Betty BBQ

Betty BBQ at the Freiburg CSD 2017

Fräulein Betty BBQ is the name of the Black Forest drag queen and entertainer from Freiburg im Breisgau . The travesty artist behind the fictional character refuses to use his real name in public inorder not to divert the focus from the fictional character, according to his own statements. Betty BBQ describes the private person behind the fictional character as a " homosexual and loving, biological man" . The drag queen Betty BBQ appears in her fictional character as an entertainer, presenter, singer of party hits, activist, author and city guide. In 2019, she was appointed by Mayor Martin Horn as one of the nine official anniversaryambassadorsin the city of Freiburg for the 900th city anniversary in 2020. As an anniversary ambassador, Betty BBQ stands for diversity .

Betty BBQ describes her work as a drag queen herself as follows: "Betty BBQ is a drag queen, a living reminder that we should not regard anything as normal and that we should accept each other as we are." Her distinguishing mark is the red Black Forest - Bollenhut , here Betty BBQ insists on the traditional meaning of the colored Bollen, since red Bollen in the real sense of the Bollenhut are worn by unmarried women. She caricatures tourist stereotypes from the Black Forest in a loving way . In order not to defame traditional Black Forest costumes, Betty BBQ always combines her outfits with various traditional costume elements , for example her dirndls are reminiscent of classic traditional costumes, which she always matches to the color scheme of the Black Forest costume.

History of origin

The Betty BBQ figure was created as part of the Freiburger Fasnet . At first the artist only appeared once a year in changing female roles at the Freiburg Ball Verqueer . This then resulted in the fictional story of "Betty Grill from the Obertal" (to make it more international, henceforth called "Betty BBQ").

Fictional life story

On her website, Betty BBQ describes her fictional life story as follows: “After years of hard work behind the greasy grill of a sausage stand, Betty was fed up with the dreary, lackluster life. She longed for glamor, fashion, high heels and false eyelashes. Instead of turning sausages on the grill, everything should finally revolve a little more about them. So get out of the dirty apron and into the world of extravagant party nights, glamorous charity events , relaxed dinner occasions - and sometimes just show your colorful home to the whole world. Her numerous appearances in Freiburg and the surrounding area and meanwhile all of Germany have already made the drag queen a media favorite in this country. It is only a matter of time when the gazettes all over Germany will report on Betty BBQ ... And when there is sausage to grill, Betty is of course there - for once, of course! "

Political and social ambitions

Queer political engagement

From the beginning, the political and social engagement of Betty BBQ was in the foreground. She appears at many Christopher Street Days (CSD), has been involved for years with AIDS-Hilfe Freiburg and especially the prevention project of Aids-Hilfe Baden-Württemberg eV, GentleMan, which is aimed particularly at homosexual men. For GentleMan she moderates the online magazine Betty will's know . On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of “ Das Lila Lied ”, the first homosexual hymn from 1920, Betty BBQ published a new edition of the song she produced, interpreted by the Freiburg band Hairball Remedy under the title “Das Lila Lied - Hairball Remedy Cover version ". Betty BBQ herself describes her intention to do so as follows: “Anyone who hears the song will quickly realize how unbelievable it is that such a text was possible 100 years ago - between the two destructive world wars and before the inhuman Nazi dictatorship. The fact that the message of the song is just as relevant today should be a warning to us that our society today is perhaps not as modern and liberal in every respect as it likes to be. "

Regional social commitment

Betty BBQ is involved in a variety of regional areas, whereby she wants to emphasize her basic message “Home is not just black and white” . As an exception and in deviation from other self-imposed distance requirements between private person and fictional character, Betty BBQ makes a reference to your privately experienced exclusion while growing up in an unspecified Black Forest village. According to your statements, as an adolescent boy, because of her “being different” and her own homosexuality, she always experienced exclusion in schools, clubs and village life. Betty BBQ always emphasizes that her work as a Black Forest drag queen made her homeland, which was denied as a child , accessible again and that she has now been given a permanent place in regional social structures.

A matter close to the heart of Betty BBQ is, in particular, the participation and support of the regional Alemannic carnival, as the fictional character was created according to her own statements for the Freiburg carnival.

With her motto, Betty BBQ also wants to break up the concept of “home”, which is often nationally conservative and legally occupied, and to show and establish the compatibility between the concept of home and a diverse and modern social culture.

Commitment to the Alemannic dialect

Betty BBQ has taken part in several campaigns to maintain and promote the Alemannic dialect and is committed to this.

Homophobic attacks on Betty BBQ

On New Year's Eve 2016, Betty BBQ was the victim of a homophobic attack on Freiburg's Bertoldsbrunnen in Freiburg . As two other gay men were attacked in front of a Freiburg bar that same night, a demonstration took place in Freiburg's old town on January 8, 2016 , at which around 800 participants expressed their solidarity.
On August 6, 2020, Betty BBQ was again the victim of an undisguised homophobic attack, which received some publicity in the press. Betty BBQ was on the way to filming and her own city tour when at the northern end of Kaiser-Joseph-Straße in Freiburg im Breisgau, at the level of the perfumery "Douglas", a young man suddenly and constantly yelled at her from behind, insulted her physically and also verbally threatened. The special circumstance that this happened in broad daylight in the afternoon in front of a large audience of passers-by triggered many discussions about brutalizing society in Freiburg.

