Seattle PrideFest Announces Headliners For 2017: Mary Lambert, Joey Arias, Ultra Naté, DJ Sammy Jo

Some of the headliners for Seattle PrideFest at Seattle Center on Sunday, June 25, 2017: clockwise, from top left: singer Mary Lambert, singer Joey Arias, DJ Sammy Jo, singer Ultra Naté

The first wave of announcements for the entertainment line-up for the 2017 Seattle PrideFest celebration at Seattle Center after the Seattle Pride Parade on Sunday, June 25, 2017 were released at 6pm last night. The major names included in the first wave of announcements (there will be more names released) include popular singer/songwriter MARY LAMBERT, best known for her hit with Macklemore/Lewis “Same Love” the Grammy Award nominated marriage equality anthem that made the trio of Seattle music artists beloved to millions of LGBTQ fans around the world.

Joining Ms Lambert: beloved chanteuse JOEY ARIAS, musician/comedian DEVEN GREEN (aka “Betty Bowers, America’s Best Christian”), rapper DAI BURGER, singer ULTRA NATé and DJ  SAMMY JO (known for touring with Scissor Sisters).

More on the announced performers:

Mary Lambert
Main Stage Headliner

In 2012, Mary Lambert was working three restaurant jobs when her whole life changed. Macklemore and Ryan Lewis were struggling to write a chorus for their new song, a marriage-equality anthem “Same Love”. Lambert had three hours to write the hook. The result was transcendent, and led to two Grammy nominations for “Song Of The Year” and “Album Of The Year”. Mary soonafter signed with Capitol Records, where she released her debut album “Heart on My Sleeve” which included her smash single, “Secrets” which launched to No. 1 on the Billboard Dance charts, and went RIAA Gold in 2015.

Mary Lambert isn’t your typical triple-platinum selling pop artist. Inspired by confessional folk singers as well as spoken-word performers, she is a brutally candid writer who deals directly in her art with her past traumas, including an abusive home, a suicide attempt, and a spell with drugs and alcohol and a bipolar disorder diagnosis. Despite this tough past, Lambert easily charms her audiences. She describes her performances as “safe spaces where crying is encouraged; My entire prerogative is about connection, about being present, and facilitating true catharsis. Also, fart jokes.” Lambert lives in Western Massachusetts with her partner, Michelle and their cat, Homer, who sleeps on the fridge and watches her eat cheese disapprovingly.

Deven Green
Main Stage Headliner

Deven Green is the Los Angeles-based, award-winning comedy performer originally from Canada. You know her as the satirical Betty Bowers – America’s Best Christian, from the cult “Welcome To My Home” video parodies, as an OCCmakeup spokesmodel, World of Wonder YouTube winner, Top 10 Political Videos YouTube, Top 10 Funniest Videos from NY Entertainment Magazine, Star Magazine’s fashion squad, Goliath Magazine’s advice columnist and performing her live music shows as a comedic chanteuse in brothels across America.

As a judge for the RuPaul’s Drag Race, San Francisco Divas of Drag Ball, the NY High Society Drag Competition and Werrrk.com’s Drag Competition, Deven is nothing short of judgmental. More importantly, she has been an outspoken advocate for LGBTQI rights, the NO H8 campaign, Southern California’s G&L Centre, headlining Pride festivals, being an officiant for same-sex marriages and speaking to gay alliances at colleges/universities across the US.

Rapper DAI BURGER to perform at Seattle PrideFest 2017

Dai Burger
Mural Stage Headliner

Dai Burger is an American rapper from Queens, New York. Burger’s performing career began while working as a backup dancer on tour with Lil Mama. Since that time she has appeared in several music videos, including Beyoncé’s “Party”, and has worked as a stylist for designer Patricia Field’s clothing boutique. Burger launched her music career with her 2010 project MyMixxxytape, hosted by rapper Junglepussy. She explains that her stage name came “out of nowhere, but I like to think that I’m stacked, and juicy.” The video for the single “Soufflé” premiered in Interview Magazine and was picked as one of the best feminist music videos of 2013. The release was featured on Solange Knowles’ Saint-Heron and contributed to Burger being named “Artist To Watch” by Rolling Stone Magazine in April 2014.

On December 4, 2015, Dai Burger premiered her 5-track self-titled project “Dai Burger” exclusively with Dazed Magazine. To date she has collaborated with artists including Kool Keith, Cakes da Killa, Cazwell and Jonte’ Moaning.

(Biography courtesy of Wikipedia)

Joey Arias
Main Stage Headliner

Joey Arias is a New York-based performance artist, cabaret singer, and drag artist.

From a Chicago Pride Interview:
Refer to Joey Arias by the gender-assigning title “mister” and the self-described “artist-slash-jazz singer” and cabaret star giggles. Defining his (or her) career and personal life by the “Z chromosome”—-an incorporation of the “drag element” that’s not quite drag (no lip synching) but not entirely trans-—Arias rarely wears men’s clothing anymore. When (s)he does, (s)he says it just looks androgynous. So, while calling Arias “mister” doesn’t offend him/her, (s)he still can’t help but find it somewhat funny. “Whatever you are, you’re beautiful,” Arias says. “The new chromosome Z, it’s the way we’re going.”

Arias was part of the 80s New York performance art scene, and in the 90s moved to Las Vegas for several years to star as the Mistress of Seduction in Cirque du Soleil’s Zumanity the New York-New York Hotel & Casino. Film credits include Big Top Pee-wee; Mondo New York; Elvira, Mistress of the Dark; Flawless; To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar; Wigstock: The Movie and the upcoming film The Zanctuary, by the Spanish director José André Sibaja, Co-starring with Amanda Lepore and Sophia Lamar.

(Biography courtesy of Wikipedia)

Ultra Naté
Fountain & Main Stage Headliner

Ultra Naté is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, DJ and promoter who has achieved success on the pop charts with songs such as “Free”, “If You Could Read My Mind” (as part of Stars on 54), and “Automatic”.

Virtually all of her singles have reached the Top 10 of the US Hot Dance Club Play chart. Such singles include “Show Me”, “Free”, “Desire”, “Get it Up (the Feeling)”, “Love’s the Only Drug”, and her number-one hits “Automatic”, “Give it All You Got” featuring Chris Willis, “Waiting On You” and “Everybody Loves the Night”. In December 2016, Billboard magazine ranked her as the 12th most successful dance artist of all-time.

Ultra Naté headlined the Seattle Red Dress Party in 2016 but this is her first time as a PrideFest artist. She’s headlining TWO stages, because her talent can’t be fully revealed on just one.

(Biography courtesy of Wikipedia)

DJ Sammy Jo
Fountain Stage

In 1997, DJ Sammy Jo took his first steps into a dj booth at the legendary New York City nightclub MOTHER (home to the infamous Jackie 60 party) for his first ever nightlife venture called Messy. Expanding his playlist to include current dance music, Sammy Jo was eventually recruited to play at the original cyberfetish party Click + Drag where he met and collaborrated with Jake Shears of soon-to-be-formed Scissor Sisters. As neighbours and like-minded artists, the two discovered a common passion for all types of music.

In the spring of 2004 Shears asked Sammy Jo to dj on the Scissor Sisters Crevice Canyon Tour, a union that worked so well the band recruited him as their official tour dj. Since then Sammy Jo has been playing clubs throughout Europe on his own creating a name for himself while also supporting the Scissor Sisters whenever they call on him. From dingey pubs in London to warehouse parties in Antwerp to playing for 60,000 people at V Festival, his unique style of blending electro, house, and dark disco has him spending half his year travelling the world while the other half he maintains residencies in New York City.