Girl Groups

RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 16, Episode 10 – Werq the World “Power” & True Colors runway Power Rankings

March 10, 2024 by krisis

RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 16, Episode 10 was a mash-up of a Girl Groups songwriting challenge and an election year voting challenge with Werq the World “Power” – a legit funk tune produced by Leland with a message of empowerment. Plus, a “True Colors” runway that let the queens play to their strengths (even when that turned out to be a weakness).

As a rock music nerd, I cannot tell you how excited I was to see a band on Drag Race credibly miming along to a track. “Power” is a legit funk pop and I love the nasty hook that uses Dorian Mode to give us a tritone of the major sixth against the minor third.

(The melody on the hook is E – F# – G – D – C#. In E-Minor, that C# would be a C. An E-Minor scale with a sharp 6th is called Dorian Mode. The G-(D)-C# leap is a tritone – it’s using the flatted 5th of the G to make a discordant sound even though they’re both a part of the Dorian Mode scale. Think “The SIMP sons” but as “The sons SIMP.”)

Pushing the queens to put on a high-energy performance to such a rocking track gave us one of the most energetic, entertaining music challenges we’ve had on the show. I’m only able to make some of the nitpicks I do in the Power Rankings below because I’ve rewatched this so many times!

This funky challenge proved the power queens have to control their own fate on this show when it comes to challenges that hinge on pure talent. In last week’s Neo-Goth design challenge Power Rankings I had Morphine Love Dion locked in for elimination because the judges weren’t giving her many positive notes. She week she delivered a decisive win, schooling the entire cast on what it means to show up and show out in a singing performance while other queens struggled. That means some major shake-ups in the Power Rankings… and not from the queen you might expect.

Readers, start your engines. And, may the best drag queen win!

RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs. The World Season 2, Episode 5 – Seven!: The Rusical Power Rankings

March 9, 2024 by krisis

I’m back with more coverage of the Drag Olympics of Drag Race! RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs. The World Season 2 Episode 5 – Seven!: The Rusical, a live-singing blend of Rusical and Girl Groups challenges with a “When I Glow Up” redemption runway of past looks.

Seven!: The Rusical is a direct lift from SIX, a rock/pop opera musical staged like a concert delivered by the six wives of Henry VIII – two of whom we met last week in Snatch Game! The Drag Race version of the musical is slightly less rangy in pop styles, mostly coming off like five subtle remixes of “Express Yourself” with a pair of unusual outliers rather than seven distinct songs from different music genres.

Much like “Drag Race World” in Episode 3, I think this episode (and the queens) suffered from poor production choices in what could have been an all-time great episode given their level of talent.

This Rusical was subtitled, “Confessions of a Drag Queen,” but Ru never fully defined what those confessions ought to be. In the original SIX, each queen confesses the story of her own love affair via a catchy pop tune. Each song could be effortlessly excerpted to radio without revealing it originated in a musical. Here, all of the queens merely confessed the stories of their runs on the show, trending towards tepid lyrics in the category of “look at me, I sashayed away, I’m gonna snatch the crown!” Only one queen (La Grande Dame) fully broke out of this model to deliver a verse entirely about herself.

Beyond the lack of direction for the songwriting, there was also a lackluster “vocal coaching” session with pop artist Self Esteem. After seeing some truly brilliant singing and songwriting advice on the recent Canada’s Drag Race Season 4, Self Esteem was a real letdown as a coach.

On Canada, the performance coaches treated the songs seriously – as if they were responsible for making improvements to a song that would really be released to radio with their names on it. They edited lyrics, revised melodies, and coached queens on delivery and support. By contrast, Self Esteem left the queens stuck with some easily-fixable problems… and for at least one queen she made her verse worse.

I’m not sure if Self Esteem was too starstruck by being on the show or if she simply isn’t a very talented songwriter, but she failed these queens. (Her lip sync track would suggest the latter.)

Finally, there was the failure of the choreography – or, lack thereof. I know next week is a full-on dancing challenge, so it didn’t make sense to have this challenge also hinge on learning professional choreography. Yet, a Rusical without choreography just doesn’t hit the same – especially on the same day we got an American franchise episode choreographed by Jamal Sims. (More on that tomorrow!) That’s what made this more of a Girl Groups challenge than a Rusical despite the title – the choreo was mostly walking and pointing.

I’ll make my own confession: I’m fully annoyed to be delivering this week’s Power Rankings, with a newly-solidified Top 4 compared to last week’s Snatch Game Power Ranking. This episode made clear that one queen who is crushing the season isn’t in true contention for the crown, while another queen delivering barely-adequate performances is Ru’s chosen one. Meanwhile, the three queens between them continue to deliver terrific performances each week.

