Interview: Marmalade, the Welsh drag queen championing queer talent

Ella Groves

A Welsh drag queen has set out to dazzle audiences across the UK on her new tour designed to uplift drag and queer artists.

Cardiff-based queen Marmalade shot to fame due to her appearance on RuPaul’s Drag Race UK in 2024 where she finished in third place.

Following her TV success she was approached by Welsh LGBTQ+ non-profit and venue, The Queer Emporium, to create a variety show.

It was from there that ‘Marm’s Spotlight’ was born – a variety turned theatre show designed to both showcase her own talent and to lift other queer performers into the spotlight.

‘This is it’

Yet Marmalade’s entry into the world of drag was something of a happy accident.

Discussing her beginnings in the drag scene she said: “So I had no interest in drag. I had a friend who I was very close with, still close with to this day, and she got really into Drag Race and she decided that we were starting drag and at that point I would have done whatever she said.

“So we both started drag and then she kind of dipped out of it after a couple months and I was like, oh, I’m kind of enjoying doing this and it sort of clicked in a way that I think it clicks for a lot of people who do drag where you’re very creative and enjoy doing a lot of different things.

“Then you find drag and it’s sort of like, this is all those skills in one. This is performance, this is fashion, this is makeup, this is hair, this is all of it in one.”

‘Representation’

Both her Cardiff roots and Welsh culture as a whole play an important role in Marmalade’s drag.

Discussing her time on drag race she reflected on how there had been fairly limited Welsh representation on the show before her season, noting how “lucky” she felt to get to represent Wales on a national stage.

She said: “There hadn’t been a lot of Welsh representation on Drag Race and all of the Welsh representation at that point was from people who either no longer lived in Wales or were English who had moved to Wales.

“So it was nice to be the first Welsh-born, Welsh-living drag queen to go on Drag Race and to show that off. And I was there with Actavia, who’s from north Wales and that was just lovely as well because she spoke Welsh and I don’t, so I didn’t have to worry about that, representing the Welsh language. She was north, I was south and it felt like a good like full breadth of representation for Wales.”

Marmalade’s love for Welsh culture within her drag was perhaps clearest when she won the Guinness World Record for most flowers on a dress.

Creating a dress with 1,862 daffodils, in collaboration with Blas y Tir who supplied the flowers, she revealed the dress at the National Botanical Garden of Wales to celebrate St David’s Day.

Discussing the record and the Welsh connection she said: “I remember speaking to the team, getting ready to do the Guinness World Record, and I was so lucky to have a team that were also really keen on it being Welsh.

“Even like the daffodil, it’s such like a beautiful flower and it’s such an interesting flower that we’re so lucky to call like our national flower that being able to incorporate that with my drag in a way that no one else gets to do and no one else gets to have that connection, I think is really special.

“And I think that’s part of why that is one of my biggest achievements to date is because it felt so impressive, just the scale of it, but also felt very personal and unique and specific to me and that’s the whole purpose of drag.”

‘Marm’s Spotlight’

Onto what will perhaps be her next greatest achievement, Marmalade has recently set out on a UK wide tour for her new show ‘Marm’s Spotlight.’

Marmalade shared that the idea for the show came about following the fatigue she felt coming off the drag race run as well as the pressure and expectations that followed.

She said: “I kind of just sat down and thought like, well, why did I start drag? Obviously, I love doing this. Why did I start drag? And it’s the local drag, the performers I sort of came up with and so I thought it’d be a great way to do a show where I can book the drag show that inspired me, that got me into drag, the drag show I think everyone needs to see.”

Drawing on her own experiences on drag race, Marmalade explained why it is so important to her that the show reaches those with less access to the drag community.

She said: “I felt like a bit of an outsider in that sense, because even in Cardiff, it’s a big city compared to Wales, but compared to London, Manchester, it’s relatively small and so I don’t have the resources, the shows, the references, the fabric shops, the gigs that are in these bigger cities, and I’ve still got here.

“So it was then, okay, well, let me look further down the ladder and who’s got even less exposure. Okay, well, let’s bring them the experience that I think they deserve.”

Half the shows dates are in Wales, a fact Marmalade is particularly proud of, describing the show as “going further afield, but still not forgetting where it’s from.”

Of particular importance to Marmalade are the show dates in north Wales.

She said: “I’m really excited to bring it to North Wales specifically, because it’s an area that gets so little drag and exposure to, not even just drag, but queer art forms in general.

“It’s an area that most of the experience of drag is going to be off TV watching, say, Drag Race and that’s amazing but I’m really excited that I can then say, great, you like that? Let me show you some drag that you won’t ever see on that TV programme and let me show you why it is just as good as what we’re doing on the BBC.”

Discussing the Welsh influence in her show, Marmalade presents the show as almost deliberately “regional” saying: “The word regional has been used before on Drag Race as sort of like a dirty word, as sort of like it’s not, it hasn’t got international appeal per se, and that’s what we all need to be aiming for.

“I stand very proudly as a regional drag queen and it was very important to represent that on Drag Race as a show and Spotlight specifically is meant to be regional.

“We don’t yet have a date in London, I’m sure we will, but that’s going to be towards the end of the run of it because it’s these smaller places that are more important.

“Being Welsh and being a Cardiff-based drag queen definitely is a theme that crops up a lot in the show. So then when I can then bring out Welsh drag artists or Welsh queer performers in general, I love that and it makes it feel all the more special and it makes the message feel all the more poignant, I think.”

@thatsmarmalade SPOTLIGHT 2026 – The Trailer So excited to bring my show ‘Marm’s Spotlight’ all across the UK this year! Here’s a sneak peak of what you can expect from the show Tickets for Manchester Bangor and Cardiff are on sale now – check the link in my bio to get your tickets now! More dates to be announced soon…. Video/edit – Coat Poet Media (@coal_poet_media ) #marmalade #spotlight ♬ original sound – Marmalade

Describing Spotlight as “the drag show everyone needs to see,” Marmalade shares her hopes that Spotlight will be a space to platform all forms of drag and prove that “there’s a stage for everyone.”

Directed by Elan Isaac, with written material by Priya Hall, creative support by Leo Drayton and set design and creation by Yan White, Marm’s Spotlight is produced by Daniel Huw Bowen on behalf of The Queer Emporium.

The project was also recently granted funding from the Arts Council of Wales to adapt it for theatres, ahead of its Manchester stop.

The tour currently has stops in Bangor, Cardiff, Birmingham, Cardiff Pride, and Pembrokeshire, with Marmalade sharing her hopes that they will also add a London date before the end of the tour.

So, in the words of Marmalade, “get your tickets to Spotlight!”

Tickets for Marm’s Spotlight can be found here. You can see more of Marmalade’s work on her Instagram or TikTok.