feeling Emotions” Cannon wincing after a couple of the X-Faction men did the splits at song’s end. All the judges seemed to agree with Osbourne, and said they’d see the Diva League in Vegas for the next round of competition. But Lee tells Hearsay “they lied.” A show producer called Lee last week to let them know to stay put — they’d found other groups “just a little bit better” to send on to Vegas and the next round. On Lee’s personal Facebook page, the drag queen is encouraging fans to generate popular demand for the Diva League to compete by leaving comments on the show’s website. Why not try? They were entertaining.

If you missed it, you can see the full episode online; the Diva League’s performance is a little over eight minutes into it, after only one commercial break (yes, even online) and a yo-yo man….

Support Metro Weekly’s Journalism

These are challenging times for news organizations. And yet it’s crucial we stay active and provide vital resources and information to both our local readers and the world. So won’t you please take a moment and consider supporting Metro Weekly with a membership? For as little as $5 a month, you can help ensure Metro Weekly magazine and MetroWeekly.com remain free, viable resources as we provide the best, most diverse, culturally-resonant LGBTQ coverage in both the D.C. region and around the world. Memberships come with exclusive perks and discounts, your own personal digital delivery of each week’s magazine (and an archive), access to our Member's Lounge when it launches this fall, and exclusive members-only items like Metro Weekly Membership Mugs and Tote Bags! Check out all our membership levels here and please join us today!