(Want to watch RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs. The World outside of the UK? For most of the world, it’s available with a Wow Presents Plus subscription as soon as the episode is done airing.)

Readers, start your engines. And, may the best international drag superstar win!

Drag Race Belgique Season 2, Episode 4 – “Masquerade” & Mille et Une Belgiques à l’Eurovision runway Power Rankings

February 23, 2024 by krisis

Bon retour, mes chers lecteurs, dans plus de classements! Drag Race Belgique Season 2 Episode 4 was titled “Masquerade,” which gave the queens a chance to propose a law as a part of Belgium’s first Drag Government. It was followed by Mille et Une Belgiques à l’Eurovision as the runway theme (“1,001 Belgiums at Eurovision”) – a chance to pay tribute to iconic Eurovision looks.

This is the first episode that allowed the cast to fully show off their intelligence and personality in a challenge. That created a night-and-day difference compared to the Girl Groups challenge last week. These queens are clearly more cerebral than they are choreographers – even the weakest speeches of this challenges were better than the safe verses from last week!

This episode also had a brief moment of controversy, with Star and Gabanna walking onto set before the judges arrived to peak at their notes behind the desk. Despite the campy “security footage” confirming their snooping, it did not seem like a very serious offense to me. Unusual and certainly inappropriate, yes – but, I question how a pair of queens in the middle of getting into drag even walked behind the judge’s table without a producer or director stopping them!

I know international seasons often have their workrooms and runways on the same set, sometimes even facing each other, but… this was in the middle of the full camera coverage of the queens getting ready. Heaven only knows how it happened, but I do think it’s funny that this supposed crime was perpetrated by both the oldest and the most youthful contestant (if not the youngest).

Aussi… mes amis, je dois être honnête avec vous: writing about Belgique this year has not resulted in much ongoing readership after the first episode. Of course, if you are reading this, you’re part of the solution, not the problem! And, it could simply be that this season isn’t very popular – it is one of the least-seen franchises. However, unless things change, this might be the only non-English franchise I cover this year. As much as I love to write about Drag Race, I could use this same time to write about comic books!

If you’re enjoying my writing (either during the run of the season or after the fact), please share this post on social media or in your favorite Drag Race communities or group chats! I’d love to have a reason to continue to cover every franchise of Drag Race.

An intellectual episode evened out our powers rankings a bit compared to last week’s disastrous Girl Groups challenge and its big power rankings shakeup. I think we now have a clear-eyed look at how this season might progress from here.

(Want to watch Drag Race Belgique outside of Belgium? For most of the world, it’s available with a Wow Presents Plus subscription as soon as the episode is done airing.)

Lecteurs, start your engines. Et, que la meilleure Drag Queen gagne!

Drag Race Belgique Season 2, Episode 3 – “Jawadde Dadde” Girl Groups Power Rankings

February 16, 2024 by krisis

Bon retour, mes chers lecteurs, dans plus de classements! Drag Race Belgique Season 2 Episode 3 was titled “Jawadde Dadde,” which had nothing to do with its Girl Groups challenge and Art Nouveau runway theme.

(The internet is cagey on the literal meaning of the Flemish expression “Jawadde Dadde,” a phrase uttered by guest judge Gaëlle Garcia Diaz. As far as I can tell, it’s an idiomatic phrase of that can mean anything from an exclamation of surprise (“oh my god” or “no way!”) to an expression of incredulity or exasperation (“oh my” or “really?”). It doesn’t have a direct translation in part because it is written phonetically the way it is spoken in certain regions – the actual words would be “ja wat dat.” If you translated it directly you’d get something like “Yes-what, that?!” If any of you readers can offer a better explanation, please comment!)

Jawadde Dadde was a study in contrasts, with a disastrous main challenge and a runway that reminded me of the reasons I loved Drag Race Belgique Season 1.

This episode’s Girl Groups performance posed the question: What if a Drag Race cast completely failed at one of the show’s standard challenges? I’m not sure if Girl Groups simply aren’t all that revered in Belgium or if we have an entire cast of non-singing non-dancers. Whatever the reason, it resulted in some truly questionable vocals and what surely ranks amongst the worst choreography in the history of Drag Race.

It’s a pity it turned out that way, because – as the queens pointed out – the instrumental track they were handed was a perfect rip-off of Robin S.’s “Show Me Love.”

The results could not have been more different on an Art Nouveau runway, which showed off the intellectualism and obsession with art that was so proudly on display in Season 1. Every queen presented something with at least one magnificent detail, which caused the judges to briefly feud over what ought to be considered Art Nouveau or allowed on an Art Nouveau runway. We saw one truly stunning runway hit the bottom purely for mixing up its period references.

