PHOTOGRAPHY ZAHRA REIJS
STYLING LEENDERT SONNEVELT AND LEA WILBRAND
MAKE-UP SOPHIA SINOT
HAIR YUHO KAMO

With their exploration and celebration of the “universal divine feminine energy” on ‘Alibi’, Sevdaliza and Pabllo Vittar have made herstory. This summer, their bullerengue, baile-funk banger – featuring additional vocals from French singer Yseult – became the number-one TikTok song globally and graced the Billboard Hot 100 with its presence, where Sevdaliza and Pabllo respectively became the first Dutch-Iranian and second drag queen (after RuPaul) to land a hit on the U.S. charts.

That’s not all: after just two months, ‘Alibi’ is approaching 400 million worldwide streams and the Queen of Brazilian Pop, former GAY TIMES cover star Anitta, has just hopped on a remix for ‘Pt. 2’. ‘Cultural reset’ and an abundance of exclamation marks (!!!) feel appropriate here. “The song is resonating because it’s fresh and all three artists are really powerful in their own way,” says Sevdaliza, who also credits the quadrilingual smasher with subverting expectations for drag artists in the music industry. “I’m honoured to play a part in that. I’m also queer, and I feel so much closer to drag queens and trans women.”

In conversation with Pabllo Vittar, Sevdaliza reflects on the creation of their hypnotic and – again, it bears repeating – herstoric new single, how receiving transphobic hate as a cis woman brought her closer to the trans community and her mission to represent “true Persian women” in her music. Pop music emergency alert: there’s also talk of new material…

Pabllo: Can you tell me a bit about the writing and collaboration process for ‘Alibi’? What was it like collaborating with myself and Yseult?