Getty An elementary school classroom
“Miss Perez?”
Singer, drag queen, and “RuPaul’s Drag Race” alum Adore Delano (who competed on seasons six and seven of “American Idol” under the name Danny Noriega) was surprised by her kindergarten teacher while backstage doing a meet and greet at one of the stops on the United States leg of her “Party Your World” tour.
The surprise encounter was filmed and shared online in a February 1 TikTok video from the account @obsessedintl. Delano’s teacher, Miss Perez (her first name unknown), approached the drag star backstage with a sign that read “I was your kindergarten teacher”.
Delano was shocked to see Perez, immediately recognizing her and remembering her name. “You were so important in my early childhood,” Delano said.
Fans of Delano’s loved seeing this surprise visit on TikTok, and filled the comment section with kind words, including, “This warmed my heart, from Danny to Adore I have always loved them!” and “i’m crying i love teachers like this who genuinely care for and uplift their students 😭💗”.
Adore Delano Was Told Not to Come Out as Gay on ‘American Idol’
Delano recently appeared on the podcast/YouTube series “Sissy That Talk Show” for an interview with host Joseph Shepherd. Shepherd asked if Delano was “out” while filming “Idol”, to which Delano laughed and responded, “I came out when I was 12”, but clarified that she was not publicly out as gay on the singing competition show, as “The creators told me not to come out, like a lot. They wouldn’t let me sing Joan Jett songs because they said I couldn’t sing any more girl songs.”
Fellow “Idol” alum Adam Lambert shared an experience of his own from after the show, when he kissed another man during his 2009 American Music Awards performance, saying, “I got off stage and I got in trouble. The network [ABC] was like, ‘How dare you?’ They banned me for a while. They threatened me with a lawsuit. It was like, ‘Oh, okay, that’s where we’re at.’ I didn’t know. I’d been in a bubble in LA amongst artists, weirdos, and I didn’t realize that that kind of thing would ruffle feathers the way it did.”
Adore Delano Was One of Two ‘Idol’ Stars on ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ Season 6
After auditioning for “American Idol” twice and making it all the way to the Top 16 in her second go-around, Delano was not finished with her time on reality television. Delano auditioned for and appeared on “RuPaul’s Drag Race” season six in 2014, though she wasn’t the only queen with “Idol” experience.
Fellow “Drag Race” season six contestant Courtney Act (an Australian queen whose drag name is a play on the phrase “caught in the act” when said in Act’s native accent) first made a name for herself in 2003 when she auditioned for the first season of “Australian Idol”. Act first auditioned out of drag, but returned as her drag persona after being rejected by the judges.
Delano and Act both made it to the top three while on “Drag Race”, but narrowly lost out on the crown and title of America’s Next Drag Superstar, which went to Bianca Del Rio.
Delano returned to the “Drag Race” stage in 2016, after being revealed as a contestant in the second season of the spinoff series, “RuPaul’s Drag Race: All Stars”. Delano didn’t make it quite as far in “All Stars”, quitting during the second episode of the season after underestimating the pressures of the competition, a decision which she went on to say she regretted.
Out Magazine reported that Delano was set to return for “All Stars 6” which aired in the Summer of 2021, but pulled out when producers wouldn’t allow her to spit fire in a planned talent show routine, though she is open to returning in the future.
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