Frenchie Davis

Frenchie Davis first gained notice through her participation in the 2003 season of American Idol, later establishing herself as a Grammy-nominated Broadway performer and advocate for LGBTQ causes. Her Idol run ended abruptly when she was removed following the online surfacing of topless images. She entered the cast of Rent the same year and stayed through May 2007, delivering the prominent solo in “Seasons of Love” while also taking on the role of Joanne at various points. In 2008 she teamed with R&B vocalist Ruben Studdard—who had won the same Idol season that ejected Davis—for a national tour of Ain’t Misbehavin’, an endeavor that earned a 2009 Grammy nomination in the Best Musical Show Album category. That year she also lent her voice to Tony Moran’s track “You Are,” which reached number five on Billboard’s Hot Dance Club Play chart. After portraying the Fairy Godmother in a 2010 mounting of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella, she competed on the inaugural season of The Voice in 2011, placing fifth and touring with the other finalists. In 2012 Davis issued her first single, “Love’s Got a Hold on Me,” appeared in the stage production God Doesn’t Mean You Get to Live Forever, and publicly identified as bisexual. Throughout the remainder of the decade she balanced theatrical work, recording sessions, and LGBTQ activism. Her screen debut came in the 2014 comedy Dumbbells; the following year she posted a widely circulated cover of Fetty Wap’s “Trap Queen” and released her own single, “Stand (By Me).” In 2017 she played Henri in The View UpStairs, a musical centered on a 2010s fashion designer who restores a 1970s gay bar and discovers the stories of two eras of queer life. The original cast album appeared in the middle of that year.