The queens of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK Season 7 are feeling the excitement of joining the pantheon of UK Drag Race queens.
“It was so surreal, especially because [I have] only done drag for such a short amount of time,” Nyongbella told Blavity’s Shadow and Act during our cast interview at the top of the season. “It was very kind of crazy to be like, ‘Oh my God, I auditioned for Drag Race and I got on and I’m here and I’m doing it.’ It’s like, ‘Woah,’ but it feels correct as well. I was like, ‘Why would I not do it?'”
Chai T Grande agreed, saying, “ I mean, not to sound so British, but it’s just so bloody cool.”
“Like, to be such a fan of Drag Race and to have watched it from behind the screen, you know, for so many years beyond just the UK season, to be there in the TV is absolutely like out of body experience,” she said. “And like the girls have said, there are so many fantastic stages for drag, but Drag Race happens to just be, you know, one of the biggest with, and it kind of opens so many doors. It’s also really humbling at the same time to finally kind of see us on the big screen.”
Bonnie Ann Clyde, the first queen from the Republic of Ireland competing on RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, also said how the series “has changed the landscape of drag in the UK.”
“It’s made it a lot more accessible, I think, for certain people to get involved in,” she said. “It’s increased the popularity of it and I think like what the girls were saying is the, it’s on another level now, like it really is. We, it’s up the ante across the board, which is, which is a good thing and a bad thing for, for certain people because I feel like drag in a way used to be like so much fun to do. You could just throw on whatever dress. And I think now there’s a standard that a lot of girls have to kind of think they have to achieve to be able to do drag in the real world.”
“Even just now, I think we’re changing a little bit more of the landscape again, because I think everyone in this cast is such a unique and like diverse way of approaching their drag,” she added. “I’m representing a whole new country which has never been seen on, on a Drag Race franchise before, which is, which is similar to UK drag, but the Irish drag scene is, is, is quite different just from its perspective and its roots and all that stuff. So I’m excited for the world to see a bit of Irish drag, uh, a bit more Irish drag on the global stage.”
Nyongbella also said how the UK drag scene has changed thanks to RuPaul’s Drag Race UK.
“I feel like the, um, having Drag Race has really kind of like helped shape a lot of the UK drag in a sense. Whereas like now, it’s a lot more altered and it’s a lot more, it maintains the British like charm, the wittiness and like the fun and not take yourself too seriously, but we are gonna be cheeky and be whatever,” she said. “And I also still do like a really fab lip sync or like do a really fab, like vocal number and everything. And I think it’s really great to see like the two worlds kind of collide and merge and be what it is today, for sure.”
Watch the interviews with the full cast above.. RuPaul’s Drag Race UK is now streaming Thursdays on WOW Presents Plus.