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By: BO SHELL
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Singer and performance artist Kevin Aviance hit the club stages of New York City in 1995 with a passion for music that still fuels him today. But it was his Southern Baptist upbringing with seven siblings in Richmond, Va., that helped make him who he is.
“I loved growing up in the South,” Aviance said. “Southern Fried Chicken is good, honey. It was fantastic.”
Now, with a gamut of successful underground tracks, a cameo in a Madonna video and a slew of number one club hits, Aviance is set to take the stage during the Atlanta Pride Festival.
Aviance said his calling came as early as the fourth grade, when, dressed in drag for the first time, he won a 4-H talent contest with a rendition of “I Will Survive.”
Despite the conservative label generally placed over the South, Aviance said his childhood was filled with supportive parents and siblings.
“My family was very supportive. You can’t stop who you are. You adapt. You have fun. You learn,” Aviance said. “When you’re the so-called black sheep or the crazy one out of eight kids, you’re just the crazy one. My mom always used to say, ‘Oh Kevin, he’s so artistic.’”
Through all the glitz and glam, Aviance, the man, the entity and the performer, still looks to his mother for the support she often gave in his youth. Her recent death still conjures powerful emotions.
“She always told me to be the best at everything I did,” he said. “If I drew a stick figure, she would tell me to make it the best stick figure I could and put my signature on it. She used to make us look in the mirror and say, ‘I am somebody,’ everyday.”
In his late teens, he left home for Washington, D.C., a “chocolate city” where being black was a powerful experience, he said.
“That’s when the learning began,” Aviance said. “I learned that it was hot. I learned the ways of life: the scandal, the fun times, the high heals.”
Aviance began his rise to the top of the club charts as a lip-synch artist, then as a vocal performer, bringing to the table what he called “Queen’s English” or “cheap slang” that was so popular in D.C.’s underground.
“I had a big underground hit called “Cunty.” It turned out to be the big anthem for bitch tracks, which is spoken word over beats. There were a lot of songs like that out at that time, but “Cunty” turned out to be like the mother song.”
Channeling the influences of Michael Jackson, Prince, Grace Jones and other ‘80s club culture icons, Aviance soon found himself on a whirlwind journey from the studio of one hot DJ to another. After traveling from D.C. to Miami, Aviance’s career was leading him to one place: New York City.
After working with Junior Vasquez, and an appearance as the leopard-draped drag queen in Madonna’s music video for “Secret,” Aviance’s career exploded, and he became a fixture on the New York club scene.
“New York was it, honey. There is no other place to go when you’re a queen,” he said. “New York was just the place where people either like you or not. It’s just the way things are. I was ready to go.”
Finally in 1999, with a record deal from Wave music, Aviance released his first album, “Box of Chocolates.” The track “Da Din Din” climbed to number one on the U.S. dance charts, and “Rhythm is My Bitch” made its way to number two.
In 2003, Aviance turned to Centaur Entertainment’s Emerge Records for his second album. With more vocals and added drama, “Entity,” contained “Alive,” a number one hit.
Aviance largely wrote, produced and mixed his most recent single, “Strut,” by himself. Adding his personal flair, Aviance said he gave the originally rock trac an “electro-pop ‘80s feel.”
A third album is in the works. To Aviance, music is message.
“Be true to yourself, and make sure that you’re getting some sort of message out,” he said. “Gays, we have a very powerful situation in this world, and a lot of people think it’s about being accepted. It’s starts with accepting ourselves as human beings. It’s about walking down the street with your head held high.”
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