It’s time, my drag-loving darlings! That’s right, we’ve made it through a year of ten spinoff seasons of Drag Race to return to the mothership! And, mother has arrived with a massive cast of queens, so put on your reading glasses and get ready for my RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 15 Pre-Season Power Rankings.
This will be my eighth year writing about Drag Race in some form or another, which is wild! This time around, there’s plenty to write about: the show is launching with sixteen drag artists! The most, ever!
Each weekend (life allowing) I’ll share my Drag Race Power Rankings after the episode airs. My Drag Power Rankings aren’t about how good a queen is at drag or how much I personally like them. They are purely about predicting how well a queen might perform on the show based on their performance to date and how they are treated by the show’s editors
When it comes to the Pre-Season, I base my rankings off of two watches of each queen’s “Meet The Queens” promo interview and a quick 5-minute spin through their social media.
My Power Rankings are not about tearing any artist down. I revere Drag Race because I think it’s the most challenging competition show on television. Contestants need to act, sing, dance, model, lip sync, host, perform stand-up, sell products, write songs, make their own costumes, and more – all while applying face after face of stunning and intricate make-up. At this point in my life I’ve tried to do the majority of those things individually and they’re all pretty challenging.
And, I’ve done very few of them while wearing a corset and high heels.
While the tone of some of my critiques can be very pointed, every queen who competes on Drag Race is a world-class artist. I respect every one of them. I could spend an entire year and not get close to any of their performances in most challenges (except, of course, for songwriting).
One thing to keep in mind is that these “Meet The Queens” promos are shot after some or all of the season is complete. That means that the queens are interviewing with full knowledge of who will be first out and who will be a frontrunner. Drawing conclusions from these interviews isn’t just about prognosticating. Sometimes there are obvious tells from the queens about how things are going to go.
Who’s on top based on first impressions solely from their Meet The Queens and social media? And, who do I think is likely to receive the first boot when the season premieres on MTV this Friday?
Readers, start your engines! And, may the best drag queen win! [Read more…] about RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 15 – Pre-Season “Meet The Queens” Power Rankings