Michelle Visage names her favourite Drag Race performances of all time
Now this is a worthy list.
Words: Alastair James; pictures: BBC
Michelle Visage has given us her definitive list of the best performances from RuPaul’s Drag Race – and the long-time judge has picked some seriously strong contenders.
From Katya vs Kennedy Davenport to Brooke Lynn-Hytes vs Yvie Oddly, Michelle has picked THE best of the best, and we’d expect nothing less from Mama Ru’s right-hand woman.
Armed with a series of paddles with some iconic Drag Race phrases, Michelle provided commentary on what makes each performance so legendary during a recent interview with Glamour.
“Iconic”
First up Michelle reviews Kennedy Davenport and Katya’s lip-sync to Katy Perry’s ‘Roar’ from season 7 of the show. Rating Kennedy as a “dancing machine” Michelle’s pause before she says “and Katya as well” seems like a little bit of shade… Just us?
Explaining why it’s so legendary, Michelle says it’s a combination of the iconic queens, the Hello Kitty outfits, and the “battle of the… splits”.
She also lets us in on a secret (maybe?) in regard to Kennedy’s jump-split off the stage saying, “we don’t like that… but she jump-splitted off the stage, we like that.”
“This one gets a very strong, ‘Eat it’,” she concludes.
All Stars season 2’s ‘Read U, Wrote U’ – performed by Detox, get’s hailed as truly “iconic” and a “part of herstory” and ultimately ‘eleganza extrvaganza’
‘Sorry, Not Sorry’ as performed by Yvie Oddly and Brooke Lynn-Hytes on Season 11 is one of Michelle’s “all time faves” for Hytes’ “fierce” dancing as well as the way Yvie contorts herself throughout the performance.
Michelle laughs at the infamous GIF of herself which was borne out of Roxxxy Andrews and Alyssa Edwards’ lipsync to ‘Why My Hair’ in season 5, which followed THE original wig reveal from Roxxxy.
Roxxxy’s wig reveal, Michelle says, is why it’s such an iconic lip-sync. “We went bananas!”, she adds.
“This will be forevermore one of my top three favourites,” says Michelle in regard to Dida Ritz and The Princess’ lip-sync to ‘This Will Be (An Everlasting Love)’.
“The simplicity of what Dida did and the embodiment of the song, that’s what this lip sync is all about.”
Also celebrated is Sasha Velour and Shea Couleé’s season 9 finale lip-sync to Whitney Houston’s timeless classic ‘So Emotional’. Need we say more?!
Remembering her surprise at Sasha, a notoriously wigless queen, emerging for the showdown in a red curly wig, Michelle said she was “here for it, it just didn’t seem like Sasha”.
She continues: “Well guess what kids? It wasn’t. It was a hiding place. And of course, Shea kills every lip-sync so going up against Shea you had better have a plan and Sasha had a plan. And poor Shea because once this moment happened it was, like, eclipse, a total eclipse of the heart. And Shea is so fierce that’s hard to do.”
Wondering how not one rose petal fell out of the wig before the reveal, Michelle says the lip-sync was an “iconic moment in RuPaul’s Drag Race history”.
Another favourite for Michelle is Peppermint and Trinity Taylor’s lip-sync to Britney’s anthem ‘Stronger’ from the same series, gave us another strong reveal in the form of Peppermint’s wig and outfit reveal.
“Peppermint was amazing. Amazing! Peppermint came to slay and that’s what she did. She won this lip-sync. I think what went wrong for me was Trinity did her reveal too soon,” says Michelle.
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