Con-drag-ulations Milwaukee: Presenting our new Queen, Jaida Essence Hall

“America’s next drag superstar” is Milwaukee’s own Jaida Essence Hall.

Hall, a leading player in the local drag scene for nearly a decade, won season 12 of VH1’s hit reality competition Friday, May 29, 2020.

“I know how it is to grind so hard and so many times be told no,” Hall told RuPaul on Friday’s finale. “(Winning) will give me validation that once you know what your craft is and you know what you’re doing, that you’re at the right place at the right time for the right reasons.”

And winning the show is exactly what Hall did Friday, after she faced off against finalists Crystal Methyd and Gigi Goode for three virtual lip-sync battles, all filmed from their respective homes due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“She is performing like she’s in Madison Square Garden and the place was packed,” said judge Ross Matthews of Hall’s fierce, hair-flipping, high-kicking performance of Ciara’s “Get Up” from her living room.

Evidently RuPaul agreed, giving Hall the crown Friday following a triumphant season that included three competition wins and ending up in the bottom two only once, and praise from guest judges like Chaka Khan, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jeff Goldblum.

Portrayed by Jared Johnson, 32, who grew up on Milwaukee’s north side, Hall emerged in Milwaukee’s drag scene nine years ago, becoming a regular performer at Hamburger Mary’s. Hall, who currently lives in West Allis, has performed at a Milwaukee Bucks halftime show, won pageants in Madison and Minneapolis, and taken the stage multiple times at PrideFest in Milwaukee.

“I’ve gained a really good support group in my own city,” Hall told the Journal Sentinel in February. “I’m glad that I’m from my city, and I’m so happy when I walk through different parts of my city that I came from here and I made something for myself.”

Talking to RuPaul on Friday’s finale, Hall shared some more insight into that Milwaukee upbringing.

“Growing up…in one of the worst neighborhoods in the city it was one of those things where you had to fight for everything that you wanted no matter what it was,” Hall said on Friday’s finale. “Coming up from a place that was so hard to grow up in and so rough, it made me a better competitor in so many aspects of my life.”

Hall was also brought to tears by video messages from her father and brother on Friday’s finale, and talked about how important her late grandmother was in her life.

“I would want to tell my grandmother, ‘Thank you so much for being the first person to accept me for who I was even though I didn’t even know who I was then,” Hall told RuPaul Friday. “She was this super glamorous woman all the time. … Every time I get to step on the stage in drag I get to live this glamorous fantasy. I get to live all the opportunities I don’t get to share with my grandmother now.”

As the winner of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” Friday, Hall won a year supply of Anastasia Beverly Hills Cosmetics and a $100,000 cash prize

And Friday she became the second Milwaukee drag scene star to win “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” Wisconsin native Trixie Mattel, who competed on season seven of the show, won “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars” in 2018.