‘A new direction for the franchise’: Drag Race UK stars on “mind-blowing” season 6

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WORDS BY SAM DAMSHENAS
DESIGN BY JACK ROWE
SPECIAL THANKS TO BBC’S JASMINE ALOMA AND SOFIE VAN DE GRAMPEL

Babes, let’s all take a moment to reflect and thank Michelle Visage for sacrificing her sanity to live in a claustrophobic hell-hole with Katie Hopkins and Perez Hilton on Celebrity Big Brother. Without the Seduction singer’s valiance in trying to secure a British broadcaster for Drag Race UK, the United Kingdolls failed to bing, bang, bong popular culture, the Angels of the North’s shoplifting tendencies have landed them in jail as opposed to BBC iPlayer and Chappell Roan has gladly accepted a brand deal with H&M. Thank you, Michelle!

In two weeks (12 September), 12 more queens will flex their charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent to serve more iconic, culture-defining and controversial moments via lip-sync smackdowns and challenges. As one queen tells GAY TIMES: “There has never been a cast of Drag Race UK where the cast are determined to show you, not just great drag, but great TV as well.”

As per, season six features the return of RuPaul as host, with Michelle Visage, Alan Carr and Graham Norton as regular panellists. The quartet will be joined by a plethora of LGBTQIA+ icons and allies, from The X Factor champion Alexandra Burke to ‘Shoulda Woulda Coulda’ icon Beverley Knight and Big Brother co-host AJ Odudu.

Here, we chat with the 12 fierce queens hoping to usurp Ginger Johnson as Britain’s Next Drag Superstar: Actavia, Chanel O’Conor, Charra Tea, Dita Garbo, Kiki Snatch, Kyran Thrax, La Voix, Lill, Marmalade, Rileasa Slaves, Saki Yew and Zahirah Zapanta.

Inevitable Laganja Estranja reference incoming: “C’mon season six, let’s get sickening!”

Actavia
21, North Wales

Favourite RPDR alumni: Tayce and Anetra
Favourite RPDR lip-sync: Sasha Colby vs Anetra – ‘I’m in Love with a Monster’
Favourite RPDR season: US season 6 and UK season 2

“Sugno fy selsig,” says Actavia. Explanation incoming: as one of 12 queens competing this season, the 21-year-old has just made history as the franchise’s first fluent Welsh speaker, so rather than ask sincere questions such as ‘what does this mean to you?’ or ‘what impact do you want this to have?’ etc, I seize the opportunity to learn how to say something filthy and sordid. “It means ‘suck my sausage’.” Good! To! Know!

Newsflash, that was also a lie: I did, in fact, ask Actavia the latter question and she tells me that she’s already noticed the impact of “representing a small town” on Welshians who are, like her, fluent in sausage-speaking smut. “When I first started watching Drag Race I didn’t really know what drag was because there was nothing around me, drag-wise. Hopefully, if someone is watching who is around my age when I started they’ll be able to think, ‘Okay, I can do that.’”

While Actavia’s “villainess” promo suggests she’ll be a tough cunty queen, she assures me that campery and stupidity are the traits she exhibits most. No, really: “I’m the densest person ever. [I’m] so stupid.”

With her dance background, expect her to flip, kick, split and [insert name of other gravity-defying drag tricks here] on the stage, but she’s also been known to chuck in a tribute to Charity Shop Sue every now and then. “I take drag seriously, but not to the point where it’s not fun,” she says, “and I think that will come across.”

As for how she describes season six? “Chaotic, exciting and elevated.”

Chanel O’Conor
25, Scotland

Favourite RPDR alumni: Scarlet Envy
Favourite RPDR lip-sync: Katya vs Sasha Belle – ‘Twist of Fate’
Favourite RPDR season: US season 6

Ahead of this interview, Kyran Thrax kindly warned me that, out of all 12 cast members, Chanel O’Conor is the firecracker and troublemaker of season six. BREAKING: I can confirm that is, indeed, quite accurate. “Well, I’m a lady of leisure, a lady who likes her own way,” she says (with a somewhat sinister smile). “If I haven’t had my breakfast, oh I’m foul.” However, Chanel refuses to be labelled as a diva. “I would say ‘beast’. Really setting the bar, aren’t I?”