(Yes, we’ve seen RuPaul go nuclear over 60s bouffant hair on a 70s outfit, but none of those 70s outfits were as opulent as this one!)

I love that Drag Race Belgique can assign an entire art movement as a runway theme with confidence that its cast will think deeply about how to symbolize it. I don’t think many of the other franchises could get away with that. Imagine if American Drag Race assigned ” Art Nouveau” as a theme! I’m sure we wouldn’t see the same results.

To me, this episode makes a good argument that if Drag Race continues to appear around the globe that some of its staple challenges ought to be better localized. Yes, we’ll always want to see Snatch Game and a Ball Challenge, but I wish we could see a full main challenge on Drag Race Belgique that leans into the show’s obsession with fashion and art history rather than it being constrained only to the runway.

An uneven episode led to uneven power rankings, with a new queen surging to the top and a surprising queen in contention for the finale compared to last week’s “Drag-en-Ciel” design challenge recap.

(Want to watch Drag Race Belgique outside of Belgium? For most of the world, it’s available with a Wow Presents Plus subscription as soon as the episode is done airing.)

Lecteurs, start your engines. Et, que la meilleure Drag Queen gagne!

RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 16, Episode 5 – Girl Groups & “Faster Pussycat Wig Wig” runway Power Rankings

February 4, 2024 by krisis

RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 16, Episode 5 was a Girl Groups challenge paired with a wide-open runway prompt: Faster Pussycat Wig Wig! The combination let the queens really show of their range and their imagination. It resulted in strong showings from the entire cast and the tightest judging so far this season.

Drag Race can sometimes be stingy with music options when it comes to its mid-season “Girl Groups” songwriting challenges. Even with strong songwriters like Leland on the production team, often we get a somewhat limp instrumental track without much implied melody for queens to work with.

(There have been some obvious exceptions on the international franchises, like MNEK’s outstanding “Break Up (Bye Bye)” for UK Season 1).

On this episode, the queens got to work with three genuine RuPaul tracks – and, all three of them are absolute bops with House music flavor. Ru has always produced highly-entertaining, booty-shaking dance music. Last year’s record, Black Butta, felt as though it leaned out of making club-ready drag music and slightly more into the current pop mainstream. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that the mainstream has been loving House music influences for the past few years, in no small part thanks to Beyoncé.

For my dollar, “Stay Baby” is the best production of these three tracks, but “Courage to Love” is some of Ru’s better inspiro-pop, and as goofy as “ASMR Lover” is as a title it’s a catch tune.

Was it the high quality of these songs that led to such an outstanding trio of girl groups this episode? Or, do we really have a cast of 12 highly-capable queens who know how to both write and sing? I feel like I was considerably harder on the lyrics produced by the All-Winners for their Girl Groups than I am on the lyrics from this cast.

I was asking the same question for this runway prompt. “Faster Pussycat Wig Wig” is basically just a wig-styling assignment. To this cast’s credit, only one of them took it as a signal to do a full-on cat-themed look – and even she used that to play with proportions in an interesting way. Everyone else got imaginative, and while I didn’t love every outfit there were barely any BOOTs in the mix.

(Although, I think it’s telling that both of the frontrunners pulled the same “the wig is a cat” gag as each other, both layering it on top of another reveal. To me, that was a real “they cracked the code” sort of moment. Both queens seem to have an intrinsic understanding of the beats they need to hit to please Ru, while the other queens chasing them are having trouble finding that rhythm.)

Speaking of trouble with rhythm, this may have been the most-entertaining choreography rehearsal we’ve ever seen on the American franchise. Each group had its unique challenges to surmount, which lead not only to funny moments on stage, but absolutely righteous moments between the eight queens watching the rehearsal.

In the end, the Girl Group performances were so tight that you could easily make the case for any queen to be on the top of this episode. Instead of going for an obvious “one top and one bottom from each team” critique, the show instead bucked tradition for the US franchise and handed out a group win. As a result, that yielded a painfully obvious pair of bottoms – one due to the girl groups, the other due to the runway.

That means we’ve got a handful of big shake-ups in the power rankings compared to last week’s power rankings for RDR Live. In a week where every queen does well, it forces me to really pick apart their momentum. What are their narratives in the edit? What is the story for them Ru seems to be telling with her critiques? And, do they have any hope of lasting until the finale when two (or maybe three) of the top spots already feel like they’re all locked up?

Readers, start your engines. And, may the best drag queen win!