Canada's Drag Race queen to heat up Montreal event
The smoke may have settled on Canada's first televised drag competition, but apparently, the competitive spirit of its contestants has not.
As fans know, Toronto-based performer Priyanka was crowned top queen in early September in the season finale of Canada's Drag Race. It was a win that came with $100,000, a year's worth of Hilton hotel stays and, of course, significant bragging rights.
Presumably, it will also make Priyanka the main attraction of Canada's Drag Race: Live at the DriveIn!, which comes to Montreal Sept. 29-Oct. 1. But runners-up Rita Baga and Scarlett Bobo will also be on hand. Fan favourites Lemon, Ilona Verley, BOA, Kiara, Tynomi Banks, Anastarzia Anaquway and Juice Boxx are expected to perform as well, although the lineup varies city to city. That's a lot of queens nipping at her heels.
So while Priyanka may be only a few weeks into her reign, she intends on being a fighting champion.
“I just want to show the audience why I'm the crowned queen,” says Priyanka. “It's interesting doing shows with Bobo and Rita and the other girls from the show because the competition is back on. You want to be the one girl who sends the audience home saying `Oh, Priyanka is the girl.' ”
This is not to say that the world of drag queens is cutthroat, but it is one that has long been driven by a healthy competitive spirit even when the performers are not officially competing. As part of Rupaul's Drag Race franchise, Canada's Drag Race made history in its first season by crowning Priyanka. She is the first winner of Indo-caribbean descent in the history of the franchise, which includes versions in Australia, Brazil, Chile, the Netherlands, Thailand and the U.K.
The win is even more impressive given the fact that Priyanka is relatively new to the scene, having made her shaky debut in 2017 on a tiny stage as part of Scarlett BoBo's Wednesday night open-stage showcase at a now-defunct club on Church Street in Toronto.
“There I was, there I was,” Priyanka says with a laugh. “I watch videos of it and I cringe: `Oh my God! Ewwww … who could love a child like that?' ”
Nevertheless, she rose through the ranks and eventually landed a spot on Canada's Drag Race, where she had an immediate impact this summer with her colourful costumes, campy humour, nods to her Indo-guyanese culture and audience-rallying “What's My Name?” catchphrase.
Priyanka was born Mark Suknanan in Whitby, Ont., and first entered the spotlight as the host of YTV'S flagship program The Zone and the web version of The Next Star. As a boy growing up in Ontario, the future Priyanka would spend his childhood singing into a hairbrush “with a piece of fabric tied around my neck.”
“I wanted to dance to pop songs and entertain people. When I first did it, back in July of 2017 looking like a mess in a wig, it felt right. It really did.”
While her performances continue to evolve, she doesn't really see Priyanka as a persona that she had to create from the ground up.
“Everybody is different,” she says. “I have so much feminine energy it's nice to have an outlet to give that energy to. I definitely don't think Mark and Priyanka are two different people, I think we're the same person.