Lady Gaga changed Drag Race forever by defying the show’s producers, Sasha Velour and Peppermint reveal
Lady Gaga joined RuPaul for the Drag Race season nine premiere. (VH1)
Drag Race royalty Sasha Velour and Peppermint spilled the tea on how Lady Gaga’s incredible season nine guest appearance changed the show forever.
Season nine of Drag Race kicked off with a Lady Gaga spectacular, with the pop icon walking into the werk room paws first before later judging the queens on their own Gaga eleganzas.
Memorably, the Chromatica singer kiki’d with the queens in the Untucked lounge, which Peppermint revealed set a precedent.
“Lady Gaga seemed to do something unusual and make it a point to come back and connect with us. It seemed as though she was genuinely touched that we had put so much into these tribute looks to her,” she told Entertainment Weekly’s BINGE podcast.
“When she came back into the [werk] room, she really came back with some constructive feedback and criticism, but that was preceded by a nice, pretty good conversation.
“A very honest conversation about what it’s like to be a queen and how she identifies with us and how closely she feels connected to us, and that was something I didn’t expect.”
Sasha Velour and Peppermint at the Drag Race finale. (VH1)
Peppermint noted that since then, multiple guest judges have visited the queens in the Untucked lounge.
“Now it’s like, oh, every single episode when a star comes, here’s their walk back, but that was the first time I remember that happened,” she continued.
Sasha Velour explained how Gaga’s visit was unprompted, recalling how she “insisted” on coming backstage.
“There was even a moment when the producers were kind of like, trying to get her to wrap it up, because she had hand-written notes about each and every one of us, and she went through, took her time, and gave individual feedback to each of us sitting right there.
“They were like, ‘Ok, we’ve got to get back to filming!’ And she was like, ‘No, I’m going to finish this!'”
Gaga’s appearance marked a new era of Drag Race. Her’s was the first episode to air on VH1, after the show jumped from Logo.
It drew almost one million viewers – double the season eight premiere and the show’s highest-ever rating at the time.
Her emotional sit-down with the queens aired after the premiere, on Drag Race: Untucked. The full episode is available to watch below.
