Tonight’s the night that a new Queen of the Mother Pucking World will begin her reign, and we can’t wait to see how it turns out. And with a finalist lineup that includes Lemon, Cheryl, Alexis Mateo, and Kennedy, we, as the audience, can’t lose.
Canada’s Drag Race: Canada vs. the World season two has been a blast with every episode bringing laughter, drama, and stunning lewks. OG queens like Kennedy and Alexis brought the DGAF energy of the early seasons that felt refreshing and fun, while newer school queens like Lemon and Cheryl served camp, humor, and runway excellence.
We are truly living through a golden era for Drag Race fans!
In the lead up to tonight’s big reveal, PRIDE sat down with two of the finalists, Cheryl and Lemon, to talk about what this season meant to them. How it just hit a little different for both of the queens, who have experienced both high-highs and low-lows during their time in the Drag Race milieu. They open up about what made them face their fears and come back; how this experience was both very different and very healing; and we get a glimpse at the true, supportive friendship these girls share outside the show. In other words, we had a kiki.
Courtesy of World of Wonder
PRIDE: I want to go back to the very beginning. I want to go back to the moment that you kind of got the call to be in the cast. When you were making the decision to come back, how confident were you that you would be sitting here today?
LEMON: Honestly, I was so, so terrified. They called, and I spent the whole phone call, with my hand shaking. I was like, ‘um I don’t know,’ because it felt wrong to say no. Dag Race is calling. Why would you say no? But it also was so scary to say yes after what happened last time.
I can’t even say that I was thinking about, ‘Oh, I’m gonna make it to the finale. All I wanted to do was just come back and show myself off again and have a redemption from the last time. So it wasn’t necessarily about making it to the end, or trying to win. For me, it was just about like, I need to go back and show myself and also show that I haven’t been defeated by the shitty things that have happened. Because it’s easy to feel like, ‘Oh, I’m never doing it again.’ Or, ‘it didn’t work last time, I’m never going back.’ But at the end of the day, it didn’t crush me, and it didn’t ruin my life, and it didn’t make me bad at drag or or take away all my incredible accomplishments.
CHERYL: I was actually in hospital visiting my granddad, and the phone rings, and I go, okay, when this phone call happens, it’s either one or two things. It’s either one, you’ve done something bad, or two, you’re going back to Drag Race. I picked up the phone. I was like, what one is it? I was just like, do you know what? I’m ready. Because for the longest time I was saying to people, maybe, maybe in the future, but right now, it’s a hard no, because I needed to build myself back up from the ground, because I was so crushed.
I spoke about it two episodes ago, how everybody was like hyping Lemon, hyping Jimbo, hyping Pangina after they got eliminated, but nobody gave a fuck that I went so I was like, well, maybe I just never should go back, because people don’t want me back. They didn’t want me here. So, I needed to get myself back in that headspace of ‘no, you’ve got so much to prove.’ And what did I do? Four out of five challenges, absolutely mopped the floor.
So it was the perfect way to come back and showcase that I can do it. Everything that I’ve done beyond this show in the real world I’m showcasing here on this stage, finally. Because we weren’t given an opportunity, we had a talent show on a ball, and looks are never going to be my strong suit, madam. So I said these challenges, we’ve got to absolutely boss it. Lemon’s got two wins and in the top every single week, and I was there right by her side apart from one week.
Courtesy of World of Wonder
When I think about you both, I think “fan favorites.” You’re both beloved, but i know sometimes that’s not what comes through. Has the fan response felt different this time?
LEMON: I think what it’s like is there are 500 positive comments, but it’s the one negative, nasty thing that really is the one that, absorbs into your brain. It’s sometimes all you can think about. So, I will say, I think both Chez and I were loved, both times and and this time as well. But for me, this time, I’ve kind of learned that Dr Race fans are never going to be happy. That’s the real tea no matter what happens, no matter who does what, no matter how the judges do their thing, no matter how the eliminations are chosen, no matter what, someone’s going to be pissed off. At the end of the day, I just had to realize, who the fuck cares what everyone thinks? I’m just going to focus on what I think and that’s all I can be in charge of.
