Yahoo News Shawam! Inside the Premiere of HBO Max’s New Ballroom Competition Show ‘Legendary’
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Just hours after Megan thee Stallion landed her first Billboard number one single for her “Savage” remix featuring Beyonce, the hot girl rapper had another reason to celebrate, getting all dressed up for the virtual premiere of the HBO Max series “Legendary,” where she serves as a judge.
Meg joined fellow judges — fashion stylist Law Roach, actor Jameela Jamil and ballroom icon Leiomy Maldonado — for the interactive party, as “Legendary” emcee Dashaun Wesley took center stage, kicking things off by introducing the series’ first episode.
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“For decades the world of ballroom has been considered an LGBTQ subculture. But this subculture has inspired countless dancers, musicians, stylists, fashion designers. It’s been a huge part of our pop culture,” said “Legendary” executive producer Rob Eric. “Tonight, in all its fabulous glory, ballroom takes center stage in an over the top competition series where eight houses will go head-to-head to the cash prize of $100,000 and the chance to be known as legendary.”
The cast of FX’s ballroom drama “Pose” was well-represented at the virtual proceedings, with series stars Mj Rodriguez, Angelica Ross, Ryan Jamaal Swain and Indya Moore among those who joined the celebration. Wesley and Maldonado also appear on that series, while “Pose” star Dominique Jackson joined the voguing competition show as a guest judge.
For the interactive after party, Wesley and DJ Mike Q hosted “Club Legendary,” where Maldonado demonstrated her voguing mastery, while Roach looked glamorous with his wig laid and holding a “Legendary” fan, and Jamil got cute showing off her adorable pet. Ash B also performed the “Legendary” theme song to kick off the second half of the evening.
“Club Legendary” also functioned as a virtual ball, with contestants voguing in different categories, including ace, hand performance and runway, as attendees virtually scored their performance with a “chop” or “10s” across the board.
The party — produced by digital studio Little Cinema — also gave fans an inside look at the houses competing on the show (the Houses of Balmain, Escada, Ebony, Gucci, Ninja, Saint Laurent, West and Xclusive Lanvin) and replayed their premiere performances. And for the ballroom uninitiated, Wesley taught a “Vogue-cabulary” lesson, hosting a series of explainer videos defining important ballroom lingo; for example, the extremely important fact that the proper exclamation is always “Shawam!” not “Shablam.”
Other guests at the virtual bash included fashion designers Prabal Gurung, Christian Siriano and Jeremy Scott, Nyle DiMarco, “Queer Eye’s” Bobby Berk, Tyler Oakley, Carson Kressley, Lena Hall, Brian Friedman, Nico Tortorella, Amy Hargreaves, Adam Shankman, Maddie Ziegler and Janina Gavankar, as well as “Real Housewives of Atlanta’s” Kandi Burruss, “We’re Here” star Eureka O’Hara, and “RuPaul’s Drag Race” stars Nina West, The Vixen and Laganja Estranja.
HBO Max also announced it was making donations to the Trevor Project and GLSEN on behalf of guests.
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