RuPaul's Drag Race Close this dialog window Streaming Options After a yearlong reign as America’s Drag Superstar, the time has come for presiding RuPaul’s Drag Race champion Sasha Velour to relinquish her crown to one of season 10’s current ladies-in-waiting. But before Thursday’s grand finale airs at 8 p.m. ET on VH1, Velour wanted to impart some royal wisdom upon her successor. So, earlier this week EW invited her to crash a round of video interviews with the current quartet of finalists Aquaria, Eureka, Asia O’Hara, and Kameron Michaels — and the results were as inspiring and colorful as the fashions synonymous with Velour’s name. “As drag queens, we know there are different types of drag, but most people in the world just think that it’s just the Hamburger Mary’s [stereotype],” Aquaria — responding to a question about the season 9 champion’s impact on the community — says prior to Velour’s surprise entrance. “And she puts on a damn good show.” DRAG-RACE-01 Credit: Mettie Ostrowski for EW After Velour sashays into the conversation (accompanied by a shocked Eureka’s signature shriek), she offers some valuable perspective to the girls following in her footsteps. “People are really seeing that drag is an art form, that it’s so much more than self-expression…it’s so much more than politics and a ‘f—’ you to the system — although it’s definitely that, too,” Velour says. “It really is a beautiful art form that touches so many people’s lives. There are no limits to what kind of bodies, which types of people, which genders, or what races can do amazing drag, and I think the audience is clamoring fighting with each other more and more to see drag represented as fully as it possibly can be. And there’s work to be done, too, to make our little world of drag better for us and for the amazing performers that we have in our umbrella.” Velour then asks her season 10 sisters if they feel an added significance to Drag Race‘s current edition drawing to a close at the tail end of LGBT Pride Month. “It reminds us about community and what this title means, and what even just being a drag queen on national television means and the weight that it has,” Aquaria says. Velour adds: “Pride, to me, is a celebration of the past because we have come such a long way from the very first Pride parade marking the anniversary of the Stonewall riots, so it’s a celebration of all that we’ve accomplished.” She continues: “All four of you have accomplished so much this year, but it’s also a commitment to keep fighting. I can’t wait to see what you do after the show, now that your chance to make beautiful art that touches our community is just beginning.” Read on for more highlights from EW’s kiki with the season 10 girls. How The Vixen shaped the narrative for queens of color (and Asia explains her recent fashions) AQUARIA: [Fans] see a lot of what The Vixen was doing as just like, ‘Oh, crazy drama! This is so wild, she came here to fight!’ I think the same people who weren’t getting the message in the first place are going to continue to not get the message, and I think it’s for us as Drag Race girls to try to continue to uphold her message. ASIA: If someone is a fan of yours, until you say, ‘I don’t agree with this,’ they’re not going to pay that situation any attention. Until the show is 10 seasons in — and although all of us are very relevant right now — in 10 years there are going to be 140 more girls that have come through the ranks, and the fan base is going to be even more divided as far as who they love and who they don’t love. Until people are constantly in the forefront day after day and year after year saying, ‘No, we need to change this in our community,’ that’s when things will start to change. 03 Credit: Mettie Ostrowski for EW AQUARIA: It needs to be across the board. Just because it doesn’t affect you doesn’t mean you can’t speak out… I’ve found that in the past there have been plenty of queens that have not tried to embrace whatever message of change that needs to come out of a situation. There still continues to be queens who think too much of themselves and their fame and popularity to humble themselves and try to get a different message across.” EUREKA: We’re actually very lucky that the show presented the narrative…there’s a lot of legacy to come from season 10. Not just that, but there’s amazing talent. There are a lot of people in our season who are very equality-forward and are working to create change. Asia’s obviously been making a lot of political statements in the art form in the way she’s been dressing at events. ASIA: People have constantly asked me why my face is covered or why they can’t see me or at times couldn’t hear me, and that’s always been the case. They’ve always not been able to see or hear certain people, and it’s interesting that only when someone is presented with a physical representation of how they actually perceive someone or perceive a group of people do they notice [that group] actually exists. Asia also opens up about that tense exchange with RuPaul at the reunion ASIA: I don’t look at it as me pushing back or standing up to someone. I look at it as every opportunity is an opportunity for you to share your ideas with someone else. I didn’t think I needed to push back or that I needed to say something. Those are my actual feelings in the moment. People view it as me standing up for The Vixen. Although I welcome that, that wasn’t the idea. The idea is if you’re in a situation and you feel like someone is misunderstood and if you see two ends of a spectrum that can’t meet without your help, most people are inclined to help that situation. 