Mado Lamotte is the stage name of Luc Provost, a Canadian

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 o ...

, author, singer and

gay 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 social ...

personality, most noted as the owner of the Cabaret Mado drag club in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

Career

Provost, who studied theatre at the

Université du Québec à Montréal The Université du Québec à Montréal (English: University of Quebec in Montreal), also known as UQAM, is a French-language public university based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is the largest constituent element of the Université du Québe ...

, began his drag performance career in 1987."Mado Lamotte welcomes constellation of drag stars to Mascara, biggest drag show on earth"
''

Montreal Gazette The ''Montreal Gazette'', formerly titled ''The Gazette'', is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Three other daily English-language newspapers shuttered at various times during the second half of th ...

'', August 3, 2012. As Mado Lamotte she was MC and DJ of ''Ciel Mon Mardi'' at Sky in the 1990s, before opening her own drag cabaret, ''Cabaret Mado'', in Montreal's

Gay Village A gay village is a geographical area with generally recognized boundaries that is inhabited or frequented by many lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBT) people. Gay villages often contain a number of gay-oriented establish ...

in 2002. She was also for many years the organizer and host of Mascara, the annual drag stage show at

Divers/Cité Divers/Cité was an LGBT multidisciplinary arts and music festival taking place each year in the heart of Montreal, since 1993. A week-long avant-garde event in the heart of downtown Montreal and in Montreal's Gay Village area held usually on the e ...

. Lamotte is also an author, who has written a weekly column for the defunct ''Ici'' weekly newspaper and a monthly article for the ''

Fugues In music, a fugue () is a contrapuntal compositional technique in two or more voices, built on a subject (a musical theme) that is introduced at the beginning in imitation (repetition at different pitches) and which recurs frequently in the c ...

'' gay and lesbian newsmagazine. In 2000, she published a collection of her columns entitled ''Tu vois ben qu'est folle'' ("She's obviously crazy"). She released a single, "Le Rap à Minifée", in 1996, and a full-length album, ''Full Mado - Le Remix Album'', in 2010. She has made cameo appearances in the films '' Saved by the Belles'' and '' Cadavre Exquis premiere edition'', and starred in the 2007 play ''Saving Céline'', in which she (credited as Mado Lamotte, not Luc Provost) portrayed a drag queen obsessed by

Céline Dion Céline Marie Claudette Dion ( ; born 30 March 1968) is a Canadian singer. Noted for her powerful and technically skilled vocals, Dion is the best-selling Canadian recording artist, and the best-selling French-language artist of all time. Her ...

who becomes embroiled in a murder plot against the singer. On August 12, 2017, as a part of Fierté Montréal Canada, Mado celebrated her 30th anniversary as a performer with a free show at the Parc des faubourgs in Montréal. In the same year she was the host of ''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, theatr ...

television documentary series about drag queens which profiled

Rita Baga Rita Baga is the stage name of Jean-François Guevremont (born May 27, 1987), a Canadian drag queen from Montreal, Quebec,Hugo Dumas"La future reine québécoise du Nord?" '' La Presse'', August 19, 2020. who is most noted as a top three finalist ...

Barbada de Barbades Barbada de Barbades is the stage name of Sébastien Potvin,Samuel Larochelle"Barbada de Barbades, une drag queen haute en couleurs" '' Huffington Post Québec'', August 7, 2017. a Canadian drag queen most noted as one of the drag house mothers in ...

, Gaby, Lady Boom Boom, Lady Pounana and Tracy Trash. In 2018 Provost opened La Dinette chez Mado, a diner-style restaurant adjacent to Cabaret Mado."La drag queen Mado Lamotte ouvre un restaurant"
'' Huffington Post Québec'', April 12, 2018.

In popular culture

In August 2022, Lady Boom Boom selected Mado as her

Snatch Game Snatch Game is a challenge on the ''Drag Race'' reality competition television franchise. Beginning with the second season of the original American series ''RuPaul's Drag Race'', the challenge has taken place on every season since. It has also o ...

character impersonation in the third 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 th ...

''.Frankie Harrison
"Canada’s Drag Race Season 3 Episode 5 Recap: Snatch Game"
''In Magazine'', August 12, 2022. She ended up in the bottom two, and was eliminated after a

lip sync Lip sync or lip synch (pronounced , the same as the word ''sink'', short for lip synchronization) is a technical term for matching a speaking or singing person's lip movements with sung or spoken vocals. Audio for lip syncing is generated thr ...

against fellow contestant Kimmy Couture. Fellow contestant and Montreal-based drag colleague

Gisèle Lullaby Gisèle Lullaby is the stage name of Simon Gosselin (born August 8, 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 ...

had also intended to play Mado, but later ceded the character to Boom Boom on the grounds that she had a backup character while Boom Boom did not.

Discography

* 1996: ''Le Rap à Minifée'' (CD single) * 2010: ''Full Mado: Le Remix Album''

Filmography

* 2003: '' Saved by the Belles'' * 2006: '' Cadavre Exquis premiere edition'' * 2007: ''La Reine Mado''

References

External links

Le Monde de Mado
(Official website) {{DEFAULTSORT:Lamotte, Mado 20th-century Canadian comedians 20th-century Canadian male singers 20th-century Canadian male writers 21st-century Canadian comedians 21st-century Canadian male writers Comedians from Montreal Canadian columnists Canadian drag queens Canadian television hosts French-language singers of Canada Year of birth missing (living people) Living people French Quebecers LGBT culture in Montreal Université du Québec à Montréal alumni 21st-century Canadian male singers 21st-century Canadian LGBT people 20th-century Canadian LGBT people