Just between us squirrel friends, the search for America’s Next Drag Superstar is coming to an end, and a New York City queen has a 50% chance of snatching that crown.
After four months of epic reads, sickening death-drops, and wigs for days, the time has come for RuPaul to announce the winner of a history-making season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race.”
Shot entirely during the COVID-19 pandemic in Los Angeles, the 13th season of the Emmy-winning reality show premiered on Jan. 1 with 13 hopeful queens: four from New York City, two from Los Angeles, Chicago and Atlanta, and one from Las Vegas, Phoenix, Ariz., and Utica, Minnesota.
The Ru Year started with a bang, with record-high ratings and a gag-worthy twist: right off the bat, the girls had to lip-sync for their lives against a fellow racer to ensure their place in the competition — or end up in the “Porkchop loading dock,” and risk going home early.
But after a longer-than-usual run — and challenges that included a pageant of bag-inspired couture, an audience-less comedy roast, and (over) acting in the sci-fi adventure “Henny, I Shrunk the Drag Queens” — now it all comes down to an old rivalry: New York City vs. Los Angeles.
Of the four remaining queens — Rosé and Kandy Muse, who served NYC realness; and Simone and Gottmik, who slayed the runway with their LA magic — one of them is about to hear RuPaul’s famous words, “You’re a winner, baby.”
Glitter, glamour and grit aside, the road to the season finale was one of the hardest things the queens have ever had to do — but they would not want it any other way.
“There’s really no level of preparedness that can get you as ready as you need to be,” Rosé, 31, told the Daily News.
“You really have to be able to adapt and live in the moment,” added the uptown New York City girl, who was born in Scotland, grew up in Texas, went to school in Kansas, and today calls Hamilton Heights home.
Rosé, who was often called out by the judges for being too much of a “perfectionist,” is a “ruthless and relentless” competitor, according to judge extraordinaire Michelle Visage. She won three maxi challenges and was never in the dreaded “bottom two.”
The difficulty of the show was exactly what fellow New Yorker Kandy Muse found to be the most surprising aspect about the show.
“You always hear queens and people saying, ‘Oh, I would’ve done this, or I wouldn’t done that,’ but when you are actually on the set filming with everyone … it is just so hard,” said the loud-and-proud Dominican princess.
The 26-year-old Bronx native and current Brooklyn resident got into the season’s most epic behind-the-scenes drama, clashing with Atlanta-based queen Tamisha Iman.
Iman, a pageant queen veteran and old-school drag performer, told Muse that she had “some really nasty attitude,” during a heated argument that aired on episode six, “The Bag Ball.”
Tension rose, sparks flew, memes were born and Twitter talked — and not every comment was positive.
As the show went on, the world got to see a much softer side of Muse, who told The News that she tried not to read many comments on social media — which can sometimes be brutal.
“At the end of the day, we put ourselves in a position to be on a TV show to be critiqued not only by the judges but the fans and the world, so you cannot put people down for having an opinion,” she said.
“However, that doesn’t mean that people have the right to say nasty and negative things about you. But you can’t change that. At the end of the day you’re there for yourself and to make your dreams come true,” she added.
Still, Muse said that she “absolutely” wouldn’t change anything about her experience.
“I stand by everything that I said and did on the show. Every hit and miss leads to where I am now,” she said.
Rosé agreed. “I’m very proud of everything that I touched with this TV show,” she said. “I think it played out the way it was supposed to.”
Winning the show, commonly referred to in LGBTQ circles as “the Olympics of drag,” is naturally every contestant’s goal.
However, sometimes just being part of the process is enough to catapult small-town girls into powerhouse entertainers, who will go on to star in their own Netflix and HBO shows, build cosmetics empires or walk the runways at Paris fashion week — which is a phenomenon that this year’s queens have already been able to experience, even as opportunities have only begun to reappear, after the COVID-hiatus.
“Being on television, the demand for you goes up. So everything that comes along with that goes up as well,” said Muse, when asked about her post-show hiring rate.
“It’s definitely been a life-changing situation. Being recognized on the streets and all the social media buzz about you is a little bit insane, and kind of unreal,” she explained. “But it’s also good because you’ve worked so hard on your career for a long time for this moment. So it just feels correct.”
The show has changed Rosé""s life “for lots of different reasons,” but she also agreed that “there’s definitely a lot more glamorous opportunities being afforded to us now than before.”
“We’re very lucky that it’s working out in our favor the timing of the pandemic [which is] finishing,” she added.
The unusual conditions of filming during a global health crisis also led to a deep bond among contestants, the NYC queens said.
“There was more camaraderie, especially when we got to the end of the competition. We, the top four, are still all very, very close friends, and we speak every day — and I don’t know that’s always been the case,” said Rosé.
Muse, who became very close friends with finalist Gottmik — a Los Angeles-based queen who’s also the show’s first trans man contestant — agreed.
“It’s obviously a competition so there’s still going to be some drama here and there. However, because of the circumstances that we were put in, with the whole COVID situation and only having ourselves, it was definitely one of the closest cast that has been on the show.”
On Friday, another season of the pop culture phenomenon will come to an end — but that’s just the beginning for RuPaul’s newly-anointed superstars-in-the-making. May the best drag queen win!
The “RuPaul’s Drag Race” season 13 finale was pre-taped (both virtually and in person) at the Ace Hotel in Los Angeles in the last few weeks, but the final result is safely locked in the “Drag Race” volt.
The shows airs on Friday, April 23 at 8 p.m. ET on VH1.