Rock music and electrifying, intricate lights combined for a dazzling show as attendees packed into Bovard Auditorium Saturday night. CHRISTEENE, along with special guests Peaches and Shannon Funchess (LIGHT ASYLUM), took USC by storm to perform their genre-defying concert “The Lion The Witch And The Cobra.” 

CHRISTEENE, the stage name of Paul Soileau, is a drag queen performer who has been active for nearly 15 years. CHRISTEENE is known for being political, and Saturday’s show was no exception. Interspersed between songs, CHRISTEENE would speak to the audience about the oppressiveness of the patriarchy, and ended the show with a call for a ceasefire. 

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Attendee Amy Rose Khoshbin said she liked the political messages throughout the event.

“Everything they were saying about patriarchy, religion, class, race,” Khoshbin said. “I was so glad that they said ‘ceasefire’ at the end because everyone’s talking around it these days, but to actually hear that you’re like, ‘Right on, yes!’ We just need so much more of that.”

The show was a performance of songs from famed Irish singer Sinéad O’Connor’s debut album, “The Lion and the Cobra,” released in 1987. During the show, CHRISTEENE said those songs are still relevant today, a statement echoed by audience members. 

“I was here for that political spirit as well as to hear CHRISTEENE’s take on Sinéad [O’Connor]’s art,” said attendee Chantelle Piper. 

The event was presented by USC’s Visions and Voices, and cosponsored by the Roski School of Art and Design and the Thornton School of Music. 

Daria Yudacufski, the executive director of Visions and Voices, said O’Connor’s recent passing last July made Saturday’s performance all the more important.

“This is about … a tribute to Sinéad [O’Connor],” Yudacufski said. “This idea of artists being able to express themselves and stand up for what they believe in and fight for social change and raise awareness about the world, about issues, through their art and not being silenced.”

CHRISTEENE first performed the show in London in September 2019. Saturday’s show was its U.S. premiere, with long lines to get inside the venue. Visions and Voices and CHRISTEENE’s team first started planning the event in fall of 2022, and they finalized the date of the performance in spring of 2023, according to Yudacufski. 

“We were approached by Tommy Kriegsmann from ArKtype — they are the creative producer of this show … to bring CHRISTEENE here for this project specifically,” Marie-Reine Velez, the assistant director of Visions and Voices, said. “They really loved working here and thought that this would be a good fit for the show.”  

Kriegsmann had worked with Visions of Voices to put on a different performance that occurred in 2022. 

CHRISTEENE performed the nine songs from O’Connor’s original album first, before ending with one of her own original songs in an encore, which was a highlight for attendee Ingrid Clayton, who had previously seen CHRISTEENE perform in another show in New York City. 

“It was very different than the one in New York … but this was amazing,” Clayton said. “I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I thought it was inspiring and empowering and super fun.”

The show featured creative lighting in combination with the music, being equally as important as the music. Whenever the music would get louder and more intense, the lighting would get brighter; whenever the music would get quieter, the lighting became nonexistent. During certain songs, spotlights would turn on above the stage, allowing the light to move around the room.

“I’m a performer. So to me, I’m like, ‘People take all that for granted,’” Khoshbin said. “The lighting matters, all the technical matters, the band of course [is] incredible … the performers, costumes, it’s all important.”

Throughout the show, CHRISTEENE would frequently also speak to the importance of Sinéad O’Connor and the enduring relevance of her work, something which audience members and organizers resonated with. 

“I think this was a beautiful way to pay tribute to Sinéad and remember her and the work and what she stood for and what she fought for,” Velez said.