Meet Jade Jolie — The Drag Queen John Travolta Thought Was Taylor Swift (Oops!)
Adele Nazeem ain't got nothing on this.
Instagram There's always a lot of fanfare when Taylor Swift releases a new album, and her seventh studio release, Lover, is no exception. Fans are already going crazy for it, and her recent wins at the MTV Music Video Awards were proof that she's still a force to be reckoned with. So who is Jade Jolie and how does she factor into this? Jade Jolie is the drag persona of a man named Josh Green. He's a RuPaul alum who played Swift in her newest video, and Jade is so believable that John Travolta tried to give HER Taylor's award.
1. John Travolta Meets Jade
John Travolta has made a name for himself in the world of pop culture. He's a dancing blue-eyed Scientologist, and lately, he's added another distinctive personality trait to his roster: his tendency to bungle giving out awards at ceremonies. At the 2014 Academy Awards, Travolta infamously's pronounced Idina Menzel's name as "Adele Dazeem." His latest gaffe took place at the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards. What did he do this time? Hang on to your butts, y'all: he confused RuPaul Drag Race star Jade Jolie with actual pop diva, Taylor Swift, and the internet is having a field day.
2. Travolta's Big Blunder
This time, Travolta thought he was out of the woods. When Travolta and Queen Latifah took to the stage to announce the winner in the category of Music Video of the Year ee joked with Latifah saying that she should be the one reading the cards since he would doubtlessly mess stuff up. Even so, he managed to bungle. When Taylor Swift was announced as the winner for the video for her song "You Need To Calm Down," Travolta moved to hand the trophy to her...only it wasn't her. It was Jade Jolie to whom he tried to give the prize. Thankfully, the drag queen convinced him to simply give her a hug instead.
3. The Viewers React
As Travolta was trying to give Jade the award, Taylor Swift herself was actually not yet even making her way to the stage to accept it herself, she was still in the process of hugging the people gathered around her in the crowd. She may not have noticed that Travolta made this error, but the viewing public at home did and boy were they quick to scamper to Twitter and shared their incredulity: “JOHN TRAVOLTA THOUGHT JADE JOLIE WAS TAYLOR SWIFT AND HE WAS GIVING THE AWARD TO HER LMFAAAOOOO #VMAs,” Tweeted one. “Anyone else notice that John Travolta tried to hand the award to the drag queen version of Taylor Swift?!” Said another.
4. Who Is Jade Jolie?
It's not surprising that Jade handled the entire thing so well, she's a veteran and used to hanging out with big names. In addition to being one of many celebrity drag queens featured in Swift's award-winning video, she's also an alum of RuPaul's Drag Race. In Taylor's video, Jade is reunited with several other drag queens, including the queen of them all, RuPaul herself. Hysterically, in the music video, Jade Jolie is tasked with playing the drag version of Taylor Swift, making Travolta's mistake actually pretty understandable if his only exposure to either performer was quickly watching the video before the awards.
5. Taylor's Doing Good
Taylor herself hasn't made any sort of statement about the brief moment that was captured by cameras, but that makes sense. In the grand scheme of things that happened to her that night, such a blunder is certainly small stuff. See, in addition to winning Video of the Year, Taylor also won in the category of Video for Good for "You Need To Calm Down." Taylor let her friend and co-executive video producer Todrick Hall speak for her upon the win: “If you’re a young child that’s out there watching this show who is different, who feels misunderstood,” he said. “We have never needed you more than now to share your art, share your stories, share your truth with the world no matter what you identify as, who you identify as, who you love. This is just such a beautiful place.”
6. How Taylor Opened the Show
But just because she was all over the place on the night of the awards, that doesn't mean that Taylor didn't let her own shine during the ceremony, too. She actually was the opening act at the awards show, performing two tracks from her newest album, Lover. Taylor showed just how wide her range truly is with both performance, giving full glamor and production value to her performance of "You Need To Calm Down" and then whipping out her acoustic guitar for a soulful rendering of the album's title track "Lover." It was certainly Taylor's night in some respects which is why she certainly wouldn't mind Jolie getting to soak up some of her shine.
Rebecca Jane Stokes is a writer living in Brooklyn, New York with her cats, Batman and Margot. She's an experienced generalist with a passion for lifestyle, geek news, pop culture, and true crime.