Who

Aviance is a renowned drag queen, musical artist and fixture on the club scene.

Backstory

Born Eric Snead in Richmond, VA, Aviance worked as a performance artist and female impersonator in Washington, Miami and NYC. Taking his stage name from the performing arts community he has long belonged to—the House of Aviance in Washington, DC—Aviance made his name as a performer on New York's drag/cabaret scene during the '90s. He later earned some attention for his collaborations with various big-name musicians like Madonna (he appeared in her video for "Secret") and Whitney Houston, and embarked on a semi-successful music career of his own—he was on the Billboard charts for the singles "Alive" and "Rhythm Is My Bitch." Since then, he's made bit appearances in film and TV and launched a line of hyper-glam shoes (as you might expect, gaudy, torturously high heels in sizes up to 14) that's sold online. The longtime club fixture's most recent album, Strut, arrived in 2006.

Close call

In June 2006, Aviance was brutally beaten while leaving the East Village gay bar The Phoenix and sustained a broken jaw among other injuries. The event rattled the gay community, particularly because he was in streetwear—not drag—at the time. The men responsible were later convicted for the crime and are each serving multi-year sentences.

Personal

Aviance lives in Chelsea.