MINNIE COOPER DIVA HALL OF FAME 2024 - Video

SYDNEY STAR OBSERVER WRITTEN BY COLLEEN WINDSOR
The DIVA Awards are thrilled to announce that the 2024 inductee to the prestigious DIVA Hall of Fame is Minnie Cooper.
Minnie Cooper has been one of Sydney’s queer community’s biggest stars for over two decades. With a successful career as a musical comedy triple threat Minnie’s arrival on the scene created a major splash. I recall one of her very first spot numbers on the small Stonewall stage was ‘When You Got It, Flaunt It’ from the musical The Producers – and that is exactly what she’s done since.
Minnie Cooper is the most awarded performer in all of DIVA history. She has amassed 25 DIVA Awards since 2004, 15 of these are personal awards and 10 for shows where she has been boss queen. This incredible record can surely never be emulated by anyone else. It’s no wonder she is affectionately referred to as ‘Super Duper Minnie Cooper’ – it’s the most impressive of records, and now her name is rightly added to the Hall of Fame, the roll of Sydney’s biggest drag and showgirl stars who have made a lasting contribution to the Sydney drag industry.
Minnie was awarded the top gong of Entertainer of the Year for a record four times in 2005, 07, 12 and 2018. The Entertainer of the Year is presented to the performer who is at the top of their game and the biggest star of the day. No one else has shown such consistency at this highest level besides Minnie.
Her sister performers and peers have voted her Miss Congeniality an incredible six times. This is a treasured award amongst the drag and showgirl family as it’s an award voted by performers to acknowledge one of their own who is considered an all-round swell queen. It is something I know Minnie treasures very much. With similar sentiment this announcement of the 2024 Hall of Fame inductee is being met with delight amongst the broader community.
Minnie has told me on receiving this honour “I feel very grateful about it all it is really lovely to be recognised. Over the years collecting so many awards has been amazing, joining this list of incredible performers who I have admired and respected actual feels like winning.”
Minnie has over the years produced many of the DIVA award winning production shows seen on the Oxford Street scene. She was the resident producer of Arq nightclubs popular Thursday night shows for 18 years. Many punters will recall with joy the hits: Tworking Girls, Drag n fly and Going Gaga – all DIVA award winning shows.
It is sometimes said we will never see a clubbing nightlife to equal those days again and for queens to self-produce drag shows at that level has become too expensive and out of favour for today’s clubbers taste.
At the Stonewall Hotel, Minnie has been boss queen in residence for 20 years and here the hits have included Hairspray, Wicked, Kiss my Brass and Electric Heels.
Minnie created the famous ‘Drags to Riches’ which ran for five seasons at Arq nightclub and gave the talent quest formula a creative boost. Twelve emerging drag queens competed for a cash prize but, fortunate for the contestants was that Minnie mentored each baby drag. Every Monday evening, they received performance coaching for that week’s challenge. They also got classes in make-up, wigs, costume on a budget and even tucking. In 2016 ‘Drag to Riches’ won a well-deserved DIVA.
She has produced and choreographed many large-scale spectacles at events such as Mardi Gras, Sleaze Ball and Flash Mobs. Performers past and present remember with great affection the experience of being in a Minnie show at Mardi Gras in 2008 for the 30th anniversary ‘I am what I am’ celebration production.
In 2016 Minnie was a semi-finalist on ‘Australia’s Got Talent’ combing her drag and musical theatre talents. She performed ‘Friend Like Me’ with her Tinny Teeny Tappers to wide acclaim. For her audition she performed ‘Anything Goes’ and restaged the number complete with her tappers as a memorable opening number at DIVA.
Minnie joined the worldwide hit RuPauls Drag Race, and it was clear she and RuPaul had great chemistry together. Minnie says of that time “It was great to be able to talk about our Sydney drag history and the queens who had gone before me on such a big stage.”
In 2018 she moved into the world of Cabaret with her one woman show ‘From Chorus Boy to Leading Lady’ which was the winner of ‘Best In Cabaret & Musical Theatre Award’ at the Sydney Fringe Festival. Minnie is currently working on a plan to bring her show back to the local community later this year.
Minnie’s latest main stage triumph is that as a headline vocalist for the successful Club Broadway events, where the crowd goes crazy for her kind of musical theatre magic.
Its certainly been a super duper career so far for this great star and I’m positive she will be welcomed to the DIVA Hall of Fame with the appropriate fanfare - congratulations Minnie Copper!