The Diversity Media Awards 2021 closed a few days ago. Its president, Francesca Vecchioni opened the evening by reminding us that “People in the dark disappear, but they don’t stop existing”.
Among the various winners we find Fedez and Chiara Ferragni, winners of the “Person of the Year” award, ilPost.it wins “Best web article” for the article “Stories of transitions: what happens in Italy to people who want to legally change gender, beyond and beyond the norms” by Giulia Siviero. Then we find Skam Italia as “Best Italian TV Series” and Sex Education as “Best Foreign TV Series”.
Karma B
Karma B gave a spectacular performance, dedicated to those who “felt wrong, but it was perfectly fine”.
But where did Karma B come from?
The origins
The drag queen duo “Karma B” is composed of Mauro Leonardi and Carmelo Pappalardo. They are certainly among the most famous in Italy, thanks also to their television performances and interviews.
They started their career in Catania, their hometown. They then arrived in Rome, at the Muccassassina evenings created by Vladimir Luxuria.
While Mauro is the serious soul of the duo, Carmelo is the creative and dynamic soul.
With our disguises we play on ambiguity without denying our nature. We are what we are: not trans, but queens for a night. Drag queen means this: impromptu characters made to amaze, for the show. Now people have understood that ours is an art form: we invent a character and put it on stage. A work of pure fantasy. When the curtain comes down, you remove your makeup and walk out the back door of the theatre in jeans, just like every day.
Step by step, they have built their own very special career that has made them very famous. Other venues where they have performed include Planet Alpheus and the Gay Village. They have never hidden the fact that their point of reference is Conchita Wurst and her way of conceiving a drag show.
Their performances have toured the world: from Rome to Milan, then London, Ibiza, New York, Mexico and Russia. For more than 20 years, Karma B have been sharing the stage between performances, shows and cinema, and in a New York club in 2006, they had the chance to ‘discover’ Lady Gaga before the pop star became as famous as she is today all over the world. Theatre shows include ‘Some Like Karma’, ‘Dive Divine’ and most recently ‘Oysters and American Coffee’, starring Sandra Milo.
The Karma B’s declare: “We have practically created ourselves, we have modelled ourselves without having references or any particular ‘help’. The only thing that has always accompanied us is curiosity. That’s the key to everything. We are full of memories, most of them positive, but we don’t live looking back.”
