Mother has arrived.
At first brush, the queens in the Werk Room underestimated the power and presence of Melinda Verga — but that would all change very quickly as she established herself as one of the most charismatic queens to enter the hallowed halls of Canada’s Drag Race, period.
She crushed every comedy and improv challenge that came her way — including The Snatch Game — but it was this queen’s lowest moment that proved to also be her highest. Following a design challenge in which Melinda transformed a plaid coat into a “Vivian Westwood-inspired” dress that did not leave the judges gagging, the pressure and critiques finally made her break down. In that moment, she let the world have it, and the audience, oh honey, we were “feeling our goats.”
Melinda almost left the show at that moment, but her sisters rallied around her. With the help of the Golden Beaver, she remained on the show and continued to share her charisma, uniqueness, nerve, and talent with a now utterly obsessed audience.
While she fell just shy of making it into the finale following the makeover challenge and lip sync against this season’s assassin, Nearah Nuff, she certainly left her mark on Drag Race herstory.
Plus, she got to share an incredible moment with her partner Scott, who she made over in the episode — a moment that was deeply meaningful for the two of them, not only because it’s a dream come true for Melinda, but because it almost didn’t happen at all. In the lead-up to the show, Scott suffered a mini-stroke that left him in the hospital just as Melinda was getting ready to leave for taping. To not only see her thriving in the competition but him getting to join her on stage was a profoundly poignant moment.
PRIDE caught up with Melinda to talk about her time on the show, how she’s feeling about the fan reaction, and why she decided to do Drag Race even in a moment of personal crisis.
PRIDE: I’m so excited and heartbroken to chat with you today. I will say, maybe you didn’t snatch the crown, but your run on Canada’s Drag Race has been iconic. But how do you feel about how you did?
MELINDA VERGA: I’m just extremely grateful for this dream of a journey that I’ve had on the show. Watching myself go from a high to a low to a high high, just experiencing everything, including being eliminated, you know, and getting to write a message on the mirror. I got the full Drag Race experience. On top of that, I’m still in the next episode. I’m on every episode girl!
I’m just so happy to be so proud as well of the truth and the authenticity I was able to show. And I’m super glad that that is resonating with the fans because I think that’s something that everyone has been craving for a long time on Drag Race. that courage to show the good, the bad, and the ugly, and be unapologetic about it.
That’s so true, I actually just talked to Kiki Coe about this. There’s so much pressure to perform for the fandom and so much fear of fandom reaction that we’re losing out on authenticity. But you have reminded us of what we’ve been missing. What do you think of the fan reaction — and do you have a favorite meme?
I was oblivious to a lot of this up until recently. I was at near Nearah Nuff’s house — she and I are friends in real life — and I was cuddling with her dog on the couch. She’s just on social media and she’s just like, ‘Girl, you gotta see this. Oh my god, you gotta see this.’ I’m like, ‘What? What’s going on? What’s happening now?’ So she showed me that thread of memes on X of me as an album cover, and I’m just like, ‘Oh my fucking god, I’m dead. I cannot. The fans are unhinged.’ And I love them because that’s how I love people: unhinged.
I am just so glad you’re getting the love you deserve. Can you talk a little about what seeing yourself on the show has taught you about yourself?
What I’ve learned, as I watched myself on TV, is that I have grown to really just embrace myself wholeheartedly. 100%. The good, the bad, the ugly, all the bad angles, all the bad makeup, whatever, let your hair down. At the end of the day, my filter is: Did you have fun? Did you enjoy yourself? Did you give it your all at that moment? Are you proud of what you’re presented there? If I can say yes, yes, yes, yes to all of that, then that’s all I need.
Courtesy of World of Wonder
I do feel we got to see you have a lot of fun. But you also had some really vulnerable moments like when your partner Scott showed up, in the most recent episode. What was it like to get to share your love story with the world? And if Scott has seen the episode, what did he think of it?
We haven’t had a chance to watch it again. We usually watch the episode after a viewing party, because of the screaming and everything. It’s just a lot. I just know that the time that he was there to film the show after we did our runway walk on the main stage — and how many people can say that they have been on Drag Race to do the runway walk? When we did our walk, he said, ‘This is one of the happiest days of my life.’ That was it. Game over. I’d already won.
That’s amazing.
This is the guy who, a few months ago, I wasn’t sure was going to be himself again. Because as he was devolving at the emergency room, the day that he had his mini-stroke, that it was a different person, it was a different person.
Courtesy of World of Wonder
It’s amazing how those moments can really highlight and tell you exactly how you feel about one another and solidify that kind of commitment. So I can’t even imagine what it must have been like to leave to go to Drag Race. Yeah. How did you approach making that choice?
This is while they were doing CAT scans on Scott, they did three that morning, one after the other in a span of three hours. So we were going through all of this, [my sister-in-law] says, ‘We got him, you got to do this.’ So knowing that my family support was there, unconditionally, really helped me decide that, yeah, I gotta do this.
By that I also took [it that], I’d have to do this not just for myself, but also for my family. I have three nephews that I want to inspire. So I also did that for them. And also my community and everyone that is going to see me and see my journey. It’s not the perfect journey. But God damn, it’s memorable.
