Giovanni Lucca Palandrani (born February 12, 1996), better known by his stage name Aquaria, is an American

drag queen A drag queen is a person, usually male, who uses Drag (entertainment), drag clothing and makeup to imitate and often exaggerate Femininity, female gender signifiers and gender roles for entertainment purposes. Historically, drag queens have ...

, television personality, and recording artist best known for winning the tenth season of ''

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

'' in 2018.

Early life and education

Palandrani was born in

West Chester, Pennsylvania West Chester is a borough (Pennsylvania), borough and the county seat of Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States. Located in the Delaware Valley, Philadelphia metropolitan area, the borough had a population of 18,671 at the 2020 census. West ...

to Gina and David Palandrani. He has a sister named Francesca, and is of Italian descent. He trained as a dancer for four years and experimented with drag in high school. He attended the Fashion Institute of Technology in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

for two semesters, studying women's wear design, before dropping out.

Career

Aquaria is the drag daughter of ''Drag Race'' season four winner Sharon Needles. However, after accusations of abuse were made against Needles in 2020, Aquaria has said that she "does not support him" and "feels awful for anyone he has hurt". She began performing in drag in 2014. Like

RuPaul RuPaul Andre Charles (born November 17, 1960) is an American drag queen, television host, singer, producer, writer, and actor. He produces, hosts, and judges the reality competition series ''RuPaul's Drag Race'' and has received List of awards ...

, Aquaria received early support from

Susanne Bartsch Susanne Bartsch is a Swiss event producer, living in the United States, whose monthly parties at the Copacabana in late-1980s New York City united the ''haute'' and ''demi-monde'', making her an icon of New York nightlife. "Ms. Bartsch's name," ...

. Aquaria was featured in a '' Vogue Italia'' spread in January 2016 with Bartsch and other ''Drag Race'' alumnae. In early 2018, it was announced that Aquaria was chosen as one of fourteen contestants for the tenth season of ''

'', upon her first audition for the program. She won three main challenges, never ranked in the bottom two, and was the first queen in the show's history to win both the

ball A ball is a round object (usually spherical, but sometimes ovoid) with several uses. It is used in ball games, where the play of the game follows the state of the ball as it is hit, kicked or thrown by players. Balls can also be used for s ...

and the "

Snatch Game Snatch Game is a comedy challenge recurring across the ''Drag Race'' television franchise and a fixture of the reality competition series. Since the second season of the original American ''RuPaul's Drag Race'' series in 2010, the challenge ha ...

" in the same season. Aquaria was announced as the winner of the season on June 28, 2018, beating out Eureka O'Hara and Kameron Michaels in the final three. Aquaria was nominated with Miz Cracker for the "Competition Contestant of 2018" for the 2018

People's Choice Awards The People's Choice Awards is an American awards show, recognizing people in entertainment, voted online by the fans and general public. The show has been held annually since 1975, with the winners originally determined using Gallup Polls un ...

. In October 2018, Aquaria appeared solo in an issue of ''Vogue Italia'', photographed by Michael Bailey-Gates. She was a model for

Moschino Moschino () is an Italian Luxury goods, luxury fashion house founded in 1983 by Franco Moschino in Milan known for over-the-top, Camp (style), campy designs. The company specializes in ready-to-wear, handbags, and fashion accessories. Moschino's ...

and H&M's November 2018 Capsule Collection with Bria Vinaite and

Jeremy Scott Jeremy Scott (born August 8, 1975) is an American fashion designer. He is the sole owner of his namesake label, and from October 2013 to March 2023 was the creative director of the fashion house Moschino. Since launching his brand in Paris in 19 ...

. She received a contract from

IMG Models IMG, originally known as the International Management Group, is a global sports, fashion, events and media company headquartered in New York City. The company manages athletes and fashion celebrities; owns, operates and commercially represents ...

, and was announced as the Entertainment editor for

Dazed ''Dazed'' (''Dazed & Confused'' until February 2014) is a quarterly British lifestyle magazine founded in 1991. It covers music, fashion, film, art, and literature. ''Dazed'' is published by Dazed Media, an independent media group known for produ ...

. In 2019, Aquaria was announced as one of the faces of MAC's Viva Glam campaign. She attended the 2019 Met Gala, and was the first drag queen to walk the red carpet. In June 2019, a panel of judges from '' New York'' magazine placed her 11th on their list of "the most powerful drag queens in America", a ranking of 100 former ''Drag Race'' contestants. In 2019, Aquaria released her very own makeup palette in collaboration with NYX Cosmetics. In September 2019, at RuPaul's DragCon NYC, Aquaria was named as one of a rotating cast of a dozen ''Drag Race'' queens in '' RuPaul's Drag Race Live!'', a Las Vegas show residency from January to August 2020 at the Flamingo Las Vegas. Aquaria performed as a part of

Rihanna Robyn Rihanna Fenty ( ; born February 20, 1988) is a Barbadian singer, businesswoman, and actress. One of the List of music artists by net worth, wealthiest musicians in the world, List of awards and nominations received by Rihanna, her vario ...

's Savage X Fenty Beauty Fashion Show during the Fall 2019 New York Fashion Week.

Music

As part of the final challenge of season 10, Aquaria and the other top four contestants wrote and recorded their own verses for

's song " American." The song reached number 12 on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' Dance/Electronic Songs chart. Aquaria was featured in the song "Looks" by Linux in 2016. He released his debut single, "Burn Rubber", in June 2018. The song was written by Jesse Saint John.

Personal life

Aquaria lives in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

, New York City. On July 3, 2018, singer Bebe Rexha criticized Aquaria and the other ''Drag Race'' top four queens over

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

for supposed bad behavior toward her at the VH1 Trailblazer Honors, such as not talking to her and being "cold". Aquaria responded with a series of tweets defending herself and her fellow queens. In May 2018, Aquaria criticized rapper Travis Scott for removing Amanda Lepore, a transgender woman, from the cover art of his 2018 album ''Astroworld''.

Discography

As lead artist

As featured artist

Filmography

Television

Music videos

Internet series

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* {{RuPaul's Drag Race 1996 births Living people 20th-century American LGBTQ people 21st-century American LGBTQ people American drag queens American people of Italian descent American gay entertainers Drag performers from New York City Fashion Institute of Technology alumni LGBTQ people from New York (state) LGBTQ people from Pennsylvania Entertainers from Brooklyn People from West Chester, Pennsylvania RuPaul's Drag Race winners Shorty Award winners RuPaul's Drag Race contestants Drag performers from Pennsylvania