Words: Will Stroude
Rumours as to who’ll be returning to the workroom for another shot at the crown on RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 4 have been rife for months now, but it looks like our first queen has been confirmed – albeit accidentally.
Fan favourite Valentina, who finished seventh on season nine of the the VH1 drag competiion last year, had her All Star status confirmed on Monday (30 October) as it was announced that she’ll be playing the role of Angel in Fox’s live musical of Rent.
In an apparent slip that’ll no doubt have Mama Ru releasing the hounds on the Fox publicity team, the press release accompanying the announcement revealed that Valentina would be returning for All Stars, 18 months after her infamous elimination.
Also lmao at Valentina’s press release bio confirming All Stars 4 casting pic.twitter.com/4U6ji2sRZ4
— Ryan McPhee (@rdmcphee) October 29, 2018
The Californian queen, real name James Andrew Leyva, had won praise from judges and fans during her run on the series, before being asked to sashay away for not knowing her lyrics to a lipsync of Ariana Grande’s ‘Greedy’ after initially asking to keep a mask covering her mouth on.
The 27-year-old was later voted the season nine’s Miss Congeniality by viewers – a title which was announced during a fiery reunion show in which she was branded unfriendly and told by her fellow contestants that the award amounted to nothing more than “fan favourite”. Ouch.
Valentina will certainly have a point to prove when she returns for All Stars, and from what we’ve heard on the grapevine, she’s set to be joined by at least one of the former season nine castmates who stuck the knife in during that reunion.
There’s still no word on when All Stars 4 will air, but RuPaul teased during a DragCon panel last month that “it’s gonna be sooner than you think”.
Given that All Stars 3 premiered in January of this year, we’d imagine the fourth edition wouldn’t premiere before the same point in 2019, but as we all know, the best drag performers love a surprise reveal…