01 Credit: Mettie Ostrowski for EW EUREKA: I think it was amazing that they got to see you call up and talk about us being humans and how as an LGBT community, drag queens are supposed to be a representation of…a way to bring people together. That’s one of my favorite things about you, Asia, is, you literally fight all the time. In our season, she was very much a mother hen and a caretaker, so she was always the one to guide us and be like, “Y’all need to stick through this and get through it together.” ASIA: It’s Pride month and our pride started with people standing up for something they believe in or standing up for what’s right, so how could I sit somewhere and not stand up for something that I thought was right? Is Kameron a “thirsty” introvert? Plus: Eureka gets a lesson on the “skin flute” KAMERON: A lot of people — including myself — didn’t see me in this space with these three other girls, but I think it’s really important for me to be here. A lot of people don’t understand introverts. I got accused of walking into a room and not speaking to people, and it’s not that I am ignoring people, it’s just that a lot of times I don’t step out of my shell for fear of rejection. And that’s what a lot of introverts deal with: We have a lot of self-doubts, which you can see me doing throughout the entire season. I’m so in my head and worried about myself and how I’m being portrayed or the actions and words that I’m saying that I forget to acknowledge other people. It’s not out of shadiness or forgetting to do that, it’s just I’m so worried about what I’m doing and how I’m being perceived, and I think a lot of the girls misunderstood me. 04 Credit: Mettie Ostrowski for EW EUREKA: I linked up with her too quick.<doc-sep>sasha-velour-6 Credit: Tanner Abel The monsters’ reign is just beginning. Sasha Velour’s time on the RuPaul’s Drag Race throne ended when she crowned Aquaria in last night’s season 10 finale, but as her “Alien Eve” coronation look proves, she has a lot more to show the world. Get push notifications with news, features and more. The season 9 winner sketched the design for her style director, Nancy The Girl, and designer Diego Montoya, whose “gorgeous embellishments” brought her vision to life. “I wanted to embody the fantasy of a more-than-human alien goddess, kind of queer Fantasia for a new world of imaginative queer performers that go beyond humanity,” Velour tells PEOPLE about her finale look. “So we came up with an alien idea, and then gave it an Eve, or maybe even Lilith, twist of someone who has experienced, and taken knowledge and really transformed it into self empowerment.” sasha-velour-1 Credit: Tanner Abel “I wanted to do something that had pants. I looked at all the previous returning queens and thought about the classic drag queen step down look and it’s always traditionally a gown,” she adds. Velour faced towering expectations for her return to the RPDR stage after the now-iconic “So Emotional” lip sync that helped her snatch the season 9 title, but the star says it’s her “own crazy demands” that really push her to innovate. “I always want to go to the next level with something, so it’s dangerous. Now my body is fully covered in crystals and stones, I’m a perfect alien goddess wrapped in a snake, holding a giant apple. I don’t know what could possibly be next. Probably minimalism,” she jokes. The ethereal look is fitting for a queen who spent the past year traveling around the globe and cultivating her inner strength. “Obviously my life has changed enormously,” Velour says of her demanding year. “The practical aspects of it are different and bigger, and Sasha has had to become a very powerful and smart and savvy person. I’m thankful that I had that character because the need for her to pretend to be that person has, I think, really made me that person. That is the magic of drag.” sasha-velour-2 Credit: Tanner Abel With her Brooklyn theater show, Nightgowns, a short film series called One Dollar Drags and the launch of her own drag magazine, Velour, the star has worked overtime to provide meaningful, enlightening entertainment since she took home the crown. “Everyone who passes through Drag Race, and especially the people who are able to have really big careers after the show, has a responsibility to the queer community to do a good job of representing queer people across the board to be kind and loving,” she said. “We are brought into the world to entertain people and to give, especially queer people, a sense that there is entertainment being created for us, with our standard of beauty and joy and truthfulness and gender-bending. I’ve really been trying to live up to that this year.” That responsibility has only gotten more intense as RPDR reaches broader — and increasingly fervent — audiences. “I think the move to VH1 has really had a huge impact for the community,” Velour says. “It’s definitely shifted and expanded the audience of the show, which allows our stories and experiences as queer people to get shared with folks who maybe wouldn’t have access to those stories.” “The audience of Drag Race and the fans of drag queens are often very surprising,” she