Glittering with the Queen of Hearts Herself, Zolita
toronto, canada - october 2, 2024
A night out at a Zolita show is both glitteringly unexpected yet so comfortably queer in its own right. Zoe Hoetzel, known on stage as Zolita, curates a perfect experience from where the line out the door ends to the encore of the set. Waiting in the not-yet brisk October Toronto air, the experience begins with quick interview questions inquiring about the “gayest thing about yourself” and based on the answers and the thematic outfits it’s bound to be a lively night. People traipsed from the block into The Velvet Underground wearing various sequinned adornments and uniquely labeled sashes (which come to play part in the show).
The normally dark brick walls of the venue are almost unrecognizable under the intricate set dressings containing a queen of hearts call desk, glittering fringe heart arch, and of course the queen of the show herself, Zolita. The singer strutted onstage Opening with the titular track “Queen of Hearts” while putting on a stage show to recreate the short film paired with it. Zolita and her two dancers battle it out to be the queen, of what you may ask? Well once the pantsuit is ripped off the singer the crown is clearly chosen for Zolita being dawned with the sash enscripted “Lesbian Supreme”.
Once the first note hits the speakers at the audience, the venue fades dully into the distance and fully transforms into Zolita’s sapphic world. Before the track “20 Questions” sets in, there’s a phone call placed over the speakers, voices chatting in (accurate) sapphic stereotypes to each other, notably the first speaker says they met someone while the second asks back, “let me guess, she looks just like you?”
Between a costume change, Zolita’s dancers donned sashes of their own and held a sash competition; the best sash from the audience and the supreme sash-bearer won a meet and greet with the artist herself. Toronto was in luck as it held two winners for likeminded strangers declaring the pair “Miss. Pillow Princesses”.
Throughout multiple costume changes and crowd interactions, this show is clearly made for the dramatics and is kin to living out a movie at a concert. Topped with a cover of Shania Twains’ “That Don’t Impress Me Much” with pointed lesbian quips, “So you own a U-Haul? That Don’t Impress Me Much!” Down to ballads about growing older, Zolita brings a homely room to queer people ready to party and dance to odes to people they…loved once.