The 25-year-old Scottish diva beast, who claims Bill Gates messaged her at four a.m. for a spot of hanky-panky (lawsuit incoming…), exclusively reveals that season six includes a challenge where the cast “bare-knuckle box each other covered in turkey grease”. As you can probably tell, Chanel is a queen whose comedy is based in truth. Suffering from PTSD from the aforementioned challenge, which is 100% real and a major spoiler, by the way, she emotionally continues: “… then they threw Yorkshire puddings at us, and RuPaul covered us in potatoes.”

As well as truth, Chanel’s comedy is rooted in “the land of Seth Macfarlane”, so you can expect megalomaniacal sociopathy ala Stewie Griffin and alien cross-dressing hijinkx ala Roger Smith (that’s the extent of my Seth knowledge – I hope the gifs helped). “The kind of old-school ridiculous comedy where it’s more situational stupidity,” she divulges. “I will throw myself down the stairs if I can make somebody laugh.” In fact, “I actually kept doing that [on the show] and production were like, ‘Chanel, stop please, the Queen Team aren’t happy about this.’ I’d be like, ‘One more time!’”

So, there’s a check mark next to “comedy”. Having concocted garments for season two winner Lawrence Chaney, the same can be said for “fashion” too. What about her other strengths?: “I’m so passionate about interrupting people.” As Chanel’s bio comes to an end, it’s important for her to add another hard-hitting truth: “Michael Bay is the greatest director of all time.”

Charra Tea
23, Belfast

Favourite RPDR alumni: Miz Cracker
Favourite RPDR lip-sync: Kitten Kaboodle vs The Girlfriend Experience – ‘Tongue’
Favourite RPDR season: US season 6

“It was so crazy, big and pink,” says Charra Tea. “It was literally the best moment of my life.” You can halt those perverse and impure thoughts right this second because the 23-year-old is not following in the footsteps of her Northern Irish sister Blu Hydrangea in the filth department, she is simply reflecting on when her dreams came true by entering the Drag Race werkroom. (I’m actually unsure if she was intentional with those choice of words, time will tell if she’s a secret saucy minx.)

Charra does, however, want to emulate the success of the franchise’s scarce Northern Irish contestants, which only includes Blu and Jonbers Blonde: “Blu won UK vs the World and Jonbers was a finalist on season four, so those are some big boots to fill! But, I’m excited to represent Belfast and show fans that, if I can get on the show as a quiet and anxious kid in school, anyone can do it.”

Currently residing in Manchester, Charra’s drag was birthed after her first viewing of Hairspray. Her influences include future EGOT winners such as Nadine Coyle, Kim Woodburn and Gemma Collins, while her aesthetic revolves around bright colours and “massive prolapse dresses”. Remaining tight-lipped on the season, she reveals that her “dreams would come true” (x2) if she could be in Drag Race‘s second-ever spoken word lip-sync to Peter Marsh’s pop culture-defining read of Jane’s “sad little life” on Come Dine With Me.

Don’t expect Peter Marsh-levels of shade on season six, though, because Charra teases a new instalment of RuPaul’s Best Friend’s Race. “We’re like a family,” she says. “We’ve got a gorgeous group on WhatsApp and we talk in it everyday. It’s lovely and we all get on so well.” This could be a misdirect, as she uses words such as “brash”, “exciting” and “dramatic” to describe the season, adding: “It’s everything you want Drag Race to be.”

