'Camper than Pat Butcher's earrings': La Voix comes to EastEnders for Pride

La Voix has performed in front of some fearsome stars, like Simon Cowell, RuPaul and Craig Revel Horwood – but nothing prepared her for the women of Albert Square.

"It was half fabulous, half absolutely petrifying," says RuPaul's Drag Race UK and Strictly Come Dancing star La Voix about her debut on EastEnders.

As part of the soap's Pride celebrations, La Voix appears as herself this Thursday, caught in the middle of a battle between the Queen Vic pub and the Prince Albert gay bar for customers in a storyline she calls "camper than Pat Butcher's earrings".

"The majority of the scenes you'll watch were completely improvised," she says. "The team told me to treat it like a comedy gig and just roast the audience" of characters who come to see her perform.

The drag performer first came to fame after competing on Britain's Got Talent in 2014, becoming a fan favourite on RuPaul's Drag Race UK in 2024 and on Strictly Come Dancing in 2025. She has been performing at Pride events for over a decade.

La Voix says it is "wonderful" performing at Pride events in smaller towns across the UK.

"I remember I did the first ever Middlesborough Pride, which is where I'm from, just after I'd done Britain's Got Talent," she says. "They were doing a parade and they didn't even close the road.

"The market was in full swing in the middle of the street and we all just marched down!"

La Voix, who has also performed at some of Britain's largest Prides in Manchester and London, calls these events "just a wonderful celebration of fabulousness".

She sees Pride as a celebration of community acceptance – something she did not always feel growing up in the north-east of England in the 1980s.

"There should be one in every little town and village as far as I'm concerned," she says.

As for EastEnders's Pride celebrations, Walford got its first parade in 2019, as part of then-executive producer Kate Oates's plan to bring more LGBTQ+ characters into the soap.

This came decades after the series caused a media storm by featuring the first gay kiss to appear on a soap.

La Voix remembers the outrage in the tabloids and in Parliament, with multiple MPs calling for the show to be cancelled.

"In that community, we were quite surprised at the shock it caused. A gay kiss on a soap. Is that such a big thing?

"A lot of people will be watching these soaps in areas that might have never seen a gay pride or a gay bar.

"In these communities, there might be people that are desperately wanting to come out, so it's really important that gay characters are shown."

Gay kisses aside, the "strong women" of EastEnders have offered much inspiration to drag performers like La Voix over the years.

"It's always had an underlying campness, from the lamé blouses of Pat Butcher to Bianca's silver jacket on the market square to Sharon being the sort of character that wears false eyelashes even when she's on the way to the launderette in the morning."

La Voix's scenes on the show see her working with two of the show's current strongest women - Harriet Thorpe as Elaine Peacock and Michelle Collins as Cindy Beale.

"Harriet has been the biggest advocate of mine, she's come to every gig I've done since I started. And I've done panto with Michelle twice, so it was great to have them there to support me."

Though La Voix jokes that she resisted the urge to commemorate the day by stealing the Queen Vic bust, she confesses: "I did steal a beer mat from the Queen Vic!"

But will she get the ultimate EastEnders moment? "I'm not saying whether La Voix gets the 'doof doof' at the end of the episode," she teases, "but it will be full of drama and intrigue…"