Owen Mallon, a Chicago native who is one of Pabllo Vittar’s three managers, is tasked with figuring out how to make a Portuguese-speaking drag queen a bankable international star. Yet he has been consistently impressed with the reaction.
“Even though people don’t know the language, they love her and what she represents, and then the show just speaks for itself,” he said.
Her music ranges from pop to electronic to Brazilian. Her latest album covers popular music from Brazil’s north and northeast, where she grew up, including forró, with its accordions, and tecnobrega, with its synthesizers.
After sitting for an interview as Mr. Rodrigues da Silva, she emerged as Pabllo Vittar hours later at a charity concert in her native state of Maranhão. The transformation typically takes three hours. (Like an athlete collecting free sneakers, she has amassed a collection of 200 wigs donated from a London wig maker.)
She wore a tight top that imitated the state flag, a blond wig, white boots, a tiny skirt and a G-string. Waiting to take the stage with her cadre of male dancers in the Brazilian heat, her hair stylist used a fan to cool her butt.
“My favorite place in the world,” she said. Then she strutted onstage and the crowd erupted.