Honors

Carrier of the 18th order of the Friends of the Gentlemen's Council of the Breisgau Fools' Guild
Honorary member of the Narrhalla in Rottweil (since 2018)

Trivia

After several appearances as Betty BBQ on various occasions, she had her first appearance as a Black Forest girl on the occasion of the Ganter Oktoberfest in 2013. Since then, the travesty artist has performed at many Christopher Street Days (CSD) and countless events throughout Germany with a focus on the German southwest, also at parties and carnival events.

Since 2015 she organizes and leads city tours through Freiburg, u. a. “Hello, Hello, Freiburg! - The travesty city tour with Betty BBQ ” . She also organizes tours by other artists such as the comedienne Kerstin Luhr . Every year she takes around 5000 guests through her hometown.

Betty BBQ also organizes its own party series (for many years the “Goldkinder-Party” in Freiburg and “Ménage à Trois” in Offenburg and Basel ). The entertainer regularly appears in the Freiburg cult party cellar “Hackl's zapfBar” .

Betty BBQ became known to a larger audience in 2014 as a candidate for the Black Forest camp by Hitradio Ohr , the regional counterpart of the jungle camp .

She had TV appearances a. a. in May 2019 and in December 2019 on Talk am See on SWR TV with Gaby Hauptmann , on WDR Reisen (November 2019), Die Superhandel , episode 247 on RTL (November 2019), in August 2020 in the production of SWR TV with the title "Laughter is colorful! - The CSD Comedy Party", moderated by Constantin Zöller and u. a. with the comedians Désirée Nick , Simon Stäblein , Tahnee , Markus Barth, Marcel Mann , Ross Antony , the drag queens Yoncé Banks and Marcella Rockefeller on the occasion of Christopher, who failed in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic situation caused by the SARS-CoV-2 Street Day ( CSD ) political parades. and also in the SAT1 -Resemagazin "Grenzenlos" in the show about the " Black Forest ", which was broadcast for the first time on August 15, 2020. She was also co-presenter at Markus Knoll's side on the “Treasure Hunt on the Feldberg” run by the Black Forest Radio .

In 2018, the Freiburg Minster Construction Association appointed her minister care worker as part of the Freiburg puts on the coat campaign , in which other celebrities such as the football player Nils Petersen , the former ski jumper Sven Hannawald or the then Freiburg Sports Club - and today's DFB President Fritz Keller participated. In 2019 Betty BBQ belonged to the jury of “Mr. Gay Europe ” as part of Cologne Pride .

In 2019 her first song was released, the party hit “Zick Zack Zwiebel feat. Party animal ” including a video clip that was voted and awarded “ Fasenthit 2020 ” by the listeners of the regional radio station Hitradio Ohr (Offenburg / Ortenau) on February 19, 2020 .

From December 2019 to August 2020 Betty BBQ's first Bollenhut will be in the House of History Baden-Württemberg on the occasion of the exhibition “Hats off! Pickelhaube, Pussyhat and other head stories ” .

On the occasion of the corona crisis , she started “Betty's Vlog” , a small-format video series on YouTube in which she presents ideas from creative people and speaks to those affected by the coronavirus crisis. At the same time she started on the Instagram talk series “Betty Live” , in which she spent around 60 minutes with prominent guests such as Ralph Morgenstern , Lilo Wanders , Julian FM Stoeckel , Miss Wommy Wonder and others. a. chats. Likewise, under the impression of the “shutdown” in the coronavirus pandemic, several illustrations about Betty BBQ and the coronavirus effects were created by the artist Steph Burlefinger, which Betty BBQ and Steph Burlefinger published in June 2020 as a paperback comic book under the title “PEOPLE, Betty! - The comic book about the crisis with Black Forest Drag Queen Betty BBQ ”published.

Singles

2019: Zig, Zack, Onion - Betty BBQ feat. PARTY ANIMAL (ISRC DELJ81960915, GTIN / EAN / UPC 4050215758209)
2020: Das Lila Lied - Hairball Remedy cover version - interpreted by the Freiburg band Hairball Remedy, produced by Betty BBQ (ISRC (cover version) DELJ82031358, GTIN / EAN / UPC 4064832024982)

Works

2020: "PEOPLE, Betty! - The comic book about the crisis with Black Forest Drag Queen Betty BBQ “, authors Betty BBQ and Steph Burlefinger, illustrations by Steph Brulefinger, self-published by Betty BBQ Travestie & Entertainment, Freiburg 2020, ISBN 978-3-00-065918-8 .