The first queen out on RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 18 is a shocker. DD Fuego — one of the queens’ fans expected to go far — was the first to sashay away after the girl group challenge and a surprising lip sync against Mandy Mango.

Fuego told Blavity that despite what happened that day, it has been “the honor of my life” to be cast on RuPaul’s Drag Race.

“It is a thing that I’ve wanted for so many years,” she said. “I auditioned 10 times for it and once for the Mexico version, and it has always felt like a rite of passage, like a stamp of approval that was necessary to move myself to the next level of my career in drag. And so to be a part of it, be a part of the legacy of it, is a great honor. And then to be a part of a season with such seasoned queens makes it all the better.”

On competing with an older, more seasoned cast

This season’s queens are seasoned, indeed. Most of the cast are in their 30s — a far cry from Season 17, when Lexi Love, who is also in her 30s, was called “Grandma.”

“I was like, what is happening here with this?” Fuego said about Season 17’s age comments. “And even though we are not the oldest living drag queens, there is a different energy to just people in their 30s versus in their 20s. I mean, I love a drag queen in their 40s, 50s, 60s, and beyond. But I was glad to compete with people that had not started doing drag yesterday. …I thought I was gonna be the oldest one entering the season, and so I was very happily surprised that I was not.”

Speaking of the cast, Fuego said the queens have been “amazing,” adding, “To be creating these sisterly bonds has been such an honor and a great part of this whole process.”

But she said the group challenge led her to rely more on the other queens’ lead rather than her own intuition.

“But doing a group challenge right off the bat like that, without really getting to know anyone’s skillsets, you have to just believe what they tell you they can and cannot do. And you just have to believe the hype that surrounds them by the other people in the room,” she said. “So I’m like, I’ve never seen Athena Dion perform, but she is this legend in the room. Everyone’s saying, ‘She’s amazing.’ I was like, all right, let’s be led by Athena. And maybe that was not my best move because I could have said, ‘This is my resume, this is what I’ve done, and don’t you wanna hear what I have to say?’ But it felt like people were underestimating me. Well, I hope they don’t anymore.”

“I wish I would have stayed [in the game] and I was ready to do so,” she added.

On that lip sync and what’s next

The final lip sync between her and Mango didn’t turn out how she expected, especially given how their track records stacked up until then.

“I was shocked. I was completely shocked that I was told to sashay away in that moment. I could not believe it,” she said. “I did not think it [would happen]. I wasn’t ready to leave. I really felt I had so much to show and that, realistically speaking, what I had shown was not enough to make me stay. It was a complete shock to me. I think you can see it in my face. …I felt like I got this, I am feeling confident, and I hope that’s what people remember me by and that the shock that people feel makes people see more of me and they come find me at my shows and on social media, because all of the things I prepared for the show are still going to see the light of day.”

Fuego might have been first out, but she’s not without an immediate legacy post-Drag Race. She has a partnership with Betsey Johnson, including the shoes she wore for her entrance and promo.

“It is for sale right now, which is an amazing honor,” she said. “And just like that fashion collaboration, there are many more fashion collaborations to come. I worked with incredible designers for my Drag Race package, and these are designers that work with the best of the best — the pop stars of the day, [like] Chappell Roan, Shakira, Katseye, all the people, all the girls. I was honored to work with them. So to be able to share these collaborations with the world is something I’m very excited to do, in addition to, of course, meeting the people around the world at the shows that I’m getting booked for. And hopefully we’ll see everyone at the Emmys and we’ll take the Emmys back.”

‘Drag Race’ isn’t the destination, it’s the door

Fuego said that regardless of her placement, she is glad that Drag Race serves as a stepping stone to reach the world.

“A lot of people see Drag Race as the end goal, but the wiser, more established drag queens like the people in my season, we know Drag Race is the vessel to get what we want from the world — the door that opens toward the rest of our life, not the room that’s at the end of it,” she said. “I’m very excited to have my time on the show propel me to the start of my dreams coming true.”

RuPaul’s Drag Race airs Fridays on MTV.

DD Fuego

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