There’s avant-garde, and then there’s Sasha Velour, the current reigning queen of RuPaul’s Drag Race. The bald provocateur with a penchant for pop-art crowns and futuristic drag couture turned in two dazzling performances in the show’s sudden-death lip-sync finale on Friday, ultimately taking home the crown after a long season as a fan favorite. The first performance saw Velour pull her wig off to reveal a flurry of rose petals at the height of Whitney Houston’s “So Emotional,” a moment that instantly fluttered its way into the halls of Drag Race herstory and pushed RuPaul to crown her the winner over fellow competitors Shea Couleé, Trinity Taylor, and Peppermint.
In an interview, Velour gets candid about the challenges of doing a sudden-death performance, the nightcap she shared with Shea, and what she would have done if her first lip-sync song (the queens had to pick songs at random from a pair of suitcases) had been to Britney Spears’s “Stronger.”
Vanity Fair: I have to start with the rose petals. Can you tell me about the concept and how much you had to practice getting the gloves off just right?
Sasha Velour: Well, I knew that the lip-sync had to be really, really show-stopping, since we were really battling each other for the crown. I like to have some element of storytelling beyond my face or my costume or my movement. The rose petals came to mind because the idea of like, “He loves me, he loves me not,” because of that song. I prepared completely different reveals and performances for each of the different numbers.
What would your Britney Spears number have been?
I had scissors strapped to my thighs when I stepped out onto the stage and I was going to cut the wig until I was bald. [Laughs]
Is that something you’ve done before, or was it a new concept?
I’ve never done it before, ever. I thought that’d be appropriate for Britney and for the song. I told them [the producers] there was gonna be a lot of cleanup, no matter what.
In the chaos of the moment after you won, did you get a moment with Ru?
Yeah, it was just a passing moment where I got to step aside and tell her how much this experience has meant to me. The fact that they placed so much appreciation on my drag has completely changed my life, and the way that I think about myself, and the way that I think about what I’m capable of . . . it’s pretty magical. I’m excited to share the spotlight that I’m getting with the people in my community who have inspired and changed my drag. A superstar doesn’t just use the spotlight for themselves.
Now you’re forever tied to the three other queens, Trinity, Shea, and Peppermint. What did you guys do after the episode was done?
We were all completely exhausted, but that night I actually shared a cocktail with Shea in the hotel bar. We all went into that finale knowing that it was gonna be a battle, and our goal was to put on a great show. We’re all performers first and foremost, so it was an opportunity to show that. And I think we all left the experience—obviously with disappointment or excitement—but all feeling like, “Wow, the four of us should put on a show together because that was some great drag.” Everyone approached it with their own twist, but all of us know how to give shows and that is the essence of fabulous, unforgettable drag.
What did you and Shea talk about when you had a chance to have a cocktail?
We thought we had kind of escaped having to showdown against each other after being basically neck-and-neck for so many wins during the season. We thought they were inevitably gonna make us lip-sync against each other . . . the drama would be too amazing. And then we thought we survived the season without having to face each other! So it was pretty dramatic having to compete for the crown in that moment. But when we had a chance to talk, she congratulated me on having brought showmanship to that moment. We all were completely deserving of getting there, and it just came down to this kind of challenge.
Some fans were worried the sudden-death lip-sync might invalidate all the work you did over the course of the season. What would you say to those fans?
The work from the season is what got us in the top four [laughs]. The judges felt like they needed more information to determine which of us was going to climb to the top of the pack. It had to be more information than is provided in a typical finale. So I think that they switched it up to see who has the real traditions of drag, which is speaking in front of a live audience and then giving amazing shows that take people on an amazing journey. In some ways it’s more in keeping with the traditions of drag than the show necessarily has been in the past. I thought it was thrilling [laughs], but obviously I’m biased.
What do you see yourself doing now that you have this prize money?
The most important thing is I put the money in creative projects that I’ve been working on for a while. I have an art magazine about drag called Velour, named after myself, and I have a monthly show called Nightgowns that curates and presents some of the most creative and high-quality drag in a professional theater setting. I want to take this projects on the road and use them to connect and curate drag across the country and the world, and connect small-town drag with big-city drag. I want to follow in RuPaul’s footsteps, which is that combination of not just personal stardom, but to really transform myself into a producer of drag. That’s the way to make a lasting impact on the world of drag and . . . to make actual differences in the queer community. I think there’s no better model for that than RuPaul.
Do you remember any of the stuff you did early on when you were a fledgling drag queen?
It’s funny that you say that, because there’s a number that I’ve kept with me from the very, very first year that I did drag. It’s a performance where I transform into Gollum from Lord of the Rings over the course of the song. That speaks to the origin of my drag style, where all of my drag was monster drag. I wore prosthetics, I had funky teeth, kind of like the character that I showed in the sidekick challenge [in Episode 3]. I was really drawn to that because, for whatever reason during that period, that was the type of femme queerness that I needed to tap into for myself. I loved keeping the number with me—and that was the first number that I performed after winning on Saturday night in D.C. I wanted to step back and honor the full continuity of my drag journey.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