adds. “The other day in the airport I meant a middle-aged married couple who recognized me out of drag and wanted to get a picture. It’s so beautiful that drag is able to speak to so many different types of people.” But, more eyes on the competition to become America’s next drag superstar means a greater potential for troublesome behavior within the community. During season 10 in particular, current and former contestants have grappled with the fandom’s upsetting treatment of queens of color. Bob The Drag Queen, RPDR‘s season 8 winner, drew attention to the problem on Twitter. “Sometimes Drag Race makes me realize other things about the world. NOT ALL, but a lot of the most popular queens fall into the thin white category. And NO black queens, except @RuPaul, have over a million followers. It’s not the show. It’s the fandom,” he wrote earlier this month. Velour has prioritized using her own platforms and passionate fanbase to bring visibility to a diverse spectrum of performers, with the hope that change in the drag world will herald a larger cultural shift. “Racism is a problem everywhere, especially in this country, but all over the world, and especially within queer space,” she says. “I think that the best thing to do is to pivot to the amazing POC entertainers that are very visible out in the world and then many that people haven’t even given the time of day to, who are more than deserving. One of my goals is always to share any kind of spotlight I’m given. I love that my show Nightgowns is a place where people can come and get to know lots of different drag performers.” “And it’s no secret that drag does not exist without black drag performers, without trans drag performers, without immigrant drag performers, and seeing all of us together as a community, as we’re intended to be, feels very political at a time when that vision of beauty is not represented almost anywhere. And I hope that the drag community works harder — I have work to do myself — and I hope everyone joins in that process so that we can, by shifting the world of drag, slowly leave an impact in the world at large.”<doc-sep>My proudest accomplishment would be how much my passion project, Nightgowns, has grown this year. I started it a year before I got cast on Drag Race as a Thursday night show at my local drag and burlesque bar called Bizarre Bushwick, and it’s grown into this huge, fantastic drag theatre show. The last performance we did was at the Ace Theatre in LA where they just filmed the Drag Race finale -- It’s such a gorgeous theater. To get to create a space where other drag performers can benefit from the spotlight and excitement of drag, performers who exist outside of RuPaul’s Drag Race, that’s been a huge accomplishment and something I’m very proud of. What sticks out as an “oh my god, I made it” moment from this past year? Honestly, getting to do the Google Doodle of Marlene Dietrich kind of brought a bunch of things together, both my drag and the fact that I got to impersonate this amazing queer icon on Drag Race and then my whole life as an illustrator and a graphic designer. Two complete dreams coming together in one moment. And it’s really humbling to create, as someone who loves creating art and would do it just for myself for the joy and passion of it, it’s very humbling to know that people are seeing it, whatever their response is. Just knowing how many people logged on to Google and saw that piece of artwork that I created in December of last year was really exciting. What is the most important thing you’ve learned about yourself since winning? I’ve learned that I am a complete workaholic and that no amount of sleeplessness or exhaustion will keep me from taking on new or ambitious projects. That is both a good quality and a terrible one, I think. I love biting off way more than I can chew, and that’s a great motivator because it forces me to rise to the occasion. How have your side projects One Dollar Drags and Velour magazine been doing? We’re going to start filming the next two films in the One Dollar Drags series in July and we just came out with a hardcover three hundred plus page book of the original first three issues of Velour: The Drag Magazine. We’re coming out with No. 4, which will be about bodies in the fall. My goal is just to have as many things out there in the world about drag as possible and have them be high quality and interesting and representative of the world that I love and know. Drag Race really offered me a platform to have a lot of people listen to what I have to show them and I want to showcase the whole community I know. How has your commitment to political activism informed how you’ve approached your reign? For one thing, I’m not afraid of drag being political. I love that drag is political. For me, one of the reasons I started doing drag was reading about how in the past, drag performers were able to organize the queer community and move us forward. With Nightgowns, we raise a pretty large chunk of money every month for a local organizations like Princess Janae Place, a homeless center for queer youth in New York City, and the Queer Detainee Empowerment project that helps fight for people who are locked away from their families in detention centers through immigration issues. And I think that is part of it; bringing politics, bringing the real needs that people face into entertainment spaces. There