Appearing at Pride

Albuquerque Pride is expanding the number of featured performers and headliners in 2008.

On Friday night, our featured performer will be Deep Dickollective, a Queer African-American hip-hop collective founded in Oakland, followed by our Friday headliner, God-des and She, a Lesbian rapper and vocalist now based in New York City.

On Saturday, our lead performer is Josh Zuckerman who is an award winning gay singer and songwriter.  Later in the day, our featured performer is Frenchie Davis featured on American Idol, Rent and Ain't Misbehavin' performing a combination of classics, broadway and original music. Then coming to the stage, our Saturday headliner, Amber.

Pridefest's Main Stage will be under the pavilion tent at the southeast end of Main Street at Expo New Mexico. The dance tent will be on the Boxcar stage near the Main Entrance to Pridefest.

Friday

God-des and She

"Well, we're going to pack up our Uhaul and move to the city of dreams!" And move they did. In March of 2004 they packed up their lives in Madison, Wisconsin and moved to Brooklyn, New York. In little more than a year, they have taken New York City by storm. They have played sold out shows at the famed Knitting Factory, opened up for MC LYTE and Slick Rick, performed at the Supper Club for the Showtime / GO NYC magazine L WORD party, and performed countless other high profile gigs. These women are magnetic on stage, lighting up the faces of the audience every time!

GOD-DES has been rhyming for over 10 years. She started out as a percussionist-Yep, a marching band geek turned rapper. Does it get any better than that? She spent her school bus rides home rapping for her friends: a natural performer from the start. She is also an "out" gay-Ya'll ever heard of a white dyke Jewish rapper from Wisconsin? Didn't think so!!!

SHE can sing her ass off! Adding a layer rarely heard in Hip Hop today, SHE's contribution elevates the music to a whole new level. Their chemistry on and off stage is undeniable! You never heard a white girl have so much soul.

Deep Dickollective

Since the release of their groundbreaking debut BourgieBohoPostPomoAfroHomo in 2001,  Deep Dickollective (D/DC) has been a creative and cultural force driving popular and academic discourse around race, class, queerness and masculinity as reflected in the burgeoning “homohop” subculture.

Appearing in countless features, essays, and articles in LGBT and mainstream media, D/DC has toured colleges and festivals around the U.S. and Canada since mid 2001, winning the Best Hip Hop Group award in the 2003 San Francisco Bay Guardian readers poll, and came to more  recent mainstream attention through their central presence in Alex Hinton’s documentary Pick Up The Mic.

Premiering at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival, Pick Up The Mic has since screened in 50+ film festivals internationally, is broadcast recurrently on the LOGO network will be released to DVD in late 2008.

On Some Other (Sugartruck Recordings, 2007) is the group’s fifth overall release and first studio recording since 2004’s The Famous Outlaw League Of Proto Negroes, which was a 2005 Outmusic Award double nominee and a Top Ten Gay Albums of 2004 selection by Out Magazine.

Saturday

Amber

Amber announces her visit to Albuquerque Pride on YouTube

Born in the Netherlands, partially raised in Germany by a mother who is a songwriter and piano teacher and by a father who is an opera singer, music was a naturally given gift, genetically passed on, a way to communicate your mood and your feelings.

She amassed an impassioned army of fans with a string of worldwide smash hits that include "Sexual (li da di)", "Above the clouds", "The need to be naked". Songs which are smarter, bolder, and more infectious than your average, paint-by-numbers pop tunes. With sterling gems like "Yes", "If you could read my mind" (from the Studio 54 soundtrack with Ultra Nate and Jocelyn Enriquez), and "One More Night", she has racked up an impressive seven consecutive No. 1 dance singles and an additional 7 Top 10 dance hits. Many of them made it into the official Top 40 Billboard Charts.

With the birth of her first self released album "MY KIND OF WORLD" [2004], Amber took her greatest risk to date by shining a light on the deepest -- and sometimes the darkest -- parts of her heart and soul. The result was a collection of literate, often brutally honest songs that revealed Amber's renegade soul. Her latest album called “Undanced II” was released internationally on 02/26/07, which exists out of never before officially released demos, remixes and song material.

"I am in a happy place now and there is nothing like owning your own music and masters and running your own show and destiny. No longer do I have to live in anyone else's world or dance to someone else's beat" she says.

Let's be honest...as if she ever really did....

Frenchie Davis

"Frenchie” performs a salute to “legendary” singers and Broadway.

Frenchie Davis was born in Los Angeles, Calif. She began as a theatre student at Washington DC’s Howard University. While studying there, she got her first acting/singing job playing one of the street urchins in a production of Little Shop of Horrors and then in a production of Jesus Christ Superstar, the following year. She then auditioned for American Idol and turned out to be a huge favorite with america to win the show. Frenchie then worked for Entertainment Tonight and performed the song “And I Am Telling You" followed by her being cast in the Broadway show RENT, in the role of “Effie White” in DreamGirls which played for 4 years. When she left the show she said "I know that I will look back at these times as some of the best of my life...thank you so much!," she wrote. 

In August, Frenchie stepped into the shoes of Jennifer Holliday and starred in a one women stage play based on the legendary gospel great “Mahalia Jackson” called “Sing, Mahalia, Sing’. In 2008 famed DJ/Remixer Tony Moran will be releasing Frenchie’s new dance single called “You Are” and has a great chance to be a #1 song on the charts. In November 2008, Frenchie will be starring in the 30th Ann. touring road show of the hit broadway play “Ain’t Misbehavin.” Needless to say the sky is the limit for this amazingly talented lady with a “god given” voice from above…..

www.FrenchieDavis.org

Josh Zuckerman

Openly out recording Artist Josh Zuckerman is not your typical rock star. While exemplifying the perfect star quality, he continues to carry a message about being true to one's self.  He has released two CDs (Out From Under, A Totally New Sensation) to great reviews.

Having toured over 15 different countries including the United States, Bermuda, Germany, France, Belgium, Sweden, Norway, Japan, as well as Thailand, Josh continues to spread his music across the globe.

Josh's music has been selling across the United States, Europe, and Asia as well as clips of his songs "Karma," "Spiritual," and "Circle Of Friends" appeared on the Kathy Griffin's reality show "My Life On The D-List" on Bravo.  His song Out From Under and Something Inside were the number one most requested song on Sirius Out Q for four weeks in a row and the videos have consistently been seen on LOGO TV's The Click List and New Now Next as well as his video Be Real. Currently Be Real is the second most requested video on LOGO TV’s The Click List. His animated video for his song Another Reason will be released in May of 2008.

Josh has integrated his world life experiences to a fresh music style that is ready to explode the alternative pop markets.  He has performed alongside such notables as RuPaul, Macy Gray, The Glamazons, The Indigo Girls, Jai Rodriguez, Kimberly Locke, Sophie B. Hawkins and many more.

Josh's motto is: "Be who you are, it’s all about love..."

Albuquerque Pride, PO Box 80506, Albuquerque, NM 87198-0506 (505) 873-8084
E-mail us at abqpride@aol.com