May I Have Some More Jasmine Rice, Please?

My first taste of Jasmine Rice was during the recent Mr Vallarta beefcake beauty pageant at Coco Cabaret. A couple of drag queens entertained as the contestants changed into their outfits for the next round. I wasn’t paying attention until I glanced at the stage and saw this gorgeous vision. The dress was absolutely stunning, as was the woman in the backless green, black, and orange swirly-patterned gown with matching gloves. Jasmine jokes during her show that she makes her clothes like a ”good Asian factory worker.” I told her, after the Mr Vallarta pageant was over, that she only had to stand in the spotlight in that dress, be a star, and not even need to open her mouth.

But open it, she did, and a version of ”O Sole Mio” worthy of Luciano Pavarotti flew out and knocked my socks off!

I love opera and rarely hear it in Vallarta, so before I left Coco Cabaret that evening, I reserved a seat for Jasmine Rice’s next show. The following day, I was at Open Mic and watched a tall woman with long hair chatting to Bing Young, a local pianist who would accompany her. It didn’t hit me immediately that this wild-haired woman, dressed in sheer black pants and a matching top, was Jasmine. Her introduction cleared that up and mentioned that she reached the finals of Britain’s Got Talent with a Golden Buzzer (and came in sixth).

I had to wait three more days until showtime! I so hoped to see that dress again, but instead was treated to red sequins attached to a hundred miles of red tulle and a blue sequined gown with a train that went on forever. And that wild hair was swept up, neatly pasted, and pinned to the top of her head.

And the voice. So many layers with Pavarotti on top, with Maria Callas’s sultry Carmen low notes woven through. Gorgeous!

One of my favorite songs is from the musical ‘The Greatest Showman.’ ”Never Enough” requires a huge range of notes, from about as low as a woman’s voice can go to as high as Dimash’s. Jasmine met Loren Allred, the woman who sang the song in the movie, in a bar in England. The two of them apparently sang that song together that night, and she encouraged Jasmine to sing ”Never Enough” on Britain’s Got Talent, and she did.

The biggest acid test for any tenor is ”Nessun dorma” from Puccini’s Turandot. This incredibly difficult aria soared from Jasmine to its triumphant coda, ”Vincero! I will win.” Yes, you will, girl, From Here.