Rita Baga (born Jean-François Guevremont) is a Canadian
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 ...
and television personality from
Montreal, Quebec
Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...
.
[Hugo Dumas]
"La future reine québécoise du Nord?"
. ''La Presse
is a French-language online newspaper published daily in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1884, it is now owned by an independent nonprofit trust.
' was formerly a broadsheet daily, considered a newspaper of record in Canada. Its Sunday edi ...
'', August 19, 2020.
She is best known as a top three finalist in the
first season of ''
Canada's Drag Race
''Canada's Drag Race'' is a Canadian reality competition television series based on the American series ''RuPaul's Drag Race'' and is the Canadian edition of the ''Drag Race'' franchise, produced by Blue Ant Studios. In a similar format to t ...
''.
[Rebecca Alter]
"Canada’s Drag Race Season Finale Recap: What’s Her Name?"
. ''Vulture.com
''Vulture'' is an American entertainment news website. It is the standalone pop culture section of ''New York'' magazine. Its tagline is "Devouring Culture".
History
''Vulture'' debuted in April 2007 as an entertainment blog on nymag.com, the w ...
'', September 21, 2020.
In 2022, it was announced that Rita Baga would be the main host of ''
Drag Race Belgique
''Drag Race Belgique'' is a Belgian French-language reality competition television series based on the original American series ''RuPaul's Drag Race'' and part of the ''Drag Race'' franchise. It airs on Tipik and in Belgium and on WOW Presents ...
''.
In 2022, she also returned to compete in the
first season of ''
Canada's Drag Race: Canada vs. the World''. She placed in the top four.
In addition to performing as Rita Baga, Guevremont previously worked as the director of programming for
Fierté Montréal
Fierté Montréal, also called Montreal Pride, is an annual LGBT pride festival in Montreal, Quebec. The event was founded in 2007 at the initiative of Montreal’s LGBTQ+ communities after the city's prior Pride festival, Divers/Cité, reposi ...
(Montreal Pride) for many years.
[André-Constantin Passiour]
"Une édition canadienne toute spéciale de Drag Superstars"
''Fugues
In classical music, a fugue (, from Latin ''fuga'', meaning "flight" or "escape""Fugue, ''n''." ''The Concise Oxford English Dictionary'', eleventh edition, revised, ed. Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson (Oxford and New York: Oxford Universit ...
'', August 9, 2020.
Education
Guevremont is an alumnus of the
Université du Québec à Montréal
The (UQAM; ), is a French language, French-language public university, public research university based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is the largest constituent element of the system.
UQAM was founded on April 9, 1969, by the government o ...
, where he studied human resources and tourist development.
[Louis Angot]
"8 choses à savoir sur Rita Baga, la candidate montréalaise à 'Canada's Drag Race'"
. '' Narcity'', July 6, 2020.
Career
Guevremont began his drag career in 2007, performing at
Cabaret Mado for the birthday show of her friend Dream (also a drag queen). That evening, she did a medley of songs from the film ''
Sister Act
''Sister Act'' is a 1992 American musical crime comedy film directed by Emile Ardolino and written by Paul Rudnick (billed as Joseph Howard). It stars Whoopi Goldberg as a lounge singer forced to hide in a convent after being placed in a witn ...
'', with colleagues and fellow drag queens Marla and Célinda.
Initially performing under the name Rita d'Marde (a phonetic French word play of "Laugh, asshole!"),
she changed it to Rita Baga in 2010 when she became a regular at the famous Montreal's drag establishment
Cabaret Mado.
In 2013, Rita Baga appeared on ''
La Guerre des clans'',
V's French-language version of ''
Family Feud
''Family Feud'' is an American television game show created by Mark Goodson. Two families compete on each episode to name the most popular answers to survey questions in order to win cash and prizes.
The show has had three separate runs, the ...
''.
In 2014, Rita Baga became the permanent host of Bagalicious, the Sunday night program at Cabaret Mado. In 2016 she launched MX Fierté, a cross-Canada drag pageant held in conjunction with Fierté Montréal; in the same year, she travelled to
Mumbai
Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...
