“RuPaul’s Drag Race” Season 14 will crown America’s next drag superstar on April 22 when the finale airs on VH1. With that, the winning queen will also receive a cash prize of $150,000, the highest amount awarded to date. Additionally, for the first time in the history of drag race, the runner-up will also receive $50,000 cash prize, powered by Cash App.
The season brought together 14 queens from around the world with Angeria Paris VanMicheals, Bosco, Willow Pill, Lady Camden and Daya Betty still standing on the runway in hopes of taking home the coveted crown. The latest episode airing April 8 will see the queens play catty supermodels battling for the spotlight in the music video for RuPaul’s new hit song, “Catwalk.” Michelle Visage, Ross Mathews and Carson Kressley all return to serve as judges.
The Season 14 reunion will air on April 15, one week from the finale to reflect on highlights from the season.
April 22 will see the finalists battle it out in an extraordinary lip-sync as they compete live from the Flamingo Showroom, which is home to the “RuPaul’s Drag Race Live” show.
For several seasons, the “Drag Race” franchise has expanded its vision of what defines a drag queen. The just-concluded third season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race U.K.” included the franchise’s first cisgender woman, Victoria Scone, who identifies as a lesbian. The first season of “Drag Race U.K.” featured a bisexual performer, Scaredy Kat, who had a girlfriend when he was on the show. The most recent season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars” was won by Kylie Sonique Love, the first out trans woman to win in franchise history. And last year, “Drag Race” featured its first trans male contestant, Gottmik, who identifies as pansexual.
This season, Maddy Morphosis became the first cisgender heterosexual queen to compete on “Drag Race,” while Kerri Colby and Kornbread openly announced they were trans women when the season started. As the episodes played out, three other queens came out as trans. Bosco, made the announcement via Twitter. She wrote, “I can’t really think of a better time to tell y’all so here it goes: I’m straight too.”
Jasmine Kennedie opened up about her gender identity and her journey. During the aftershow “Untucked,” Kennedie opened up to her castmates saying, “Before coming here I was about to start hormones, and coming here I was scared and I didn’t want to have to go through this process while going through that. But seeing Kerri and seeing how confident she is in who she is, it just further affirmed what I’ve been feeling my whole life.”
Willow Pill, an audience favorite shared via social media, “I really started to realize that I’m not happy with my gender identity either. Much of that is due to being on ‘Drag Race’ and feeling euphoria being Willow for the first time since quarantine and being around a bunch of queer and trans friends on set.” She added, “I’m still not sure where I fit on the spectrum, for now I just say trans femme, but I also don’t have to know now.”
From Variety US