There were nine glittering queens in the running as the Blue Moon Pageant returned last night, but only one emerged victorious. The wall-to-wall crowd buzzed with anticipation until it was time to exalt Andi Whorehol as Ms. Blue Moon 2026.
This year’s theme was “Heavy Metal Lover: Leather, Lace, and Latex,” an ode to Lady Gaga, and Andi brought it from the moment she stepped on stage in her recreation of Lady Gaga’s iconic 2010 VMA’s look dubbed the “meat dress.” Throughout the night, Andi showed her attention to detail through all of her looks and showed the crowd what drag means to her.
“It still doesn’t feel real yet,” Andi said. “It feels like I’m still in my bed, it’s Sunday morning, and none of this has happened yet. This was going to be my last pageant ever, win or lose. But you know now? Now, I might be thinking about a few other things. Everybody said that this pageant was the best they had been to in a while, and that says something. Everybody was phenomenal tonight.”
Andi said that for her, the night was about much more than a crown and a sash. Andi is now the first assigned female at birth (AFAB) drag artist to hold a major Pittsburgh bar title, and she is also only the second Black Ms. Blue Moon in the pageant’s history.
“I want to make sure that my year of reigning is just as historic as what happened tonight,” Andi said.
But Andi’s win tonight was not easy. Andi admitted that after completing her question and answer portion of the pageant, she realized she had left the wigs, shoes, and props she needed for the talent segment at home. Luckily, one of her prop designers was able to run to her house to retrieve them, but it definitely threw a plot twist into her night.
“Thankfully, JoeMyGosh is a yapper, so we had time,” Andi joked.
While Andi ultimately snatched the title, the night was stacked with talent. First runner up Leia Way LeStat had the crowd doubled in half during her talent segment performance, which was both an ode to Lady Gaga and to Joey Young—Ms. Blue Moon 2025.
“I have always been so focused on community and building up the people around me,” Joey said. “Seeing what can come from that is something that I took with me when I competed last year. Having a new perspective and a new mentality is just as important as paying homage to the people who came before you. It feels surreal now to be one of the people who came before. A year ago at this time, my life was completely different and so much hadn’t happened for me yet. I feel so fortunate to have seen everyone be here and do such an amazing job.”
“I’m so excited that one, the winner of Blue Moon tonight was a Black winner, the only other being Akasha L. Van Cartier, and two, that this is our first cis female winner, which is absolutely amazing,” runner up Leia Way LeStat said. “I’m so excited for Andi, she’s so talented and I can’t wait to see what she’s going to do.”
Other stellar performances came from Catty Wampus, who dazzled the stage as a feathered disco bug, and Kara Sells who was hilarious, as always, and delivered heartfelt live vocals that wowed the room.
“Every contestant rocked so much,” Scarlet Fairweather, some old hag Ms. Blue Moon 2020, said. “I’ve been at these pageants at this bar for about ten years now and it never stops being exciting.”
“This bar has always been so diverse and so representative and to see it in our winner tonight means the world,” Scarlet said. “Andi has worked really hard for a long time. She’s tenacious, she’s a good time, she has a vision for her drag and she also has a vision for what she can do with a title, and that’s important to see.”
The segments of the pageant were broken up by performances from Cindy Crotchford, Scarlet Fairweather, and Joey Young.
Before the crown was passed to Andi at the end of the night, Joey gave one last performance as Ms. Blue Moon, ending her reign with a rendition of Frank Sinatra’s “That’s Life.”
Joey met Andi at the first open stage they ever did, and it’s clear there is a lot of admiration between the two of them for one another, and for the Blue Moon Bar, which they both heralded as an amazing cornerstone of Pittsburgh’s drag scene and queer community.
Congratulations to Andi Whorehol! Long may she reign!
Photos by Ava Grace.
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