Adore Delano

Dani Noriega (born September 29, 1989), better known under the stage name Adore Delano, is an American drag queen, singer-songwriter, and television personality.

She appeared as a contestant on the sixth and seventh season of American Idol in 2008 and later competed as Adore Delano on the sixth season of RuPaul's Drag Race, placing in the final three.

She then went on to compete on the second season of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars, placing ninth after voluntarily leaving the competition.

In 2008, Noriega appeared on the seventh season of American Idol, making it to the semi-finals.

She became known for her flamboyant personality and sassy rapport with the judges, notably a comment toward judge Simon Cowell, which later went viral.

After watching Noriega on Idol, Rosie O'Donnell invited her to perform on her R Family Vacations cruise.

Talk show host Ellen DeGeneres also invited Noriega to be a guest on her show.

Before her appearance on American Idol and through high school, she lived as a transgender woman, but suppressed her gender identity in order to appear on the show.

Following American Idol, Noriega became a YouTube personality, performing skits in drag as Adore Delano, or Angel Baby, another drag character.

In June 2009, she released the music video for the song "24/7," featuring sister Diamonique.

After seeing RuPaul's Drag Race contestant Raven perform at the nightclub Micky's in West Hollywood, Noriega was inspired to enter a drag competition at the club, which she won.

Noriega began performing as Adore Delano in Southern California.

In a 2012 interview, she said she is not opposed to dating women.

Along with other RuPaul's Drag Race contestants, she walked the Marco Marco runway for Los Angeles Fashion Week in 2013.

In December 2013, Logo TV announced her as one of 14 drag queens who would be competing on the sixth season of RuPaul's Drag Race.

She had previously competed for the season 5 fan-vote, ultimately losing to Penny Tration.

Adore Delano eventually went on to win three challenges and made it to the final three.

With Courtney Act, she finished as runner-up to season winner Bianca Del Rio.

She has recorded and released three studio albums: Till Death Do Us Party (2014), After Party (2016), Whatever (2017), and one EP Dirty Laundry (2021).

Noriega was born to Bonnie Pimentel Noriega in Glendora, California, raised in Azusa, California, and attended Sierra High School, a continuation school for at-risk teenagers.

Following the finale of Drag Race, Adore Delano released the single "DTF" on May 20, 2014, as the lead single from her debut album Till Death Do Us Party.

The album was released on June 3, 2014, charting at number three on the US Dance/Electronic Albums chart, 11 on the US Independent Albums chart, and number fifty-nine on the Billboard 200.

She released music videos for the majority of its tracks, including "I Adore U", which peaked at 49 on the US Billboard Dance/Electronic Songs.

In November 2014, Adore Delano announced that a second album was in the works with an anticipated 2015 release date.

Adore Delano's album After Party was set for release March 11, 2016.

"Dynamite", the first single, was released on February 26, 2016; "Take Me There", the second single, was released on March 10, 2016; and the "I.C.U.", was released on September 1, 2016.

Adore was one of 10 contestants on the second season of RuPaul's Drag Race: All Stars.

She chose to leave the show in the second episode for personal reasons.

Whatever, her third studio album, was released on August 18, 2017.

On April 4, 2017, Noriega filed a lawsuit against Producer Entertainment Group, her former management company, alleging that Noriega had earned $2.5 million over the past three years, but only about $300,000 was actually paid.

From 2017 to 2023, Noriega identified as non-binary and used any pronouns.

Noriega said that "gender isn't a real thing... it's just something they came up with to categorize and control people".

P.E.G. counter-sued in January 2018, alleging Noriega owed the company $180,000 in management fees.

The suit was dismissed by a judge who awarded no money to either party.

In 2019, Adore Delano appeared as a guest for the first challenge in the premiere of season 11 of Drag Race.

In June 2019, a panel of judges from New York magazine placed her sixth on its list of "the most powerful drag queens in America", a ranking of 100 former Drag Race contestants.

In August, she was featured on the cover of Gay Times.

In December 2019, she joined the cast of the fourth season of Ex on the Beach.

After her de-transition in order to appear on American Idol, she has said that she attempted to appease her feelings about her gender identity by living as a woman through Adore, but in her transgender "coming out" video, she stated that she "could not do it anymore."

Noriega came out as bisexual at age 12, then gay.