, India to perform at the
KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival
The KASHISH Pride Film Festival (earlier known as KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival, also known as Mumbai International Queer Film Festival and Mumbai Queer Film Festival) is an annual LGBTQ event that has been held in Mumbai, I ...
.
In 2017, Guevremont participated in ''Ils de jour, elles de nuit'', an
Ici ARTV
Ici ARTV (stylized as ICI artv) is a Canadian French language specialty channel owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (known in French as Société Radio-Canada). The channel broadcasts the arts and culture including music, dance, theat ...
documentary series about drag queens, alongside
Barbada de Barbades, Gaby,
Lady Boom Boom, Lady Pounana and
Tracy Trash.

The
inaugural season of ''Canada's Drag Race'' filmed in late 2019, and the cast was revealed to the public in 2020 several weeks before the show's premiere on July 2. Rita Baga was one of two queens from Montreal, alongside
Kiara, to appear in the season. In August 2020, with Fierté Montréal suspended due to the
COVID-19 pandemic in Canada
The COVID-19 pandemic in Canada is part of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (). It is caused by SARS-CoV-2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Most cases over the course o ...
, Guevremont in his role as director of programming helped to coordinate a special online edition of the annual Drag Superstars show, which featured all of the queens from ''Canada's Drag Race'' in prerecorded video performances.
[ While most other queens performed lipsyncs to established pop songs, Guevremont used his segment to premiere the music video for Rita Baga's own original single "Something Spiritual".][ Rita Baga made it to the top 3 in ''Canada's Drag Race'', with ]Scarlett BoBo
Scarlett BoBo is the stage name of Matthew Cameron (born December 1, 1989), a Canadian television personality and drag queen most noted as a finalist in the first season of the reality competition series '' Canada's Drag Race'' in 2020.
Career
...
and Priyanka, and won the most weekly challenges over the course of the season, but ultimately lost the crown to Priyanka.[ She placed high, but did not win, in 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 ...
challenge for her performance as Édith Piaf
Édith Giovanna Gassion (19 December 1915 – 10 October 1963), known as Édith Piaf (), was a French singer and lyricist best known for performing songs in the cabaret and modern chanson genres. She is widely regarded as France's greatest popu ...
.
Following the conclusion of the ''Canada's Drag Race'' season, the cast announced a cross-Canada tour, to be performed at drive-in
A drive-in is a facility (such as a restaurant or Drive-in theater, movie theater) where one can driving, drive in with an automobile for service. At a drive-in restaurant, for example, customers park their vehicles and are usually served by ...
venues due to the ongoing social distancing
In public health, social distancing, also called physical distancing, (NB. Regula Venske is president of the PEN Centre Germany.) is a set of non-pharmaceutical interventions or measures intended to prevent the spread of a contagious dise ...
restrictions remaining in place during the COVID-19 pandemic. The tour was hosted by Brooke Lynn Hytes
Brooke Lynn Hytes is the stage name of Brock Edward Hayhoe (born March 10, 1986), a Canadian-American drag queen, ballet dancer, and television personality. After working as a dancer with Cape Town City Ballet and Les Ballets Trockadero de Mont ...
. Alongside Priyanka, Scarlett BoBo and Jimbo, Rita Baga participated in an online panel as part of the 2020 Just for Laughs festival.
In December 2020, it was announced that Rita Baga would be part of the cast of the first season of the Quebec version of ''Big Brother Célébrités
''Big Brother Célébrités'' is the Quebec celebrity version of the international reality show ''Big Brother''. It premiered on January 10, 2021 on Noovo. Produced by Banijay and Groupe Entourage, it is hosted by singer Marie-Mai Bouchard.
...
''. She was evicted on day 29 in twelfth place. In April 2021, it was announced that Rita Baga would be one of the regular panelists, alongside Roxane Bruneau
Bruneau (born January 14, 1991) is a Canadian pop singer and songwriter from Delson, Quebec. She is most noted as the winner of the Felix Award for Female Artist of the Year at the 43rd Félix Awards in 2021.
