Jorge Luis Flores Sánchez (born February 22, 1974), better known as Nina Flowers, is a Puerto Rican

drag queen A drag queen is a person, usually male, who uses drag clothing and makeup to imitate and often exaggerate female gender signifiers and gender roles for entertainment purposes. Historically, drag queens have usually been gay men, and part of ...

, DJ,

activist Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...

, professional

make-up artist A make-up artist, also called a makeup artist, and often shortened to MUA, is an artist whose medium is the human body, applying makeup and Prosthetic makeup, prosthetics on others for theatre, television, film, fashion, magazines and other simil ...

, and

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1 ...

personality who has been performing since 1993. He is best known for being the runner-up of the inaugural season of ''

RuPaul's Drag Race ''RuPaul's Drag Race'' is an American reality competition television series, the first in the ''Drag Race'' franchise, produced by World of Wonder for Logo TV (season 1–8), WOW Presents Plus, VH1 (season 9–14) and, beginning with the f ...

'', as well as being a contestant on the first season of '' RuPaul's Drag Race: All Stars''.

Biography

Flowers was born and raised in

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and unincorporated ...

. He started his career as a DJ in 1989 where she became a resident DJ at Krash Klub Kafe, one of the most prestigious clubs in the Caribbean. He started his drag career in March 1993 while studying to become a professional makeup artist. In 1999, she won both the Miss Puerto Rico Continental and Miss City Lights Continental pageants. His drag name originates from a combination of the names

Nina Hagen Catharina "Nina" Hagen (; born 11 March 1955) is a German singer, songwriter, and actress. She is known for her theatrical vocals and rose to prominence during the punk and new wave movements in the late 1970s and early 1980s. She is known as ...

, who was his favorite rockstar, and his last name, Flores, which translates to ''flowers'' in English.

Television

Flowers became a cast member on

Logo A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name it represents as in a wo ...

reality series Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early ...

, ''

'', which premiered on the network in February 2009. Flowers finished in second place and won the ''Miss Congeniality'' award during the first season's reunion special, making him the first runner-up to win the title and highest ever Miss Congeniality in the history of the show. He is also the first ever contestant to win a maxi challenge in the history of the show as well as the first contestant to never place in the bottom two. The publicity generated by his participation on the show brought many new opportunities to perform at various national and international

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term ...

events including ''Denver Pride'', ''San Juan Pride'', '' Chicago Pride'' and '' Vancouver Pride''. Besides his participation on RuPaul's Drag Race, Flowers (along with

season two Season 2 may refer to: * ''Season 2'' (Infinite album) * ''2econd Season ''2econd Season'' is the second and most recent album by Atlanta-based rapper Unk. Release It was released on November 4, 2008. Guest Performers The album features gu ...

contestant Jessica Wild) has performed on the popular Puerto Rican television program ''

Objetivo Fama ''Objetivo Fama'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''OF'', Spanish for ''Target: Fame'') is a Puerto Rican singing talent contest that aired for over six years on WLII, the Univision outlet in Puerto Rico; and on Telefutura in the mainland United Stat ...

'', which airs throughout the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

and

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived ...

. In early 2010, Flowers joined the cast of Logo's new reality series '' RuPaul's Drag U''. This summer replacement series premiered on July 19, 2010. Flowers was one of 12 past ''Drag Race'' contestants in the season-one cast of '' RuPaul's Drag Race: All Stars'', which premiered on the Logo network on October 22, 2012. Forming ''Team Brown Flowers'' along with contestant

Tammie Brown Tammie Brown is the stage name of Keith Glen Schubert (born September 15, 1980), an American drag performer, reality television personality, and recording artist. Brown was a fixture in the Southern California drag scene before appearing on the ...

, both contestants were eliminated in the second episode of the series which aired on October 28, 2012.

Music

In December 2009, Flowers (in collaboration with DJ Ranny) released his first dance single "Loca", which is available for purchase via

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mu ...

and other commercial music sites. The single has been remixed by such notable remixers as William Umana, Joe Gauthreaux, and Manny Lehman. The single reached its highest spot (#15) on the

Billboard Hot Dance Club Play Dance Club Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. It is a national look over of club disc jockeys to determine the most popular songs being played in nightclubs across the country. It was launched as ...

the week of 30 January 2010. Continuing his first successful venture in the

dance music Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement. In terms of performance, the major categories are live dance music and recorded da ...

industry, Flowers released her first EP of original songs on July 15, 2010. Titled ''Start Your Engines,'' the album is a compilation of six tracks that he and producer/remixer William Umana produced. The first single, "Locas in da House," utilizes Flowers's trademark catchphrase in a tribal house anthem.''Getting to know Denver's hottest drag queens''
from ''denver.metromix.com'' June 2010 In January 2011, Flowers released his dance single "I'm Feelin Flowers", which he produced in collaboration with

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

-based deejay/producer DJ MDW. His single "Rock the Beat" was released on July 31, 2012. Today Nina Flowers holds DJ residencies in several cities in the US and he continues to captivate fans around the globe with his powerfully engaging connection to the audiences, and his progressive sound filled with tribal beats. Nina Flowers describes his sound as edgy, spicy, colorful, energetic, groovy and original.

Personal life

Flowers and his husband, Antonio Purcell resided in

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the ...

, as of 2009 to the end of 2020, and moved to

Dallas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

in December 2020.Kennedy, Lisa
''"Nina Flowers is hot!"''
''

Denver Post ''The Denver Post'' is a daily newspaper and website published in Denver, Colorado. As of June 2022, it has an average print circulation of 57,265. In 2016, its website received roughly six million monthly unique visitors generating more than 1 ...

'' May 31, 2009, accessed January 13, 2010 , archivedate= AOctober 26, 2016, archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20161026043446/http://www.denverpost.com/2009/05/28/nina-flowers-is-hot/ On May 29, 2009, Denver's mayor,

John Hickenlooper John Wright Hickenlooper Jr. (; born February 7, 1952) is an American politician serving as the junior United States senator from Colorado since 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 42nd governor of Colorado from 2011 to 20 ...

, proclaimed May 29 "Nina Flowers Day" in recognition of Flowers's contributions to the city's

LGBT community The LGBT community (also known as the LGBTQ+ community, GLBT community, gay community, or queer community) is a loosely defined grouping of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and other queer individuals united by a common culture and so ...

.''Nina Flowers: Queen for a "Day"''
from ''outfrontcolorado.com'' 1 June 2009

Filmography

Film

Television

Music videos

Web series

Discography

EPs Singles

References

External links

* * *
Nina Flowers interview
on

{{DEFAULTSORT:Flowers, Nina 1974 births Living people American dance musicians American drag queens Puerto Rican drag queens American make-up artists American LGBT musicians People from Bayamón, Puerto Rico People from Denver Nina Flowers LGBT DJs Nina Flowers Hispanic and Latino American drag queens