I've been performing my whole life. My mom signed me up for a theater program when I was five - I was the evil queen in 'Once Upon a Mattress.'
I was happy to be in England because my mother had always loved the royals, and so do I. My mother had every memento you could find on the Queen.
I am proud to be called the Queen of Mean, and I never mince my words - especially when it comes to fat people.
In Barcelona, things seem so different. For example, I know that it's traditionally the least Spanish city, but you'd never know they had a monarchy, coming here as a tourist - as opposed to the U.K., where the Queen is probably the best-known animal, vegetable and/or mineral going when it comes to overseas visitors.
As the Supreme Governor of the Church of England, the Queen feels she cannot be seen to smile in church - and her natural reaction is to combat mirth by putting on a stern face.
The requirement upon the sovereign to 'advise, encourage, and warn' means that the Queen must be well informed. The weekly audience with the Prime Minister is not to discuss the weather but to talk about the most pressing problems facing the nation. An ill-informed monarch cannot do that and would fail in a key constitutional task.
If pushed to say what I like about Elizabeth, who, as I'm sure most of you know, overtook Queen Victoria this week to become our longest-serving monarch, it would be her uncomplaining, getting-on-with-it ethic.
When I think about people like Queen Latifah, who literally found a script for me to star in, that's what I want to be for somebody. When you look at someone like Queen Latifah, or you think about the Will Smiths, those people are multifaceted. They do so many different things, but most important, they give back.
I'll do manicures, but I won't wear nail polish because I don't have time to change it, and I chip my nail polish so quickly. I cannot last three days! I think it's the typing and the use - or overuse - of tech. I'm the chip queen!
Queen Latifah used to help me out with my kids, because while we were all out on tour - Public Enemy, Naughty By Nature, Queen Latifah, Heavy D - when Public Enemy went onstage, I didn't have anybody solid to watch my kids. So, Latifah would help me out.
Ever since Sushmita Sen and Aishwarya Rai made headlines, every other girl in India wants to be a beauty queen. I was no exception.
At the moment the Queen stuff does sell really well, but there's no guarantee it'll go on forever.
My favorite thing about the Ultimate Queen Celebration is that we're not afraid to explore a non-traditional Queen set list.
Queen songs are not about the life of a rock star - they tend to be about the lives of normal people, which is why I think the songs connect so much. We're very lucky that they seemingly connect with every generation.
Queen's University flies the flag for the arts in Northern Ireland and beyond.
My mom choreographed the top Olympians; she's really the queen of ice in her world, so I kind of get my directorial bug from her because she's really good at telling people what to do!
When The Queen invited the Olympians to the Palace, I was first in line to speak to her. She said she watched the Games and how happy she was, how impressed she was with the boxing. She told me she'd watched my fight and enjoyed it. I didn't realise the effect I'd had on the whole country.
'La Lupe' is my passion project. I've done it as a one-woman show, but I'm raising money to turn it into a film. It's a story of a Cuban singer who became the Queen of Latin Soul, the first woman on the N.Y. salsa scene.
For complicated historical and political reasons, we associate 'poor' in our public consciousness with 'black.' Terms such as 'welfare queen' and 'culture of poverty' became associated uniquely with the social maladies of African Americans in urban ghettos, despite the fact that poor whites outnumbered poor blacks.
I liken the Queen thing to being in a worship service. Everyone comes having grown up with this music. It's in their blood, in their souls. Every night, it's always a huge standing ovation.
