La Primera Drag de Benidorm: the pioneer nobody remembers

Every story has a first one. The one who stepped into heels when nobody else did, the one who painted her lips in a sun-and-beach town when that cost more than just stares. And she's almost always the one nobody remembers.

That's how I understand La Primera Drag de Benidorm (The First Drag Queen in Benidorm). The title speaks of a pioneer and the lyrics give her the floor, without glamour or pretty nostalgia. What you hear is what it cost.

She drags herself along in broken heels, spitting dreams at every traffic light. She bleeds with her skirt on fire, her chest open and her name undone. Among broken nails, plastic prayers and borrowed caresses. Every image is a blow and none is there for decoration.

And I dance

The chorus is a litany of survival, with every phrase nailed to the ground by a here: here I bleed, here I sell wounds, here I break mirrors. And it ends with the line that hurts me most: «aquí nadie me recuerda» ("here nobody remembers me"). That's the real tragedy of so many artists who paved the way in the night and of whom almost nothing remained.

Well, photos remained, but censored ones, as the lyrics say. Along with a neighbourhood hunger and a severed tongue. In other words: they forced her into silence.

The best comes at the end. After all the pain, it drops to a whisper: here, here, I bleed... and I dance. Those last words change everything. It's the answer of someone who has lost a lot but hasn't lost the stage.

It's clearly related to Aquí Escupo; they share imagery and rawness. But this one has a name, a place and an implicit dedication to all those who came first.

Listen to it thinking of them. Of the drag queens, travestis and female impersonators who performed in coastal bars when nobody applauded them outside the venue. This is memory too.

The full lyrics are further down. Listen on Spotify