WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD
Drag race is back and better than ever. The long-awaited spin-off ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs The World’ aired on BBC3 on Tuesday evening. Previous contestants from around the world will battle it out to become Queen of the Mothertucking World.
This season’s prize for the winning Queen is recording a duet with RuPaul herself; a percentage of profits from the song will be split between Children In Need and Comic Relief.
This season, the nine contestants stepping into the werk-room representing their home countries are…
Baga Chipz, who entered dressed in a whole Princess Diana getup, tiara and all. The current people’s princess, Baga, placed 3rd in the first season of the UK Drag race but has since stolen hearts across the UK for her humour.
Cheryl Hole, another Drag Race UK season one alumni. This comedy queen arrived in a hot pink leotard finished with a fur shawl, a little lacklustre but beautiful nevertheless.
Blu Hydrangea, the first Northern Irish Queen on Drag Race, first appeared on Drag Race UK season one. Her entrance outfit looked like a smurf had rolled around in neon paint, not awful but also not exactly spectacular.
From the US franchise, we had Jujubee, a seasoned queen and fan favourite who has appeared on US Season two, and All Stars season one and five, landing in the top three every time but never quite seizing the crown. Unfortunately, her entrance outfit for this new season didn’t particularly give the flair you’d expect of a legendary queen, but more like an auntie at a wedding.
We also welcomed the magnificent Monique Heart, from the US, whose facial expressions have already become meme-worthy. Monique appeared in season ten of the US Drag Race and again in All Stars season four. Entering the show, she opted for a purple metallic pant suit-dress (If that’s what it’s called?) and looked phenomenal, an iconic outfit for an iconic queen. Her hair and makeup were also on point.
From Canada’s Drag Race season one, the self-proclaimed “Sexy, big titted drag clown” Jimbo struts into the show dressed in a clown-esque jumpsuit that would make ABBA proud.
Lemon, our other Canadian Queen from season one, lit up the room when she arrived in her bright and beautiful yellow furry swing dress, accompanied by her staple yellow wig. Her face was set to perfection, and honestly, the whole outfit was to die for.
We greeted runner up Janey Jacke from Holland’s Drag Race, who looked fierce as she entered in a blue latex dominatrix bodysuit, paired expertly with a long blue wig and blue thigh-high latex heels.
Finally, from Thailand, Pangina Heals made her first debut as a contestant and had audiences GAGGED. Ever the pageant Queen, Pangina was dressed in an 80’s style white pageant dress, complete with shoulder pads, an 80’s blow out and a ‘Thailand’ sash.
The vibes within the contestants changed as soon as the US queens arrived, with them beginning to read other queens as soon as they started untucking.
The first episode hosted a talent show, in which most of the girls had predictable performances of singing, lip-syncing or dancing. Jimbo’s performance, though, left viewers and contestants tickled and confused. Dressed as some sort of pregnant Casper the friendly ghost knock-off, Jimbo proceeded to moan and groan around the stage with a little box with talent engraved on it. After opening the box to find it empty, Jimbo birthed lunch meat and started throwing it in the air to stick to her outfit, to the other contestants and to RuPaul. It was hard to tell if the performance was good or not. Nevertheless, it worked in her favour.
This weeks runway theme was ‘I’m a Winner, Baby!’, and we saw the queens cosplay as champions. The top two of the week were announced as Pangina and Jimbo, with Pangina beautifully swathed in a traditional silver Thai garment stitched with the Thai alphabet, and Jimbo dressed in a hauntingly beautiful black and white floor-length gown which resembled the Queen in a chessboard. In a turn of events, the top two queens had to lip-sync to save the bottom two Queens. This ended up being Janey and Lemon.
The final lip-sync was rather messy, with Pangina coming out on top due to her dancing skills. Jimbo was stiff and stomped around the stage with little grace or surprise, at one point knocking over Pangina. After winning, Pangina was awarded the first RuPeter badge of the season.
We, unfortunately, had to say goodbye to the lovely Lemon as RuPaul told her to sashay away after being Pangina’s pick to go home. As she said her goodbyes, we heard Jimbo say to his sister, “I’m so sorry, I wish I was a better dancer”, alluding to having chosen to keep her Canadian sister in the competition.
RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs The World is back next Tuesday at 9pm on BBC3. Catch up with this week episode on IPlayer.
BA (Hons) Film, Media and Journalism graduate. Freelance Journalist for Brig Newspaper and Entertainment Daily. Head of Social Media for Brig Newspaper.
Passionate about diversity, inclusion and representation.
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