Britain’s Got Talent star Jasmine Rice: ‘If you don’t have a problem with Mrs. Doubtfire, you shouldn’t have a problem with me’. (ITV)
Drag queen and opera singer Jasmine Rice LaBeija has already made history as the first drag act to make it to the Britain’s Got Talent finals. Now, she could just about win the whole thing.
LaBeija, known simply as Jasmine Rice on the ITV show, has just one more performance to go until she could be crowned this year’s BGT winner: Saturday’s grand finale.
Back in April, she bowled over judges Simon Cowell, Alesha Dixon, Amanda Holden and Bruno Tonioli with her powerful rendition of Puccini’s “Nessun dorma”, which she began behind a curtain. When the curtain lifted to reveal the vocalist in a mammoth, baby blue gown – which she’d created herself – the audience erupted.
Just a few weeks later, she appeared at the semi-finals with her rendition of Loren Allred’s The Greatest Showman hit “Never Enough” leading Tonioli to whack the coveted Golden Buzzer – sending Jasmine straight through to the final.
“It’s just been a magical experience and this is just an unimaginable dream that’s coming through real life,” she tells PinkNews ahead of her final performance which, she admits, she’s a little “nervous” about, due to ongoing hayfever allergies.
Britain’s Got Talent star Jasmine Rice was ‘rejected’ by opera world
“I definitely do want to win but I have to say that I’m not doing this just to win. I’m doing this because this has been a life goal of mine, to be on the biggest stage of the world and showcase what I have been preparing for my whole life.”
The Korean-American performer started taking music lessons while in fifth grade, and ended up becoming a Juilliard-trained operatic tenor. While in college, she started dabbling in drag.
At first, she kept the two professions separate, initially feeling that opera was more of a “proper” art form. However, after being rejected over and over again by the opera world due to her “femininity” and for the fact that she’s a “friend of Dorothy” – read: queer – she decided to combine the two.
“I have a very outspoken, rambunctious personality and that clashes with the idea of what classical music and opera should be,” she says.
“I was just there because I loved music, I love performing, I love being extravagant, I love being out there, and I thought opera would embrace that, but instead they kind of wanted to put me in a little box and say, ‘No this is the proper way to go about it instead of letting me really flourish.
“The rejection kept on happening in my face. They would literally flat out say, ‘Oh, you’re too feminine to play this role or you’re too delicate to sing this role or be this part or be in this programme.’”
Jasmine instead found solace in New York’s queer venues, including Balcon Salon, Pieces Bar, and Hardware Bar, where she puts on free, spell-binding LGBTQ+ opera and variety shows to this day. In NYC, she’s known as the International Godmother of the legendary drag collective, The House of LaBeija
After her audition, Simon Cowell – who has historically been unimpressed by drag acts on Britain’s Got Talent – told Jasmine she had “found a home” in the contest, and scolded the “idiots” in the opera world who had rejected her. Then, after her semi-final performance when the cameras cut to commercials, he joined her on stage to praise her.
Jasmine Rice was ‘shocked’ to wow Britain’s Got Talent judge Simon Cowell
“It was truly a shock,” Jasmine recalls today. “If I can win over Simon there’s no big hill that I cannot climb. I think it’s proof that if you just enjoy, put in the work and the time and really invest in your craft and do it to your fullest and show people who you really are and share that emotion and have that connection on stage, it could truly move and change anyone’s mind.”
Jasmine Rice’s Britain’s Got Talent appearance isn’t just a huge milestone for her personally; it helps to defuse the nonsensical, right-wing narrative that drag is somehow inherently inappropriate for families.
“Drag has been with every single civilisation since the beginning of theatre and time,” Jasmine says, referencing the fact that men used to perform in women’s roles during the Elizabethan era of Shakespeare, and as far back as the eighth century in Chinese operas.
Jasmine Rice: ‘Drag isn’t something to be afraid of’
“All of a sudden they think that drag is something to be afraid of or disgusted [by] but there are a lot of different genres under the term drag,” she says. One headline attempted to brand Jasmine’s Golden Buzzer moment as proof Britain’s Got Talent has gone “woke”.
“There are definitely performers that are more risqué and should not be for children, but there are also drag queens who are just regular day performers. I mean, if you don’t have a problem with Mrs. Doubtfire and watching the late great Robin Williams play that role in a movie, I don’t think you should have a problem with me singing a fabulous song in an amazing gown on stage.”
Jasmine’s audition gown could give most wedding dresses a run for their money. “We’re probably wearing more more layers of fabric than most clergymen or nuns,” she laughs.
Since the semi-finals, most of the people who ask to take photos with her are children. Plus, parents of young boys who express themselves through playing dress-up have reached out on social media to say that watching Jasmine on TV has reassured them that their children will be accepted.
“I thought I was just doing this for me, but I resonate with so many individuals around the world,” she smiles.
If she does bag the Britain’s Got Talent 2025 title, she’ll be performing in front of King Charles at the Royal Variety Performance later this year. “A queen in front of a king,” she laughs.
And yet, she feels like she’s won regardless of what Saturday brings.
“I feel like I’m winning every single day since the first audition.”
The Britain’s Got Talent final airs on 31 May 2025 on ITV and ITVX.
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