“It solidified me as a voice and a global phenomenon,” Ts Madison says of her collaboration with Beyoncé. The pop icon’s seventh studio album, Renaissance, has been lauded as one of her best with fans and critics commending her homage to the Black and queer pioneers of music and ballroom. Sampling Ts Madison’s viral video Bitch I’m Black, Cozy debuted inside the top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100, with Madison – and producer Honey Dijon – making history in the process as the first Black trans women to chart.

“I know [Beyoncé] watched me because there are things that I’ve done, like in the words she says, ‘Dancing in the mirror, kiss my scars because I love what they made,’” Madison tells GAY TIMES. “There’s videos of me dancing, talking about myself as a trans person with scars on my body. It’s like she took her time and she understood the voice she was using, and the statement she was making in this song, and she sang about our flag. I was overwhelmed with emotions.”

Although Madison has been a staple within the LGBTQ+ community for a number of years, she’s finally been catapulted into the pop culture zeitgeist as a recurring judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race, a role in the critically-acclaimed black comedy Zola and as the host of The Ts Madison Experience, which made her the first Black trans woman to star in and executive produce her own reality series.

Later this year, the trailblazer will also star alongside Billy Eichner in Bros – which makes history as the first gay romantic comedy from a major studio with an entirely LGBTQ+ principal cast – and as a rich British woman mourning the death of her bird in Gabrielle Union’s romantic comedy The Perfect Find, as well as a club owner slash drug lord (kinda) in AMC’s new series Hush.

Madison will also host Bring Back My Girls, a WOW Presents Plus series that reunites Drag Race casts who were unable to have a reunion due to COVID. Here, we speak with Madison about all of the exciting aforementioned projects, her undeniable impact on popular culture and her plans to “continue being an exceptional actress”.

Madison, I cannot contain my excitement for these Drag Race reunions…

Listen… One of the girls – what’s the skinny one? She got up to pee and never came back. Tayce! She was like, ‘I’m sorry Madison but I have to pee, give me one second.’ She got up and hit it, baby. Do you hear me? I was falling out.

You’ve made a few guest appearances on Drag Race over the past few years. What keeps bringing you back to the show?

I’m a huge staple within popular culture. If you hashtag Ts Madison on TikTok, the impressions I have are insane. I’ve donated so much to popular culture and it wouldn’t be right if I weren’t intertwined into RuPaul’s Drag Race. Lots of my sayings have been used on the show, even before I arrived, like ‘Step ya pussy up, honey.’ Everyone thinks that was a RuPaul saying, but she got that from me. There’s so many of my catchphrases and nuances of me in the show.

We’re in desperate need for a Ts Madison Rusical then, surely?

I would love that. There is so much I want to say, but I can’t give away things that are coming up that I have done with the show. But I will say this, RuPaul’s Drag Race is a worldwide phenomenon that has reshaped the way queer people are introduced into society and popular culture. Not just popular culture, but in culture, period. Like Beyoncé, Drag Race is a phenomenon. It’s important that this type of stuff continues to live and thrive, and it’s important for people like myself to contribute to popular culture just by being who they are. Like a voice memo of me or a video where I’ve said something crazy, I’ll just trend forever and ever. I wake up everyday with a celebrity lip-syncing to my voice. I’m seeing Ciara and Tommy Lee’s wife lip-syncing me. I’m like, ‘Okay, alright!’

Speaking of Beyoncé, she sampled you on Cozy. A pretty big deal, huh?

It was. As much as I go viral and I’m intertwined and contribute to the world by just being me, people still try to overlook me. For me, Beyoncé is the Michael Jackson of our time, honey. And for her to take a piece of my voice from a video that I used to combat racism and transphobia, it solidified me as a voice and a global phenomenon. Beyoncé has really been living in her Blackness, and she’s also been an ally to the girls for such a long time. For her to merge my voice on this, on this statement piece, I was blown away. The cheque was very nice!

Renaissance pays homage to the Black and queer pioneers of disco, funk and house music, as well as ballroom. What do you think the album means for LGBTQ+ recognition within the music industry?

We are here, we are queer. We did this bitch, get used to it. This speaks to all the other artists in the world that have been influenced by our culture and have said nothing about it. We have to sit back and watch the straights thrive off of our contributions and don’t give a nod to us. Beyoncé is giving this album to the people and saying, ‘These people are the reason why I’m Yoncé, and I want to celebrate these people and let you know that they are solid in this business, regardless of whether you give them recognition or not because without them, there would be no music honey.’