Eureka O’Hara Releases Music Video, Comes Out as Transgender
Vacationer Magazine’s December cover girl, Eureka O’Hara has released the video to her new single “Big Mawma” and also came out as transgender to People Magazine!
Both topics were alluded to in our interview with the We’re Here star earlier this month where we discussed the third season of the hit reality TV show and her song “Big Mawma” which was coming out at the time. We also talked about her gender journey and how it inspired the accompanying music video that was just released.
Eureka has been very public about her gender journey. She originally identified as a cisgender gay male and then from the ages of 18 to 22 lived as a transgender woman before ultimately identifying as nonbinary. She tells People that her work on the show, specifically with two trans individuals in Florida named Mandy and Dempsey, inspired her to relook at her gender identity and helped her begin the process of transitioning to female again. She has been on hormone replacement therapy for the past several months, has legally changed her name to Eureka D. Huggard, and is in the process of changing her gender markers.
With regard to the “Big Mawma” music video, it is the first project from Eureka’s new production company House of Queens, a collaboration with tech industry executive and venture capitalist Aidan Madigan-Curtis.
In the video, Eureka shows off her acting chops like never before — taking on dual male and female roles a la her idol Divine/Glen Milstead. Eureka, who memorably impersonated Divine for Drag Race All Stars’ “Snatch Game” challenge, feels a kindred spirit in Milstead, and hopes to continue to storm through the doors that he helped crack open decades ago.
“Divine inspires everything I do. I feel like my life has run very parallel with Glen Milstead’s, as far as my passion for acting and wanting to be taken seriously as an artist,” explains Eureka, who studied acting in college long before she even got into drag. “Glen so desperately wanted to be taken seriously — but how serious was the industry going to take the drag queen that was known for eating shit, you know? And that duality always resonates in me, because my Eureka character is everything it’s not ‘supposed’ to be. I’m big. I’m sexy. I have shape. I wear things I’m not supposed to wear as a bigger person. I do music. I do splits and kicks and twirls, and I can out-twirl any skinny girl, any day. It’s all because I have to work 10 times harder for industry people to take someone like me seriously.”
Eureka is “Big Mawma’s” chief songwriter, but the single finds her joining fierce forces with The Voice powerhouses and fan favorites Sarah Potenza and Katie Kadan, whom she jokingly says she “harassed the shit out of on social media” in order to convince them to sign on. Potenza and Kadan penned their respective verses to put their own spin on the “Big Mawma” message, which according to Eureka is aimed at “anyone that’s willing to love unconditionally” and “just happens to be extremely represented by three big women to show how sexy and delicious we can be. There’s a very sexual and beautiful side to us too. Just because we have big hearts, don’t forget our big asses!”
Take a look at the video here:
Stream or download “Big Mawma” here.
Watch Eureka on We’re Here seasons 1 and 2, currently streaming on HBO Max.