Dita Garbo
47, Kent

Favourite RPDR alumni: Sasha Velour
Favourite RPDR lip-sync: [No answer]
Favourite RPDR season: US season 16

For Dita Garbo, it’s an “honour” to make herstory as Drag Race UK’s oldest-ever queen. “The younger bitches need to be careful ‘cause we’ve got wisdom – and we’ve still got time!” (Kandy Ho is trembling.)

While Dita is coy and doesn’t want to “blow my own trumpet too much” – I assure her that blowing is okay – she hopes her appearance on season six proves to age-ists that “if people are good at something in their 20s, they’ll still be good at it in their 30s, 40s and 50s”. Defiantly, the Kent native goes one step further by stating that she wants to “kick the shit” out of the archaic perception that queens of a certain age are unable to keep up with the TikTok-ing Gen-Z’s: “I want to take away that stigma.”

As a burlesque performer and Dita Von Teese stan (hence her name), we can expect her to bless our screens with a bit of sex and sauce, as well as splits, shablams and “splits again!” as a result of her professional dance training. “I do it all,” she rightfully boasts before teasing that, if she does somehow end up in a lip-sync smackdown, “I’ll put on a show.”

Contradicting Charra’s above Tea, Dita promises “physical fights” on season six (she was joking, I think – sorry), and one of the most “diverse” seasons in the franchise’s ever-expanding history. “There’s a big age range and we’re all very different. We’ve all got different personalities and that means there’s something for everyone watching. Yeah, it’s going to be one of the best seasons.”

Kiki Snatch
25, London

Favourite RPDR alumni: Jaida Essence Hall
Favourite RPDR lip-sync: Vanity Milan vs Scarlett Harlett – ‘Scandalous’
Favourite RPDR season: US season 9

You feeling Ro’Sham Bo’Sham? If one is not embodying Ro’Sham Bo’Sham energy, then one needs to pull it the fuck together. “[Season six] is so Ro’Sham Bo’Sham,” says Kiki Snatch, who uses the soon-to-be viral ‘Padam Padam’-esque catchphrase to describe, well, just about anything. “I don’t get myself sometimes, and people don’t get me either. I’m all over the place. If I can’t put it into words, then it’s Ro’Sham Bo’Sham. It can mean good or bad, it’s all in the intonation.” One more time: Ro’Sham Bo’Sham. (It really does roll off the tongue, eh?)

The Saint-Lucian/London “cross-breed baddie” is determined to become Drag Race UK’s first capital city champion, and she says she’ll do so with her skills as a fierce dancer and powerhouse vocalist, as well as her Beyoncé-Ciara-Donna Summer-inspired aesthetic. (Do we already have our girl group challenge winner?) Kiki says: “Anyone that knows me will be like, ‘It’s that bitch.’ Anyone who doesn’t know me is going to want to know me, because you’re gonna fall in love.”

Although the merch-ready queen attempted to “plead the fifth” on the above information about her Drag Race favourites, she ultimately conceded and revealed that her number-one queens from across the franchise are Jaida Essence Hall and Vanessa Vanjie Mateo, while she has a soft spot for the season where “Shea Couleé walked in for the first time”. As for the lip-syncs that live in her mind “rent-free”, it’s Vanity Milan’s iconic ‘Scandalous’ battle with Scarlett Harlett and Alyssa Edwards and Tatianna’s seminal showdown to ‘Shut Up and Drive’.

Of course, Kiki hopes to avoid the bottom two, but she acknowledges that, like the two aforementioned smackdowns, a lip-sync can be responsible for cementing a queen’s legacy. With that in mind, Kiki is self-aware enough to know that being on television is her opportunity to serve iconic moments and a bit of – here we go again – Ro’Sham Bo’Sham.

Kyran Thrax
26, Lancashire

Favourite RPDR alumni: Sasha Velour, Adore Delano, Bob the Drag Queen
Favourite RPDR lip-sync: Adore Delano vs Trinity K. Bonet – ‘Vibeology’
Favourite RPDR season: US season 6

When one has a self-proclaimed witch on a Zoom call, one selfishly takes advantage of their other-worldly gifts to foresee the future. So, here is Kryan Thrax’s prediction of how season six will be perceived by fans: “People are going to be thoroughly entertained, shocked, horrified… and turned on.” I am listening!

