Hail to the Kween! After
a fiercely competitive few weeks, RuPaul’s Drag Race has a new champion. Season
eight’s next drag superstar was crowned live in New York, and we were there to
talk to the winner.
Find out what she had to
say and dig in to our final rankings of the season in the SPOILER-filled recap
below!
The beauty of this Top 3
is that any one of them would be a worthy champion. Before Mama Ru made her
final decision, the last kweens standing came out and performed one of those
signature Lucian Piane numbers. These were written specifically for each gal,
and they were a bit more contemporary than, say, “The Bitch Ball,” or whatever.
The performances showcased each of these unique performers’ strengths (and was
a better use of time than devoting longer segments to the also-rans and early
eliminations). Miss Congeniality was awarded to the cuckoo with the cucu
Cynthia Lee Fontaine, but who took top prize?
Let’s break it down in
our rankings.
1. Too bad literally
every single “purse first!” joke has already been made. Oh well! This season’s
breakout star and clear frontrunner Bobfinally secured the
title. No shocker there. As strong as her competitors were, there’s no question
Bob’s performances radiated the most star power. Even his performance tonight
of the Piane-penned “I Don’t Like To Show Off” felt much fresher and more
funny than the material she was working with. Her win was well deserved.
We grabbed a few moments
of our champion’s time for a couple of quick questions:
Towleroad: Hi! My name’s
Bobby, I write for Towleroad.
Bob: Bobby?! That’s a
girl’s name!
You’ve been such a super
fan of the show coming in, what’s surprised you most about the experience?
It’s harder work than I
thought it would be. It’s very hard work.
Did it give you more
respect for past queens?
Absolutely! I don’t judge
queens based on what they did on the show now. Sometimes, if they came out
looking crazy, they did their best up until that point.
If you could go back and
do anything different from this season, what would you do?
Maybe I wouldn’t have
worn leggings during the last episode. Besides that, I’m pretty happy with
myself.
Is there any reaction you
saw from the audience that surprised you?
I didn’t think the purse
thing would go over so well. It’s a whole thing. Even Anna Kendrick was doing purse first at the Met Gala.
I didn’t think it’d be such a big deal.
I call Laila my little
nugget. I love her. She’s the tiniest, littlest, cutest. She’s so funny. She
wasn’t on the show very long, but she’s really funny. She’s a brilliant make-up
artist. She’s got a great mind for visuals. She’s actually an artist, she draws
and does really great renderings that are really stylized. I just love her.
She’s great. I also have another project coming out called Queen of the
People. It’s my stand-up comedy documentary special.
Well, Bianca just had her special on Logo.
Who?
2. Look, more than
300,000 Instagram followers can’t be wrong. Kim Chi’s perfect
balance of flawless presentation and underdog spirit endeared the Korean kween
to tons of fans. Every single look Kim served was extraordinary this season,
even if her dancing and walking and really anything that involved being in any
sort of motion was a total disaster. Her dance routine to “Fat, Fem
& Asian” played off Kim’s dancing discomfort with limited mobility.
Kim’s a star no matter what, and I think her drag has introduced a level of
artistry that we will see reverberate for seasons to come.
3. Naomi’s
placement at the bottom of this list is by no means a sign of failure. Third
place in this crew is still really, really high praise. This season’s youngest
queen had one of the sharpest, most refined points of view ever in Drag
Race herstory. I think Lucian saddled Naomi with the
laziest track to perform to tonight, but Naomi still served some
strut strong enough to generate its own aftershocks. I think Naomi really
could cross-over into the fashion world. If not into mainstream mags, at least
into some cool, edgy, alt editorial.
Still want more?
No comments:
Post a Comment