She released her debut album ''D ...
, on '' Qui sait chanter?'', the Quebec adaptation of ''I Can See Your Voice
''I Can See Your Voice'' (abbreviated as ''ICSYV'') is a television mystery music game show franchise created by Lee Seon-young and produced by CJ ENM, which originated from I Can See Your Voice (South Korean game show), the South Korean program ...
''. In July, Rita Baga and Jean-Thomas Jobin, who had been one of her housemates on ''Big Brother Célebrités'', cohosted a Carte blanche gala at the 2021 Just for Laughs festival.
In September, she had a guest role appearing as herself in a fifth-season episode of ''Madame Lebrun'', the Quebec adaptation of '' Mrs. Brown's Boys''. In October 2021, Rita Baga launched ''Créature'', a theatre tour blending lipsynching, live singing and comedy segments. The tour received a Félix Award
The Félix Award ( is an award, given by the ''Association du disque, de l'industrie du spectacle québécois'' (ADISQ) on an annual basis to artists working in the music and humor industry in the Canadian province of Quebec.
The award
The firs ...
nomination for Best Variety or Reinterpretation Concert at the 44th Félix Awards in 2022. In November, she was announced as the host of ''La Drag en moi'', a makeover series based on '' Dragnificent!'' in which drag queens help ordinary people to look their best for an important event; the series premiered on Crave in August 2022.
In July 2022, she was announced as the host for the upcoming ''Drag Race Belgique
''Drag Race Belgique'' is a Belgian French-language reality competition television series based on the original American series ''RuPaul's Drag Race'' and part of the ''Drag Race'' franchise. It airs on Tipik and in Belgium and on WOW Presents ...
'', Belgium's ''Drag Race'' spin-off. On September 18, 2022, Rita Baga, Barbada de Barbades and Mona de Grenoble presented an award at the Prix Gémeaux
The Prix Gémeaux () or Gémeaux Awards honour achievements in Canadian television and digital media that is broadcast in French. It has been sponsored by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television since 1987. Introduced as a French-language eq ...
ceremony, reading the nominees before bringing out Gisèle Lullaby
Gisèle Lullaby is the stage name of Simon Gosselin (born August 1, 1988), a French Canadian drag performer most known for winning the third season of ''Canada's Drag Race''.
Career
Originally from Boucherville, Quebec, Gosselin began as a ba ...
, the third season winner of ''Canada's Drag Race'', to announce the winner. She competed in the first season of '' Canada's Drag Race: Canada vs. the World'' in 2022, portraying Montreal drag icon Guilda in the Snatch Game episode. Rita Baga won two of the main weekly challenges during the season and made it to the finale episode of the competition, placing in the top four.
In 2023, Rita Baga was a contestant in the third season of '' Chanteurs masqués'' as ''Le Lion''. She reached the finale, but ultimately lost to ''Le Caméléon'' (the chameleon) portrayed by Michel Courtemanche.
Personal life
On November 6, 2022, Rita Baga issued an apology throughout social media due to a past performance in which she wore blackface
Blackface is the practice of performers using burned cork, shoe polish, or theatrical makeup to portray a caricature of black people on stage or in entertainment. Scholarship on the origins or definition of blackface vary with some taking a glo ...
to portray Amber Riley
Amber Patrice Riley (born February 15, 1986) sometimes known mononymously as Riley (stylized in all caps), is an American actress and singer. She is best known for her portrayal of Mercedes Jones on the Fox comedy-drama series ''Glee'' (2009 ...
from ''Glee''.
Filmography
Television
Web series
Discography
Featured singles
Awards and nominations
References
External links
*
{{authority control
1987 births
Living people
21st-century Canadian LGBTQ people
21st-century Canadian male singers
21st-century Canadian singers
Big Brother Canada contestants
Canada's Drag Race contestants
Canadian drag queens
Canadian LGBTQ singers
Singers from Montreal
Université du Québec à Montréal alumni
People from Boucherville
Drag performers from Montreal