Crediting Lady Gaga as a main source of inspiration, Kyran is the drag daughter of season four’s Charity Kase – making her the granddaughter of U.S. champion Raja – so you can expect this 6”8 queen to be a conceptual fashionista of the horror variety. Oscar-worthy acting, too, because listen to her wildest experience in drag:

“A wife booked me for her wedding. It was her husband’s sixth marriage and he’d had a kid in each one. When the registrar said, ‘Does anyone have any reason why these two should not be wed?’ I burst through the door with a pregnancy bump and shouted at him, pretending to be his mistress. I’ve never seen a man look so horrified in his life. I then went into a spontaneous lip-sync of ‘I Will Survive’.” (We need footage, pronto.)

Despite this, Kyran actually admits that she’s scared of confrontation and doesn’t “like” drama. Inevitably, as a drag artist who is passionate about her craft, she’s not immune to conflict. “I won’t bite my tongue,” she teases, “if I need to say something I will. But I do internally scream anytime a bit of heat comes my way.” Good thing it’s Best Friend’s Race, then? “The cast is just phenomenal,” she says. “We work together incredibly well and this is the freshest season of Drag Race in a while. It’s got so much edge.”

La Voix
43, Stockton on Tees

Favourite RPDR alumni: Bianca Del Rio
Favourite RPDR lip-sync: [No answer]
Favourite RPDR season: US season 6

Between her appearances on Britain’s Got Talent and Queen of the Universe, as well as her viral mid-cruise Cameo where she learns of Queen Elizabeth’s death – “Bing bong, ‘the queen’s dead’, I’ll never forget that” – La Voix is undeniably one of the most prolific queens on season six.

“I feel like I’ve come out of retirement to do one of the most energetic shows of my life!” she says over Zoom – from another cruise, I should add. “It’s a strange turn of events because I said I’d never do the show, but a friend of mine applied for me. Funnily enough, I applied the same week to Bargain Hunt. I’m glad I didn’t get it. I don’t look good in a fleece.”

Despite her plethora of career achievements, which also includes pantomime with Cilla Black, singing at Ian McKellen’s birthday and standing metres away from the Queen as she busted moves to ‘Uptown Funk’ and ‘Gangnam Style’, nothing has put her “through the ringer” quite like Drag Race UK. “There are curveballs every step of the way. RuPaul does things he’s never done before, there’s lip-sync battles we’ve never seen,” she teases. “And don’t be thinking you know the order of challenges like, ‘Snatch Game goes there’ or ‘that game goes there’. No! They’ve given Drag Race a major shake-up. It’s fresh, new, exciting and everyone’s going to be mind-blown.”

Stranded on a non-moving cruise, the conversation takes a turn for the Ro’Sham Bo’Sham (see, it’s catching on!) as La Voix jokes about revealing her “red beaver live on television” for a potential celebrity edition of Naked Attraction. “You can tell I’m stuck at sea,” she laughs, before pleading: “Don’t leave me on this Zoom. You’re the only company I’ve got.”

Lill
36, Manchester

Favourite RPDR alumni: Violet Chachki
Favourite RPDR lip-sync: Dida Ritz vs The Princess – ‘This Will Be’
Favourite RPDR season: US season 5

A member of the Family Gorgeous, Lill says her conceptual sense of style is her biggest strength; a no-brainer considering the legendary drag dynasty also includes powerhouses such as Asttina Mandella, Cheddar Gorgeous, Dragula’s Anna Phylactic and Manchester legends Liquorice Black and Tete Bang.

