María Edilia is the stage name of Edixon Felipe Calanche Varela, a Venezuelan drag queen known for competing on the third season of ''

Drag Race España ''Drag Race España'' (sometimes called ''Drag Race Spain'') is a Spanish reality competition television series, produced by Atresmedia Televisión in collaboration with Buendía Estudios and executive produced by World of Wonder. It is the Spa ...

''.

Career

María Edilia's first exposure to drag culture was when she started attending drag shows. Also, at a young age, she met a former

Eurovision The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster submits an origina ...

winner,

Dana International Sharon Cohen (; born 2 February 1969), professionally known as Dana International (), is an Israeli Pop music, pop singer. She has released eight albums and three additional compilation albums. She was the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest ...

, who she greatly admired. In 2000, at 23 years old, María performed as a drag queen for the first time in a drag contest at the nightclub La Vía, in the Centro Comercial Mamayeya. She came in as the first runner up in the contest and has been doing drag since. Her drag name comes from the name of a winner of a Venezuelan reality show and her mother, who is also called María Edilia. In 2017, María Edilia immigrated, moving to

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

, where she struck up a friendship with the drag artist La Plexy and began to perform at the nightclub Black & White. In 2022, she starred in the production ''Qué! infierno de cabaret'', directed by Rubén Calvente, with Lady Savannah and Manu Barea. In 2023, María Edilia joined the third season of the reality television competition ''Drag Race España'', which premiered on April 16, 2023. In the first episode, after receiving negative critiques from the judges, especially regarding her performance in the maxi-challenge, María Edilia was up for elimination along with Drag Chuchi. They faced off in a lip sync battle to the song "

Despechá "Despechá" is a song by Spanish singer and songwriter Rosalía. It was released on 28 July 2022 by Columbia Records as a single from ''Motomami +'', the deluxe edition of her third studio album ''Motomami'' (2022). The song was written by Rosal ...

" by

Rosalía Rosalia Vila Tobella (born 25 September 1992), known mononymously as Rosalía (, ), is a Spanish Pop music, pop and flamenco singer. She has been described as an "atypical pop star" due to her genre-bending musical styles. After being enthral ...

in which Drag Chuchi emerged victorious, making María Edilia the first contestant to be eliminated from the season. She was later awarded the title of Miss Congeniality during the reunion episode at the end of the season.

Filmography

Television

* ''

Bring Back My Girls ''Bring Back My Girls'' is a reality television series hosted by American television personality Ts Madison. The first season premiered October 18, 2022 on WOW Presents Plus. The series is formatted as a reunion special, where in every epis ...

'' (2024)

Podcast

References

External links

* {{Drag Race España Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Drag Race España contestants Venezuelan drag queens People from Maracay Drag performers from Madrid Venezuelan emigrants to Spain