Kimora Amour

Justin Baird, also known under the stage name Kimora Amour, is a Canadian drag queen, nurse, costume designer, and television personality best known as a competitor in the second season of Canada's Drag Race,[1] and the ninth season of The Amazing Race Canada.[2]

Kimora Amour
Kimora Amour at RuPaul's DragCon LA, 2022
Born
Justin Baird
NationalityCanadian
OccupationDrag queen

Background

Justin Baird, of Guyanese descent, is father to a son, and lives in the Scarborough district of Toronto, Ontario.[1] He works as a nurse in a pain management clinic, and has been a costume designer for Caribbean Carnival events such as Caribana.[1]

He has been a close friend of fellow Canada's Drag Race contestant Jermaine Aranha, better known as Anastarzia Anaquway, ever since they first met at a ball.[1] Kimora Amour has competed in various drag pageants, winning titles such as Ms. Opulence and Miss Trillium.

Career

Kimora Amour

In 2021, Baird was a contestant on the Canada's Drag Race season 2 under the stage name Kimora Amour. On the show, Kimora Amour received special praise for a look she wore during the "Sinner's Ball" episode; given the runway prompt "Ugly as Sin", she chose to portray the ugly horrors of slavery by dressing as an enslaved woman, who eventually breaks her chains and runs toward freedom.[3] For the first time in the history of the entire RuPaul's Drag Race franchise, the runway was presented with no comedic interjections from the judging panel, and was framed by brief fades to black upon both her entrance to and exit from the stage.[1] The look was designed by Baird and Aranha.[4]

After a poor showing in the "Roast of Brooke Lynn Hytes" episode, she was eliminated from the competition after giving a bizarre Lip Sync for Your Life performance; disliking the song and feeling checked out of the competition, she spent most of the lip sync stalking and hovering over opponent Gia Metric like an "annoying bird".[5] She later attributed her poor performance in the roast episode to the lingering emotional intensity of having done the slavery runway the previous week, which left her struggling to perform at her best in either the main challenge or the lip sync.[6]

In 2022, Kimora Amour was a judge on the CBX: Canadian Ballroom Extravaganza competition web series. In the same year, she raised allegations of racially insensitive behaviour among several Drag Race queens on Twitter, although the most widely publicized allegation was that first season CDR competitor and Drag Race Belgique host Rita Baga had once done a blackface number impersonating actress and singer Amber Riley.[7]

In 2023, Kimora Amour was one of the participants, alongside fellow CDR alumni Icesis Couture and Suki Doll, in Courage Across Canada, a speaking tour in which the CDR queens spoke to high school students about bullying and homophobia.[8]

The Amazing Race Canada

Justin Baird and his friend Jermaine Aranha competed as a team on the ninth season of The Amazing Race Canada.[9][2] The team was eliminated in Saguenay, Quebec, becoming the sixth team to be eliminated in the season.[10][11] The duo wanted to serve as an inspiration for other LGBTQ people.[12]

Filmography
Television
Year Title Role Notes
2021 Canada's Drag Race Himself Contestant; season 2
2023 The Amazing Race Canada Himself Contestant; season 9

References
  1. Kevin Ritchie, "Canada’s Drag Race: Kimora Amour on Carnival, Canadian media and that weird-ass lip sync" Archived 2022-10-04 at the Wayback Machine. Now, November 27, 2021.
  2. "Paralympian, other advocates set to hit the road for 'The Amazing Race Canada'". Toronto Star. June 21, 2023. Archived from the original on September 24, 2023. Retrieved June 21, 2023.
  3. Monique Jones, "'Drag Race' Contestant Portrays Enslaved Woman In Powerful Runway Statement: 'Thank You Kimora'" Archived 2023-01-30 at the Wayback Machine. Shadow and Act, November 22, 2021.
  4. Amanda Scriver, "What goes into designing a runway look for Canada's Drag Race?" Archived 2022-10-21 at the Wayback Machine. CBC Arts, December 21, 2021.
  5. Sabrina Barr, "Canada’s Drag Race season 2: Eliminated queen Kimora Amour ‘disappointed’ by fan response as she hoped to be ‘more well received’" Archived 2022-09-02 at the Wayback Machine. Metro, November 27, 2021.
  6. Monique Jones, "'Canada's Drag Race': Kimora Amour On Her Powerful Runway, Discrimination Within The Fandom And More" Archived 2022-12-03 at the Wayback Machine. Shadow and Act, December 9, 2021.
  7. Bernardo Sim, "Canada's Drag Race Star Rita Baga Addresses Blackface Accusations" Archived 2023-04-02 at the Wayback Machine. Out, November 7, 2022.
  8. Ian Campbell, "Student presentation in Sudbury to go ahead, despite board opposition" Archived 2023-03-28 at the Wayback Machine. CTV Northern Ontario, February 2, 2023.
  9. Hanna Petersen (July 10, 2023). "Amazing Race Canada to feature Smithers in newest season". Prince George Citizen. Archived from the original on July 12, 2023. Retrieved September 23, 2023.
  10. Pankaj Kumar (September 6, 2023). "Amazing Race Canada Elimination 2023 – Who went home tonight?". India-Brand. Archived from the original on September 24, 2023. Retrieved September 23, 2023.
  11. Elisabetta Bianchini (September 5, 2023). "From 'Canada's Drag Race' to 'Amazing Race Canada': Jermaine Aranha, Justin Baird have no regrets after elimination". Yahoo! News. Archived from the original on September 24, 2023. Retrieved September 23, 2023.
  12. "Paralympian, other advocates set to hit the road for 'The Amazing Race Canada'". Winnipeg Free Press. June 21, 2023. Archived from the original on June 28, 2023. Retrieved September 23, 2023.
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