Headline: Dolly Parton Once Entered a Dolly Look-Alike Contest in Disguise, and Lost
The late country legend loved telling the story of the night she competed against her own impersonators and got the weakest applause of the evening.
Dolly Parton Once Entered a Dolly Look-Alike Contest in Disguise, and Lost
Few stars have ever been as instantly recognizable as Dolly Parton. The towering blonde hair, the rhinestones, the beauty mark and the famous figure made her one of the most imitated entertainers in the world. So it may be surprising that when the real Dolly once competed against her own impersonators, she didn’t win.
It became one of her favorite stories, and since her death in August 2026, fans have been sharing it again as a reminder of the humor that made her so beloved.
A Whim in West Hollywood
Parton kept a home in the Los Angeles area for years, and according to her own telling, a look-alike contest was being held at a gay bar on Santa Monica Boulevard, just up the street from where she was staying. Plenty of drag performers had signed up to appear as famous divas that year, with a large number dressed as Cher and as Dolly herself.
Parton decided it would be funny to join them.
Rather than simply showing up as herself, she went further. She exaggerated her own signature look, teasing her hair even higher, making her eyes more dramatic and drawing on a bigger beauty mark. Then, without telling anyone who she really was, she took a number and got in line with the other contestants.
The Crowd Had No Idea
The other performers had spent weeks, even months, perfecting their costumes. When Parton walked across the stage, the audience didn’t recognize her. She later said people seemed to assume she was just a small, short man in a Dolly costume, which, at barely five feet tall, she could easily pass for among contestants in towering heels.
The result: she received the least applause of anyone in the lineup.
Parton said she was laughing to herself the entire time. She even recalled that the faint bit of clapping she did get was probably from her own hairdresser.
A Story She Never Stopped Telling
Parton wrote about the contest in her 2012 book Dream More and retold it for years in interviews and on talk shows. She often finished it with a joke that it was a good thing she was born a woman, or she would have been a drag queen.
The story captured what fans loved most about her: a star who never took herself too seriously, who happily poked fun at her own larger-than-life image, and who shared a long, warm connection with the LGBTQ+ community that embraced her.
She lost a contest to look like herself. And in true Dolly fashion, she turned it into one of the best stories of her life.
Source: American Songwriter
