Drag star Shangela is pinching herself after landing a guest spot on Ariana Grande's new album.
The pop star's new track NASA features a spoken-word intro recorded by the RuPaul's Drag Race favourite, and Shangela admits it was a wonderful feeling to wake up on Friday (08Feb19) and realise a dream had become a reality.
"I always thought that just waking up in L.A. was enough, but waking up in L.A. and being featured on Ariana Grande's new album? That's the ticket," the drag star tells Billboard.
Shangela reveals the collaboration came about over dinner with Ariana's brother, Frankie: "He got a text from her telling him to come over to the studio. He was like, 'I have Shangela with me, is that OK?' She's like, 'Sure, I love Shangela', because we had met earlier that year...
"We went over to the studio and... I love Ariana Grande... She's like, 'I'm gonna play you some songs from my new album', and she did and one of them was NASA. She was still working with the producer on the opening part of it (and) she's like, 'Don't listen to that, just listen to the song'.
"After it was over she was like, 'How do you like it?' I was like, 'Oh, girl, I love it, and I'm already thinking of what I'm gonna do for my version'. She looked at me like, 'Your version?' I was like, 'Oh, I mean a version when I perform in drag. I wanna come out with a moonsuit with some space t**ties. I wanna come out like I'm walking on the moon. I'm gonna lift up that fake moon mask, and I'm gonna say, ‘This is one small step for woman, one giant leap for womankind'.
"She said, 'Oh my God', in her classic, beautiful Ariana Grande voice. She's so soft and lovely. She's like, 'I love it so much', and she whips out her cell phone. So I put it on her voicemail, just playing around... A couple (of) months later, she calls on FaceTime with Frankie (and said), 'How do you want to be credited on the album?' She told me that they used it and I was like, 'You gotta be kidding'... I'm just so thrilled that she liked it."
