Drag Race UK star says ‘personal’ chat show challenge elimination felt ‘bitchy’
Date: 2024-10-25
The latest queen to sashay away of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK has said that her elimination after a chat show challenge was “bitchy” – and why she thinks she knows who RuPaul’s favourite queens were.
Warning: Sickening spoilers ahead for episode 5 of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK
Three queens have already sashayed away from Drag Race UK‘s sixth season, with Saki Yew being taken out by a shower, Dita Garbo failing to impress judges in the season’s first acting challenge and Zahirah Zapanta sashaying away in last week’s Hallowe’en Ghoul Group challenge.
In episode five, the remaining queens were challenged with a chat show appearance on a Drag Race-ified version of The Graham Norton Show.
While La Voix snatched her first win of the season, it was the iconic Kiki Snatch who landed in the bottom against Actavia, and eventually sashayed away after lip-syncing to guest judge David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance”
Speaking to PinkNews following her elimination, Kiki unpacks the challenge’s unique nature, why she thought her elimination was “bitchy”, and why she thinks she knows who was – and who wasn’t – RuPaul’s favourite.
To recap, this week’s challenge was essentially ‘be yourself’ while on a chat show sofa with, in Kiki’s case, four fellow competitors. Get your jokes in right, tell your stories and play off the other guests, who here were La Voix, Kyran Thrax, Marmalade and Lill.
In Kiki’s critiques, however, RuPaul told her that her appearance was “performative”, adding, “it could have used a bit more humanity.”
That, to the St. Lucian star, was not a kiki. “It’s a bit bitchy,” she says, “because you’re judging me, for me being me! How dare you, you ain’t my mother! The only woman who can judge me.
“Judging a runway? Sure. You’re judging the outfit, how you walk down it, yeah. Or a lip-sync, or a girl group or an acting challenge. But to judge someone on being themselves and what they want to talk about? I think it’s a spanner in the works.”
She adds, “The critiques that I took from it, I was being judged for being me because I got called a ‘character’.”
Ms Kiki Snatch won over our hearts during her time on Drag Race UK, and while she admits she hasn’t had time to look through all the support she’s received, she also spills on how she could tell which queens – in the Werk Room – were Ru’s favourites.
On the Werk Room walkthroughs, she says, “You kind of know who Ru loves. You know who Ru likes and whatnot. But I don’t want to get into that!”
Though she declines to name names, she adds that it’s measured in cackles. “You definitely feel a little bit of a something when Ru speaks to someone she loves. She kind of gives more of that cackle even when there doesn’t need to be a cackle. But that’s mother!”
When it was announced that Kiki was in the bottom two, she came up against Welsh dragon Actavia, and there was blood on the dancefloor.
“It was a lip-sync for your life. We both knew going into it, we were gonna give it and we were gonna leave it all on that floor, on that stage, on that runway. It felt good doing it with Actavia, as much as it also didn’t. I wouldn’t have had anybody else send me home – respectfully to the other girls.”
Many fans thought that the lipsync deserved hallowed ‘double shantay’ status; and so does Kiki.
“Honestly, I do. In the moment Ru said, ‘Actavia, shantay you stay.’ And I was like, ‘No she’s gonna do a plot twist and save Kiki Snatch too.'”
Kiki’s pick for the crown is Rileasa Slaves, who already has one RuPeter badge, and she spills on what it meant to be there with her St. Lucian sister
“It was refreshing,” she says. “We’ve worked together for years, and when we first met I was like I know that accent. To just to be on the show together, and be so proud of who we are, where we come from.”
Just before we log off, Kiki also dishes on the episode 2 moment where RuPaul calls her E.T. in drag. Yes, that E.T. It doesn’t seem like there are any hard feelings, though.
“I’m kind of glad she did, though, because I’m capitalising on that. I am capitalising on that.”
RuPaul’s Drag Race UK air on BBC iPlayer from 8pm every Thursday.
