Giovanni Lucca Palandrani (born February 12, 1996), better known by his stage name Aquaria, is an American drag queen, television personality, and recording artist best known for winning the tenth season of RuPaul's Drag Race in 2018.
Early life and education Palandrani was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania to Gina and David Palandrani. Palandrani was raised Catholic and is of Italian descent. He has a sister named Francesca. He trained as a dancer for four years and experimented with drag in high school. He studied women's wear design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan for two semesters, before dropping out.
Career
Aquaria is the drag daughter of Drag Race season four winner Sharon Needles. However, after accusations of abuse were made against Needles in 2020, Aquaria has said that she "does not support him" and "feels awful for anyone he has hurt". She began performing in drag in 2014. Like RuPaul, Aquaria received early support from Susanne Bartsch. Aquaria was featured in a Vogue Italia spread in January 2016 with Bartsch and other Drag Race alumnae.
In early 2018, it was announced that Aquaria was chosen as one of fourteen contestants for the tenth season of RuPaul's Drag Race, upon her first audition for the program. She won three main challenges, never ranked in the bottom two, and was the first queen in the show's history to win both the ball and the "Snatch Game" in the same season. Aquaria was announced as the winner of the season on June 28, 2018, beating out Eureka O'Hara and Kameron Michaels in the final three.
Aquaria was nominated with Miz Cracker for the "Competition Contestant of 2018" for the 2018 People's Choice Awards.
In October 2018, Aquaria appeared solo in an issue of Vogue Italia, photographed by Michael Bailey-Gates. She was a model for Moschino and H&M's November 2018 Capsule Collection with Bria Vinaite and Jeremy Scott. She received a contract from IMG Models, and was announced as the Entertainment editor for Dazed.
In 2019, Aquaria was announced as one of the faces of MAC's Viva Glam campaign. She attended the 2019 Met Gala, and was the first drag queen to walk the red carpet. In June 2019, a panel of judges from New York magazine placed her 11th on their list of "the most powerful drag queens in America", a ranking of 100 former Drag Race contestants.
In 2019, Aquaria released her very own makeup palette in collaboration with NYX Cosmetics.
In September 2019, at RuPaul's DragCon NYC, Aquaria was named as one of a rotating cast of a dozen Drag Race queens in RuPaul's Drag Race Live!, a Las Vegas show residency from January to August 2020 at the Flamingo Las Vegas.
Aquaria performed as a part of Rihanna's Savage X Fenty Beauty Fashion Show during the Fall 2019 New York Fashion Week.
Music
As part of the final challenge of season 10, Aquaria and the other top four contestants wrote and recorded their own verses for RuPaul's song "American." The song reached number 12 on the Billboard Dance/Electronic Songs chart. Aquaria was featured in the song "Looks" by Linux in 2016. He released his debut single, "Burn Rubber", in June 2018. The song was written by Jesse Saint John.
Personal life Aquaria lives in Brooklyn, New York City.
On July 3, 2018, singer Bebe Rexha criticized Aquaria and the other Drag Race top four queens over Twitter for supposed bad behavior toward her at the VH1 Trailblazer Honors, such as not talking to her and being "cold". Aquaria responded with a series of tweets defending herself and her fellow queens.
In May 2018, Aquaria criticized rapper Travis Scott for removing Amanda Lepore, a transgender woman, from the cover art of his 2018 album Astroworld.
Discography
As lead artist +TitleYear"Burn Rubber"2018
As featured artist Title Year Peak chart positions Album USDance"Looks"2016—rowspan="3" "Cher: The Unauthorized Rusical" 2018—"American"23"Rim"2019—Sexorcism
Filmography
Television Year Title Role Notes 2018 Real Housewives of New York City (Season 10) Herself Season 10, episode 2: "Running Your Mouth" RuPaul's Drag Race (season 10) Contestant (winner) RuPaul's Drag Race: Untucked (season 10) 2019 RuPaul's Drag Race (season 11) Guest Savage X Fenty Show Guest 2022 Soul of a Nation Episode: "PRIDE: To Be Seen" 2023 RuPaul's Drag Race (season 15) Special guest; Episode: "Reunited!"
Music videos Year Title Artist(s) Ref. 2015 "Collect My Love" The Knocks ft. Alex Newell 2020 "Malibu" (At Home Edition) Kim Petras 2020"Always" Waze & Odyssey 2020"Cum" Brooke Candy ft. Iggy Azalea 2022 "Slow Song" The Knocks and Dragonette
Internet series Year Title Role Notes 2018 M.U.G. Herself Guest (with host Naomi Smalls) 2018 Queens of Kings Self (in and out of drag) Subject of one episode2019Portrait of a QueenHerselfGuest2019Fashion Photo RuViewHerselfJudging Season 11 runway looks (with Raja)2019Drag Queens ReactHerselfEpisode: "Giving Birth"2019 On/OffHerselfFilmed and assisted by Jordan Stawecki2020 Werq The WorldHerselfFeatured queen
Awards and nominations Year Award Ceremony Category Work Results Ref.2018People's Choice AwardsCompetition ContestantHerself 2020Shorty AwardsBest in FashionHerself
See also Drag culture in New York City LGBTQ culture in New York City List of LGBTQ people from New York City NYC Drag March NYC Pride March Transgender culture in New York City
References
External links