Lill describes the collective as all different from one another, but claims she’s the “fun one, the one you wanna go on a night out with”. Case in point: she often does gigs abroad, and was once stranded with season five alum Banksie after skiing down a “really dangerous” slope in full drag. “We didn’t know how to stop,” she remembers in-between tears (my tears, because the story had me cackling). Another career highlight, she says, is when she appeared on Lorraine with the Family Gorgeous to promote their Channel 4 series Drag SOS, where the Scottish ally proceeded to call her a – warning, this is just so cruel and wicked – “Queen Pie”: Lill says: “I’m not entirely sure why.”

With her name standing for Living in Lavish Luxury, I was completely convinced when Lill informed me that she’s speaking to me from a Turkey hotel room because she’s getting “new tits and teeth”. So convinced, I had to investigate whether or not this was true. Still not sure, actually, so this either means a) she’s taking advantage of her newfound celebrity status and getting All Stars-ready or b), she’s the deadpan queen of the season and I’m a daft bitch. “I’m having all my teeth replaced with wooden pegs [like Katie Price],” she says. “I hope you like them when I see you next.”

Marmalade
24, Cardiff

Favourite RPDR alumni: Sasha Velour
Favourite RPDR lip-sync: Trinity the Tuck vs Charlie Hides – ‘I Wanna Go’
Favourite RPDR season: US season 6

After supporting her respective drag mother and grandmother Tia Kofi and Victoria Scone on their seasons, and creating garments for them, it’s Marmalade’s time to sweep the competition. “Everyone’s going to expect me to kill a design challenge, which is fair,” she admits. “But keep on eye on those other challenges. I’m an actor first and foremost. I’ve done musical theatre, I’m a singer.” Death drops, too? “Oh no, no, no. I wouldn’t be getting up.”

Inspired by Hollywood stars such as Lana Turner, Rita Hayworth and Faye Dunaway, as well as Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn in Death Becomes Her, Marmalade is known for her vintage aesthetic with a “modern twist”. In addition to Tia and Victoria, she’s created runways for Drag Race UK contestants “every year” – her services were even requested by a mystery queen for season six. “I won’t say who, but I had to tell them, ‘Sorry, I’m busy!’ I then saw her in the werkroom and I think she sorted it out in the end, can’t confirm or deny. I don’t want to spoil!”

Echoing the comments from her sisters about the many “firsts” on season six, Marmalade says she’s never seen a season of Drag Race UK where the entire cast are determined to show “not just great drag, but great TV as well”: “We didn’t hold back, and it made for an exciting and dynamic addition to the UK franchise that takes it into a direction it’s never been before.”

Rileasa Slaves
32, London

Favourite RPDR alumni: Mo Heart
Favourite RPDR lip-sync: Dida Ritz vs The Princess – ‘This Will Be’
Favourite RPDR season: UK season 2

“You know my number, Rihanna, I’m happy to do a feature!” Rileasa Slaves says after sadly confirming the Drag Race superfan and future guest judge (?) has not made contact with her doppelgänger. “Put me in lingerie bitch. Savage X Fenty, hello? Click, click. Send me some free makeup.”

Embracing her status as the season’s “shapeshifter” – Rileasa’s mug has also been compared to Rita Ora and Andra Day – she wants fans to know that she’s not an official impersonator of the ‘Shut Up and Drive’ songstress, she’s simply a “quarterback in a wig”. “Baby, baby, baby. I feel offended for Rihanna. She’s a gorgeous Caribbean goddess!”

As the franchise’s first representation of the House of Emancipation – also including her legendary drag mother Freida Slaves – Rileasa is inevitably feeling the pressure, but she’s ready to demonstrate why her dynasty dominates London’s drag scene. “The world is finally tuning in, baby. All these people are finally tapping into Rileasa’s world, her universe, her cosmos. She’s intergalactic, honey!” she says. “I wanted to fly the family flag and give credit to my mama, who paved the way. Also, just to give some melanin representation is important, to sprinkle some sea water on the BBC.”