doesn’t need to be a divide between our entertainment and our political life. I think that’s one part of it. Then, the other part of it would be visibility and opportunities for people to speak about their experiences, speak about their encounters with dark things. Not all people within the queer community get representation the way that they should. Just having moments to have people represent themselves -- that is political. On season 10, The Vixen has been vocal about racism within the gay community. I think it’s seriously amazing that The Vixen addressed those issues on the show, speaking to what drag queens of color have been saying for a long time. I think the troubling thing is that those voices often aren’t listened to. Unfortunately, even this time, we can see the way the audience and fandom don’t want to listen to queer people of color talk about racism. The response that The Vixen got was not what I would want or expected. It’s really disappointing to see people react so negatively to an important conversation that has to happen, especially in an environment where white queens get praised for speaking out against racism. There’s some work that has to be done. The Vixen is amazing and, as a performer, incredibly talented.<doc-sep>
RuPaul's Drag Race Close this dialog window Streaming Options One year ago, Sasha Velour ascended the ranks of RuPaul’s Drag Race‘s ninth season to claim her rightful place as the royal ruler of all things fabulous. Her mission? Defy conservative rule. Her weapon of choice? A potent hybrid of love, compassion, and expression — all in the name of harnessing the beautiful power of drag as social and political activism. Now, as the long-running reality competition series prepares to crown her successor Thursday night, Velour sits down with EW to reflect on her 365-day reign as America’s Drag Superstar, blurring lines of gender through her art, why Bianca Del Rio would make a fabulous politician, and how queer people can make their voices heard loud enough to not only secure a seat at the table, but climb atop it with the assured clack of a glistening pair of heels. Watch EW’s interview with Velour above, and read on below for the full interview. sasha02 Credit: Mettie Ostrowski for EW ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: It’s so sad your reign is coming to an end! Or do you think a Drag Race girl’s reign never truly ends? SASHA VELOUR: It’s been an incredible year! Literally my dreams came true and more. Things I never could have imagined were in the realm of possibility. I feel like it’s just the beginning! We just came out with the collected Velour: The Drag Magazine, which celebrates three years of my partner Johnny and I making a zine about amazing drag, basically out of our living rooms. Starting with it being stapled, and now it’s a hardcover, gorgeous art book that’s twice the original size and I’m excited for that to grow and become yet another showcase for the amazing drag talent that exists out there in the world. I love what you’re wearing today, because I think it’s a great example of what you’ve always stood for: blurring the lines of gender through fashion. I think a lot of people who only know a very little bit about drag believe that drag is all about looking like a woman. But that’s a sort of questionable notion because the possibilities for what a woman or what a man looks like are actually limitless and should be, and what queer culture brings to the whole world of gender is that kind of blurriness. Drag right now, being more mainstream, especially reaching more young people, we can offer this powerful message that you don’t need to look any specific way, you don’t need to dress according to the specific gender you’re assigned in any specific way, and you definitely don’t need to dress according to the gender that you choose in any sort of way. For me, dressing in a femme or a masculine way is all part of a huge queer spectrum where hopefully I’m just dressing in a way that I find beautiful, that I can be proud of when I step out onto the streets, and that’s been my goal. And I love that people love it with me, because I put so much passion and personal flair into everything I put on. sasha03 Credit: Mettie Ostrowski for EW Do you remember that first moment when you were younger, thinking that you didn’t have to conform to gender via clothing? When I go back and look at pictures of myself as a little kid, I see that push to transgress any kind of gender limitations right from the beginning. For NYC Pride I got to wear this fantastic purple outfit to close out my set on Pride Island. Purple has always been my favorite color… but purple, when I was a little kid, was a color that boys weren’t really allowed to wear. That’s what all the kids at school told me. I filled my wardrobe with as much purple as I could possibly find, because who cares? Life’s too short to dress by other people’s rules. I know you’ve done a lot of speaking about voting and progressive politics recently. And that’s something we’re seeing more queens do now. So where’s the intersection or space for all of this to start affecting political change, for you? Where does that work begin with drag and how does drag influence the political climate? This year we’ve seen just a shift overall in how political about the discussions in Drag Race are getting. I think that’s fantastic.