Azis: The Bulgarian Beauty

Azis is a noted Bulgarian popstar and former deputy leader of Euroroma, Bulgaria's super-liberal gypsy party, and 21st greatest Bulgarian of all time. But it's not his amazing repertoire of perfect pop songs, or his politics that has me hooked, I'm more enchanted by his appearance.

This 33-year-old guy is trying to wipe out every form of gender with his atypical appearance. I have never laid my eyes on a man with such perfectly manicured nails. Combine this with his well-groomed platinum blond goatee and you have Azis Vasili Troyanov Boyanov Katsuras, in the flesh.

In the video for his slightly erotic song "Mrazish", Azis is frolicking around with some half-naked Bulgarian hardbodies, dressed in a simple but clean white wifebeater and matching boxers. While he's probably singing—in Bulgarian—about how horny hairy arms can get him, the focus is on Azis' fully primed and powdered face. I've seen corpses whose make-up was more subtle. Oh, and it doesn't stop here. Azis is wearing two huge diamond earrings and is licking his heavily lip-glossed lips while he's watching a piece of Bulgarian meat devouring a Magnum next to him. After this, we can see him squinting into the camera from underneath his long, faux-lashes. Now, don't get the wrong idea here: It's not like I’m obsessed with some high-class tranny that has the money to get a manicure. I mean, come on, I've watched RuPaul's Drag Race. Azis is more than that. He's not afraid to hold on to his—very masculine, dare I say—blonde goatee while rocking some Louboutins.

To put it simpler, Azis will not stop looking like a rather overweight, masculine Bulgarian that is capable of cracking an ATM-machine in a heartbeat. And he'd do it with a lovely French manicure. I could pretend that we're on the brink of some new, huge trend—slightly overweight eastern European guys with facial hair make up and high heels that are ruining sex and fashion for me. But that's all bull because this isn't just a trend, Azis has been around for years.

What I can do is explain why people are calling Azis "The Gaga of Gulag"—okay, I just made that up but I like the way it sounds. Azis is this beautiful gender hybrid in a country where gays can still be beaten half to death even if they so much think of a rainbow-colored flag. And despite that, this popstar with his pink furs, fake lashes, and particularly open sexuality, is huge over there. Too bad I couldn't really find anything about his presumably huge role in the Bulgarian fashion scene, so I decided to Google 'Azis' and 'fashion'. Here's what I found.

Victoria's Secret.

Here he’s is sporting the natural look because he’s playing an inmate—that still has highlights in his hair:

This last one is the absolute best.

CARMEN FELIX