A trained contemporary dancer, Rileasa has been known to slay the clubs with a bit of “puss and boom ka-ka-ka” (spelling?). But, she says the keyword here is “retired”: “She got old! She knows how to open her legs and drop into the splits, but don’t be expecting flips and dips and tricks, honey. I love my meniscus.” Rileasa does guarantee, however, to serve “womana” and “body-ody-ody”: “I mean, does she need to pad when she does pilates?”

Saki Yew
33, Manchester

Favourite RPDR alumni: Marina Summers
Favourite RPDR lip-sync: Nina Bonina Brown vs Valentina – ‘Greedy’
Favourite RPDR season: US season 6

Although she’s “booked and blessed” as a Manchester queen, Saki Yew has made history (said that a lot in this article, haven’t I?) as the first Drag Race UK queen to be born in Australia. More incoming: she and Zahirah are also the UK’s first competitors of Filipino descent. (UK vs the World not included!) So, what do you get when you infuse Mancunian, Australian and Filipino culture into one queen? “Frankenstein,” apparently!

Boasting thirteen years in the drag industry, Saki once took a hiatus to pursue a dance career. Now, she’s back, back, back and ready to be catapulted to superstardom to serve “looks, sass and a dulled down Australian accent”. A musical theatre queen that can sing and “crochet” the house down, Saki is eager to compete in the Rusical and girl-group challenge as “it shows off what I was trained to do”.

For Saki, now was the right time for her to compete on the Olympics of Drag because she’s at her “peak”. More importantly, though, Saki just wants to showcase good drag. “I don’t really have an agenda with it,” she shares. “I just want fans to be entertained and see the love and effort and sweat and tears we put into our art.” But as we know, it’s not as simple as that, is it? “Everyone’s going to have their little armies [on social media], but like I always say, ‘Their opinion is none of my business,’” she says, which was met with an extremely gay finger-wag from me. “I don’t really care!”

Zahirah Zapanta
28, Nottingham

Favourite RPDR alumni: M1ss Jade So
Favourite RPDR lip-sync: Manila Luzon vs Delta Work – ‘MacArthur Park’
Favourite RPDR season: US season 3

With Drag Race’s long-awaited Asian renaissance, from bananactivist Nymphia Wind conquering season 16 to Marina Summers giving “colonisers the chop!” on UK vs the World and, of course, the universal acclaim of Philippines, Zahirah Zapanta is ready to “receive the love” she deserves. “I’ve supported Marina on tour and she’s a force to be reckoned with. [Their success] makes me so proud to be an Asian queen,” says the Filipina Goddessa, who also wants to use her platform to continue defying archaic stereotypes that Asian people are “shy and reserved – I’m nothing of the sort!”

Making history as the first Drag Race UK contestant *born* in the Philippines, the Nottingham-based star credits season three, All Stars 1 and 4 alum Manila Luzon with “kick-starting” her foray into drag. “I was like, ‘Oh, a man can dress up as a woman and receive accolades? Yes please,’” she explains. But, there’s one recent contestant in particular that’s captured her heart. “M!ss Jade So from Philippines season two is an icon. The things that come out of her mouth, wow. Her mind! Her cortex!” Yes, we’re somewhat diverting from season six here but this is of extreme relevance because, as she teases, a friendship (and a potential joint tour) is on the horizon (!!!). “She DM’d me this morning and I was like, ‘Let’s do something’. Can you imagine?”

On season six, Zahirah claims to be a queen who doesn’t start drama, but can “participate”: “Like, if you put it in my direction, I’m throwing it straight back at you. If you hit me hard enough, then something is gonna come out of my mouth because it only takes a matter of time, baby.” As we conclude these interviews, I ask Zahirah to throw some adjectives my way for season six: “Chaos. Fashion. Fierce.”

Drag Race UK season 6 premieres 26 September on BBC Three and BBC iPlayer. 

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