Rejected ‘America’s Got Talent’ singer has spicy revenge message for Howie Mandel (exclusive)

Key Points

• New RuPaul’s Drag Race season 18 star Athena Dion previously auditioned for America’s Got Talent.

• After her glow-up, Athena reacts to Howie Mandel rejecting her “Spice Gurlz” audition.

• “America sure does have talent, and here it is!” Athena tells Entertainment Weekly.

Before she was a drag superstar, an industry legend, and a contestant on RuPaul’s Drag Race season 18, Athena Dion was just a Spice Girl — uh, one of the Spice Gurlz — a singing group that auditioned for Simon Cowell, Howie Mandel, Heidi Klum, and Scary Spice herself on America’s Got Talent in 2016.

On season 11 of the talent competition show, Athena and four other friends took the AGT stage as the Spice Gurlz, a drag-ified singing group also comprised of Sasha Lords, Nicole Halliwell, Calypso Monroe, and Nicole Saphire.

The group performed a rendition of “Spice Up Your Life” for the judges, with Mel B and Cowell giving their stamp of approval — though Klum and Mandel gave the girls a big, red X and blocked them from advancing past the audition rounds.

Now, as she prepares to take the world by storm on Drag Race season 18, the drag mother of season 16 star Morphine Love Dion has a special message for Mandel, as part of the new cast’s exclusive round of interviews with Entertainment Weekly: “Well, look at me now, hoe, honey! America sure does have talent, and here it is!”

Athena, who regularly performs in Miami and Mykonos, Greece, looks back on the moment as a comical misstep, but still celebrates that “Simon gave me a yes” after the group “buttered him up” in the process.

“We sang live, not well,” Athena says with a laugh, and also celebrates the fact that Mel B, a real Spice Girl, approved of their performance.

To be fair, though, she says, “I don’t think I would’ve given us the yes either. Looking back, I would’ve been like, that was terrible. I want it to be erased from the internet!”

“I mean, obviously I enjoyed it. Yeah, why the bloody hell did you buzz at the Spice Girls?” Mel B asked Mandel during the deliberations.

“I liked the performance and everything, it was just the track,” Mandel jabbed back at Mel B, who playfully slapped him on the arm over the quip.

Cowell then asked the group to sing a song acapella, and the group chose “Say You’ll Be There,” with the audience booing the interpretation.

“Can I be honest? In my opinion, that was better than the original,” Cowell joked. “Seriously, this is what the girls could’ve been like if they could sing. It’s amazing. After that, I’m going to say yes.”

After Cowell changed his vote to yes, Klum changed hers to no, with Mel B also choosing to advance the group.

The final vote came down to Mandel, who said, “I don’t know. I’m sorry, it’s a no. Sorry,” as the group walked off the stage.

Since her time on AGT, Athena has blossomed into a respected and successful drag artist, with her work even courting the attention of The View cohosts Ana Navarro and Sunny Hostin, who welcomed her as a guest to the show in 2024.

Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our EW Dispatch newsletter.

Additionally, Athena will compete against her own drag legacy on season 18, as her drag granddaughter, Juicy Love Dion, is on the cast, too.

“This show does expose you for who you are, whether you like it or not. You see a lot of my personality,” Athena previews of her run on the show. “There are some spirals, there’s some rawr, there’s some mothering, there’s me!”

RuPaul’s Drag Race season 18 debuts Friday, Jan. 2 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on MTV. Watch Athena and the rest of the new cast preview the new season in EW’s YouTube interviews with the cast above.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly