DRAG, YOU’RE IT
‘RuPaul’s’ finalists look back, winner to be named Friday night
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, and Utica, Minn.
But now it all comes down to an old rivalry: New York 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 L.A. magic — one of them is about to hear RuPaul’s famous words, “You’re a winner, baby.”
The champ will be revealed when the show airs Friday at 8 p.m. on VH1.
“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 behindthe-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.”
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” vault until the broadcast.