CHERYL: One thing I did this time round was actually not read anything. I think I did that to protect my own psyche, purely because of how broken it has been in past seasons and like, people will always gas me up, like I’m the funny queen. I will always give you the confessionals ridiculous, but nobody would ever comment on my talent, or they’d comment on my talent in a negative light. So I said, coming into the season, I need to protect myself. But Lemon called me the other day. She was like, ‘I know you don’t read the comments, bitch, but open, open your fucking phone, because you need to see what people have been saying.’
I got so emotional this weekend because it was just like, stream after stream after stream. Normally it’s like, 12 negative comments for one nice one, so you’re looking for that one. But this time, I couldn’t even find one negative one, and I was just so taken aback, because it’s something I’ve never experienced in my five years of being part of this Drag Race world. People have said I finally got my flowers. I feel it. I feel like I could open a florist with the amount of flowers I’ve got, but Lemon has said that I need to stop gassing up everybody else and finally, be my own hype girl. And I’m getting there. I’m getting there. I love people too much.
LEMON : Cheryl’s always been that girl who’s gonna hype up everyone in the dressing room and make sure everyone else feels good. But I’m like, ‘no!’ I think being high for four weeks of the entire competition is a huge accomplishment. I think if it had been a top two where two girls get a win every week, I think Cheryl would have at least three wins. So let’s clock that tea.
Courtesy of World of Wonder
totally agree! If it had been a lip-sync for your legacy situation we would have seen a lot of you lip syncing!
CHERYL: Well I might have been kept around if it was that case.
This season we saw a ton of incredible moments but I’m curious if each of you has a favorite memory from filming?
CHERYL: This never happened on camera, because it wouldn’t be allowed. Every day, me and Lemon with the [production] team, would play Family Feud.
LEMON: [Laughs] Oh, my God, I forgot about this!
CHERYL: We would come in. We would get the [production] team to get more questions, that would be their homework each night, and come in, they’d be like, we surveyed 100 Canadians, and then we would stand there with our hands behind our back. We’d then play. So like, I’d go, boom [gestures like she’s hitting a buzzer], and I’d be like, ‘Crisps, potato chips,’ and they’d be like, ‘Top answer.’ And then I’d look at an imaginary team, and I’d go, ‘We’re gonna play!’ [Laughs]
LEMON: It’s hard because we don’t have cell phones, so we really do have to find a way to entertain ourselves. So we were playing the most insane games. [Laughs]
I’ll tell you my favorite moment was when Cheryl started keeping track of the track records in her room. And so every morning, she would come in and give me the ‘facts of Drag Race,’ and she would give me, ‘Okay, this is the first girl to have ever won this challenge this season. This is the first girl. You’re the first girl to do this. You’re the first girl to do this.’ And then she would tell us, ‘You’re at 53 points, and she’s at 42 points, and she’s at 31 points. And I just thought it was the funniest thing ever that we had both just diverted into 14 year old girls, because we were both so excited to still be here and so excited to see all of the like fans talking about track records and blah, blah, blah, because finally, both of us actually had a good one.
Courtesy of World of Wonder
Professor Cheryl, my goodness, you got your PhD in Drag Race statistics!
LEMON: It was very that! So that was definitely my favorite. It cracked me up every time, because she was so serious about it. And was like, calculating it to a T and she was right. This is exactly how they do it!
Let’s end on a silly question! So this week you are also crowning a Miss Congeniality. Let’s give out some other prizes. Speed round style!
Best Judy?
CHERYL: Lemon or Kennedy
LEMON: I would say the same.
Most Shady?
BOTH: Fiercalicious
Messiest Mirror Neighbor?
CHERYL: Eureka loves to lay everything out. So it’s not technically messy, but it’s just everything.
LEMON: She does take up a lot of space on the desk, but it’s not messy. It’s very laid out.There’s eight pieces of paper towel.
Best Package?
LEMON: Mine.
CHERYL: Yeah, Lemon. Lemon or Alexis.
LEMON: Or Fierce. Fierce did have a great package, too. Her runways were spectacular.
CHERYL: Oh yeah, if we don’t say Fierce we’re over. [Laughs]
Most Smashable?
LEMON: Brad Goreski
CHERYL: One of the producers. I'm not naming who, but Lemon knows.
