Yvie Oddly

Jovan Jordan Bridges (born August 22, 1993), known by the stage name Yvie Oddly, is an American drag queen, performer, fashion designer, rapper, and recording artist from Denver, Colorado who came to international attention in 2019 when she won the eleventh season of RuPaul's Drag Race.

She later returned to compete on the seventh season of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars, an all-winners season, in 2022.

Jovan Bridges was born on August 22, 1993, in Denver, Colorado.

As a child, she played with her mother's makeup and dressed in her sister's clothes, "When I was a six-year-old boy playing dress-up in my sister's tutus and makeup, my parents were like, 'Take that off.' And I was like, 'Why?' I felt pretty and I'd sleep in a skirt every night."

She participated in gymnastics and other strenuous extracurricular activities until she was diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome at age fifteen.

She began musical theatre as an alternative.

Bridges describes her first exposure to drag as taking place in middle school, when a classmate dressed up as a hooker for Halloween and attracted significant attention.

The following Halloween, Bridges dressed as a hooker and enjoyed both her peers' shock and admiration.

Bridges attended East High School, and went to college at the Auraria Campus, both in Denver.

Oddly started her career as Avon Eve, performing for her first time at the Center in Denver, CO. before moving on to performing at Broadways Bar in a show hosted by Mile High Pinky Pie.

Oddly committed to drag after seeing Sharon Needles on the fourth season of RuPaul's Drag Race which aired in 2012, stating that "[Sharon Needles] was spooky. Her makeup was terrible. She was more dedicated to art and wit than being a glamorous female impersonator."

Prior to this, Oddly did not embrace all the opportunities that being a drag artist offered, as she considered herself just a "skinny, black, gay guy."

Oddly started doing drag during college in 2012 when Venus D'lite from RuPaul's Drag Race hosted a workshop on the college campus for Valentine's Day, stating that she "attempted some drag (or ghost) makeup, put on a super-cheap red wig and dress, and backflipped my way through "Scheiße" by Lady Gaga".

Her first performances were at Denver's gay bar Tracks.

The name 'Yvie Oddly' came from her pun to express "being even odder than anybody else"; Oddly soon developed a reputation for having "outrageous and unconventional looks on stage".

Her ingenuity came from financial necessity as making the "most glamorous or the most expensive" looks was not an option, saying that "I've just always liked to work with the materials that I have around me."

In 2014, Oddly was an extra in the music video for Sharon Needles's "Dressed to Kill."

Oddly was the winner of the Ultimate Queen of Denver pageant in 2015.

Later that summer, Oddly became a cast member of Drag Nation; opened for pop star Mya on the Main Stage for PrideFest; and performed in Bohemia's The Prohibition of Lust.

She was also in the music video for Adore Delano's "Negative Nancy" in 2017.

In 2017, Oddly stated that she used drag to confront gender roles.

In 2018, when asked about her drag aesthetics, Oddly said that she liked to shock and surprise with something the audience had not seen before, including dramatic looks, even employing unconventional and found materials.

In 2018, Oddly was both the manager at her Denver home drag bar as well as a drag queen, and was looking to transform her drag into a full-time job.

She felt the time to make a drastic life change was imminent even if her audition tape did not get her onto RuPaul's Drag Race.

Oddly has been on the worldwide Werq the World drag concert tour since 2019.

In addition to music videos and performances, she explores what she sees as a transformative power of drag by making thrift store finds into wearable art in Yvie Oddly's Oddities series on WOW Presents Plus.

In 2019, she described herself as a drag queen who blends "artistry, fashion, performance and concept".

She draws inspiration from French fashion designer Thierry Mugler, British designer and haute couturier Alexander McQueen, and 'terrorist' drag queen Christeene.

Oddly was announced as a cast member in season eleven of RuPaul's Drag Race in January 2019; it was her third time to apply as a contestant.

She is the second queen from Denver to compete on Drag Race, after Nina Flowers.

During the competition Oddly was noted for her eccentric and conceptual looks, her performance ability and her quirky and outspoken personality, she quickly became a fan and judges favorite.

Oddly said the time of the competition was somewhat lonely as she was unable to talk to friends or family.

She spoke about her motives for competing on the show:

"'It starts to be seen through this two-dimensional perspective of what we expect from drag ... because I've seen a formula building up, where if you have a lot of money and you wear something really sparkly ... the general public is going to fall in love with you. I wanted to shake that up and remind people that this art form is a queer art form.'"

Oddly was the winner of the second episode main challenge with Scarlet Envy.

She spent six weeks in a row placing in the top of the competition which makes her the queen with the most times in a row placing in the top after Jinkx Monsoon with eight times.

In the eighth episode, however, she and Brooke Lynn Hytes both "bombed" on Snatch Game, the show's parody of celebrity-led Match Game. Hytes, who was also doing very well up to then, and Oddly were the bottom two queens and had to lip-sync battle to Demi Lovato's "Sorry Not Sorry" widely seen as one of the best battles in the show's history, causing RuPaul to keep both competitors.

During the show, she was in a constant rivalry with fellow competitor Silky Nutmeg Ganache.

When asked by RuPaul who should go home Silky named Oddly because of her twisted ankle even though Oddly completed the choreography, Oddly named Silky as the one who should leave because she was resistant to critiques from RuPaul and the other judges.

She released her debut album, Drag Trap, in 2020.