Jane McDonald is “thrilled to be bits” to have been named the winner of Entertainment Daily’s National Treasure Award.
The full results of the Entertainment Daily Awards 2022 have been announced today (December 28), with Jane’s loyal army of fans helping her to end the year on a high.
And she had a special message for the fans who propelled her to victory.
Jane McDonald wins ED!’s National Treasure Award
“There’s a lot of things that I fail miserably at,” she joked, when we informed her that she’d beaten the likes of Sir David Attenborough and Paul O’Grady to scoop the ED! Awards honour.
“But when something like this happens you just think, oh, that’s wonderful.
“So I’m absolutely thrilled and want to thank everyone for taking the time to vote.”
When the nominations for the category were first announced at the start of November, Jane’s legion of fans were immediately mobilised in to action online, spreading the word that their queen was in the running to scoop the National Treasure Award.
Not that we were surprised.
As Jane tells us, the devotion shown to her by her fans over the years has been astonishing.
Jane sends special message to her fans
Not only have they watched her TV travelogues in their droves and snapped up tickets for her live shows, they have showered her with unconditional love during the tough times in her life.
“I owe them a great deal,” she told us about the shows she performed following her fiancé Ed Rothe’s tragic death.
“They really did get me through a very difficult time in my life.”
Jane can’t quite put her finger on why she captivates her fans, but thinks it could be her general positivity that enthrals them.
Whatever it is she is grateful for the bond they share, and it’s one she very much encourages.
They really did get me through a very difficult time in my life.
“I genuinely care about them. I genuinely love them and I think you have to love your fans to get that love back,” she gushed.
“My mother always said you give out what you get back. And hope I give out as much as they give me.”
And it would appear they do as they as they sell out her shows.
“Their devotion is that they come to watch me and that they turn up to my concerts,” she said.
“That is all the devotion that I need from them, really. I get letters from them too and I know them all.”
‘I can’t do it any more’
However, with the pandemic causing havoc with health and safety measures during her tours and the volume of people turning up at her shows, Jane said it’s become harder for her to enjoy as much one-on-one time with her fans as she used to.
“I can’t do Stage Door any more now because it got to the point where it was longer than the concert,” she laughed.
“So I had to stop doing that because I can’t just say ‘hi, thank you very much’, and go. I’ve gotta say ‘hello. How are you, how’s your daughter? And how’s your mum?’
“I’m just the worst person to be at a stage door because I want to know too much about them. I did the stage door for years, but with Covid and everything else, we’ve had to change what we do a bit more now.”
Jane McDonald looks ahead to 2023
So what does 2023 hold for Jane?
Well, for most of next year she is away filming her travel shows for Channel 5 before having some time off.
But she says she would “absolutely love” to be a guest judge on one of her favourite programmes – RuPaul’s Drag Race UK.
“I think it’s the best thing that’s hit TV, because it’s brought a complete new genre into our industry, which has been given the light it should have had for an awful long time,” she said.
“I just love it and I get a lot of my hairstyles and make-up tips from the show and I look at the queens sometimes and think, oh my God, that’s me.
“I’ve got the big hair. I love the shoulder pads, I love all that. I might do a bit of padding myself.
“I’ve always said, if I wasn’t a woman, I’d be a man in drag. Absolutely. I love being camp. That’s the whole thing! We’re in show business for goodness sake.
“I love to bring that camp-ness to it – that’s just how I am,” she concluded.
Read more: Jane McDonald reveals reason she won’t leave a penny after her death
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