After 13 episodes and the introduction of 16 queens, RuPaul’s Drag Race season 15 has finally revealed our top four queens.
On last week’s episode (aired Friday, March 24), the top five contestants took part in the now-iconic makeover challenge, transforming teachers from around the country into fabulous drag queens bearing a strong family resemblance to their respective queens.
Transforming her teacher into a sickening drag daughter named Alektra, Anetra immediately wowed the judges not only for her phenomenal makeup skills, but for constructing two iconic outfits that conveyed the family resemblance they were looking for in this challenge. The star took home her third maxi challenge win, tying her for the most wins of the season with frontrunner Sasha Colby.
Meanwhile, after a hair-splitting critique, Luxx Noir London and Loosey LaDuca found themselves in the bottom for their makeovers of Asia Azul and Lala LaDuca, respectively. Lip-syncing to guest judge Hayley Kiyoko’s “For the Girls,” Luxx pulled out all the stops, earning a spot in the top four, leaving Loosey as the eliminee.
Billboard caught up with Loosey following her elimination to talk about her song “Let Loose” going ultra-viral following her talent show performance in episode one, whether or not she was “delusional” during her Drag Race run, and which queen she felt should have been lip syncing against Luxx instead of her.
Congrats on making it to the top five! How are you feeling about your Drag Race journey?
I feel really great — I’m so incredibly proud of the job that I did. Of course, I would love to be top four … but other than that, I really look back and am just so proud of myself for everything that I did.
Before we get into anything else, we have to talk about the sensation that is sweeping the nation — “Let Loose” is inescapable on social media at this point. What has it been like to watch this song absolutely blow up?
It’s so weird! I wasn’t sure about what the fanbase’s take would be on me, and then I was sick on the couch with COVID, when my phone just started blowing up. And it has not stopped since — every day I think, “Alright, I’m sure it’s passed.” Nope. It’s truly insane. People are now congratulating me, not for Drag Race, but saying, “Congratulations on ‘Let Loose,’ I mean, my god.”
I mean, I get it — the song just passed 100,000 streams on Spotify, so it’s worth congratulating you on!
Yeah, it’s wild. I’m getting videos of people all over the world performing it, it’s actually crazy. All credit to my very good friend Andrew Barret Cox, he wrote and produced the track; he also did “Jantasy” for Jan. He is absolutely incredible and a certified bop-maker.
Along with “Let Loose” going viral, another Drag Race moment caught the attention of none other than Kevin Bacon, who applauded your performance in the Rusical challenge! How gagged were you?
That was absolutely incredible, 100 percent the best moment of my mom’s life. I had COVID all last week, I was firmly planted on my couch with my dog, and sure enough, Kevin Bacon came up in my notifications. I was like, “Oh, I’m sure this is a Kevin bacon fan account or something.” And sure enough, it was actually him, which is absolutely insane. So now I’m one degree away from Kevin Bacon.
It helps that the Rusical was genuinely so good — from the performances to the music, it was top-to-bottom excellent.
Oh, I am so proud of the Rusical. I look back and I’m like, “God, we did so good.” The music was so good, and such earworms! They were bops, Leland and the entire team and all of the vocalists on those tracks were so talented and wonderful. I’m very honored to have been a part of, I think, one of the best Rusicals.
Now, another thing that’s being flying around the internet are accusations of “drag delusion” in your direction. After being on set and after watching the show, do you think that you were experiencing said delusion?
I think … hmm, how to put this? I think what was shown looks like delusion. That’s all! [laughs] I trust that folks can read between the lines.
In the latest episode, getting to do the makeover challenge with teachers is such a lovely idea, especially with all of the anti-LGBTQ classroom laws being passed around the country. What do you feel like you got to learn from working with teachers who are having to deal with all of this legislation?
Yeah, completely. My teacher who I got to work with — Miss Lala LaDuca, thank you very much — was just so wonderful and so sweet. You could tell that she was the type of woman who was just born to be a teacher. I think what I really gained from that was that, a lot of times, teachers are the people who teach all of their students about the world. If kids are only getting the scope of what’s at home, that’s a very small, narrow point of view. School and teachers, it is sort of their job to open kids up to the rest of the world — if they’re not being legally allowed to teach about sexuality or identity, then these laws are stifling teachers’ jobs, which is to help cultivate who these kids are! No laws should be getting in the way of that.
I do hope people understand how difficult the makeover challenge is — can you explain what it is about this challenge that makes it so tough?
Completely! I think, first of all, you’re putting drag makeup that has been designed to be perfect for your face on another human being. So now, it might not look the same — luckily, I thought my teacher looked sickening. She looked fully like a LaDuca. But the thing that’s especially hard about it is that you need to have a family resemblance, but it can’t be exact, but it can’t be too subtle. There’s so many factors in there that the judges can really pick apart, and that means there’s not usually a very clear winner or loser in these challenges, because there’s such a grey area.
Before you go, I want to talk about the placements in this episode. You mentioned in your confessional that you were shocked to be in the bottom this challenge — full tea, who did you think should have been in your spot in the bottom two?
Ooh. I think, for lack of originality, probably Mistress — she wore that gown several times on the show, so if I had to say someone, I would say her.
