Gloria Swansong

'Social media votes' meaning my friends who have watched two seasons fully and have come to love our community?

Gloria Swansong was the winner of the third season of Reddit's Lipsync for your Life. She is best known for her theatrical sense of stage presence, public lipsyncs, her intricate handmade costumes and her love of classic icons such as Judy Garland and Little Edie. Gloria has been involved in a lot of controversy in the lsfyl community, which culminated in her deleting her account and permanently disassociating herself from the community in 2017.

## Records

 Challenge Wins
 Challenge Highs
 Week Eliminated

## Controversy

### All-Star Makeover

After winning the Lady Gaga off-season challenge during her reigning year, Gloria hosted a challenge of her own, which was known as the 'All-Star Makeover', in which she recruited LSFYL alum to mentor relative newcomers and help them produce a reworked and improved version of a song they'd already done. There was a dispute when Gloria decided to include herself as a mentor, which several cited as a conflict of interest. S2's Dor Panthera debated with Gloria over Reddit after being overlooked as an all star, stating that it was unfair for her to include herself over the other alum, and that it "speaks volumes" in regards to her character (Ironically, Dor would later go on to become the first winner of an All Stars Season). While Gloria had claimed she had opted to take on the role because not enough alumni had volunteered, it was later revealed that many alum did in fact audition and did not get on. Eventually Gloria agreed to step down from her mentor role and stick to just being the challenge host.

### Solidarity Week

A number of decisions made by Gloria while hosting the fourth season of lsfyl were met with disapproval and hostility. After the 2016 Pulse Orlando attack, Gloria decided to scrap the original 3rd theme and, instead, ask the contestants to make tribute videos for what became 'Solidarity Week'. Several community members were deeply affected by this incident, and struggled to face making a video. While some were comfortable with this theme, and felt making these videos were positive gestures, the subreddit was unanimous in their view that voting should be withheld, citing that it was inappropriate and 'rating people's grieving'. Gloria persisted in encouraging votes, saying that she didn't want people to be unhappy with the results. In the end, there was an apparent tie for last place, and no-one was eliminated, though it is speculated that this was done to appease the large majority who were against voting this week.

### Gloria Swansong Week and Fast Rap

Another controversial moment occurred in the 8th week of S4, which was Gloria Swansong Week. Originally conceived as a public lipsyncing challenge, when the theme came to fruition it was presented as a week in which the top 8 competitors had to evoke Gloria's 'oevre of work' in some aspect(s) of their videos. This idea was widely viewed as vain and egoistic, and some cast members were less than enthused with the idea. Contestants were simultaneously asked to submit 'reading' videos, in accordance with a long-running community tradition, which were to be judged by Gloria and not subject to public vote. When contestants Toni A Ward and Letha Lynn Jecktion were double-eliminated, it was regarded as suspicious as neither made a reading video and, in the results thread, a quickly-deleted comment from Gloria contained the message 'it's obvious that neither of you liked this theme much'. Toni Has since stated that she didn't put much effort into her sync, instead concentrating on her work for TDR All Stars 2, and that she felt she deserved to go, but Letha didn't.

The following week was fast rap week, which many regard as the technical climax of each season, presenting a difficult precision challenge for syncers. As the previous week had been a double-elimination, Gloria announced that this one would have no elimination. Several criticised this decision, citing that it 'removed the challenge from the most challenging theme' and that contestants may be less inclined to push themselves knowing that they would be going through to the next week regardless. Indeed, Calypso Overkill's sync seemed to exhibit this lack of threat, with her song choice being neither 'fast' or 'rap'. It was also stated that even if it was going to be a none-elimination, this information would have been better withheld in order to push the lipsyncers to rise to the challenge and not become complacent.

### All Stars 1 Finale

As one of the hosts of the first All Stars season, Gloria had agreed to contribute some video segments to the finale, which was originally going to address each of the 12 contestants rather than just the top 5. However, even after being the first to choose the 3 all stars she would address, Gloria failed to respond to persistent messages and eventually stated that she would not be creating any videos, due to being busy. Because of this, the All Stars 1 finale was cut down majorly, and Ariel had to film a last-minute message for Zoomyx, who was one of Gloria's chosen contestants, even though she was in the middle of moving.

### Season 5 Guest Judging

Gloria was asked to be the guest judge for the fourth week of s5, which was Songs from a Hat. She was initially very enthusiastic about this, and offered to 'reprise her role of Maria Von Trapp' akin to her s4 presentation of this theme, getting members of the public to select the songs at random. Marcella agreed to this, but when a video was produced, it was instead Gloria (not in character as Maria Von Trapp) in a dressing room with only fellow New York queen Gilda Rabbit selecting the songs from a plastic bag.

When the weeks votes had concluded and there was still no judging video from Gloria, Marcella asked her if there was still one on the way. Her reply was that she didn't want to film any more, fearing everyone would 'tear her apart' and that no-one wants her critiques anyway. Marcella was frustrated at this as, regardless of her current feelings, Gloria had made a commitment and then gone back on her word. Gloria's response was that Marcella wasn't listening to her and didn't care, and after a few more exchanges (all of Marcella's being very apologetic and clearly attempting to understand and make amends, as receipts will show), Gloria exclaimed that she was done and swiftly deleted her reddit account.

Soon after, she posted a status on facebook about disassociating herself from the 'garbage people' of the world. She was subsequently banned from the discord, and s3 contestant TheLetterGii, who had left the subreddit in response to Gloria's treatment of her during s3, made a return to the community.

## Trivia

* Gloria's earliest involvement with r/lsfyl can be traced back to s2, where a youtube account bearing her name commented on Harper Valley's Slow Song video, questioning whether it qualified as a 'slow song'.
* After hosting s4, Gloria went on to compete in the 7th season of Paige Turner's 'So You Think You Can Drag', lipsyncing for her legacy 4 times and eventually placing as first runner-up.

## Quotes

* "I'm just pointing out that many of my friends who love you guys wouldn't have wandered here if I didn't share what goes on here on social media. What I take away from this is a strong 'anti-social media sharing' conversation. Making this place a walled garden. Imo, people who watch faithfully should be able to vote. They shouldn't have to be an active member of the sub, because that's how we get active members! Fishy voting happens, and it's up to the host to spot suspicious behavior"
* "This week's winner... is none other than that ~Motor-Mouth Maven~... (insert winner's name here)"
* "You should vote"