Drag Race icon Laganja Estranja talks new tunes, transitioning and turning the party, mawma
Laganja Estranja dishes on her new single “HAWT”, the next steps in her transition journey, her lasting legacy in the RuPaul’s Drag Race Ru-niverse, and beyond.
When PinkNews logs on to a Zoom call with the one and only Laganja Estranja, she declares: “I’ve taken my vitamins, taken my HRT and I’m ready to go”.
It’s that infectious personality that caused fans to fall in love with the queen way back on season six of RuPaul’s Drag Race in 2014. But as she discusses while speaking to PinkNews about her new single “HAWT”, she’s come a long way from feeling very attacked.
Laganja has just dropped the tune, arguably one of the catchiest summer bangers this year, exclusively on Gala Music, and the inspiration behind “HAWT” was threefold; not only does the single serve as the perfect feel-good summer banger, as well as the maiden voyage between Ganja and Gala Music, but it also showcases the growth of the queen into someone well on her way to pop stardom.
“[I wanted] a Pride anthem, something that felt good for the queer community, but also a song that really represented ‘Hot Gala Summer’, which is what Gala Music is doing right now,” she explains.
“I’m thrilled to be a part of that lineup, and I wanted to create an anthem for them and anthem for us… My music has messages behind it, and this one is all about fun, and being hot and sexy and being with your friends, celebrating summer. And of course feeling proud.”
The music video for “HAWT” is Ms. Estranja’s directorial debut. Steeped in sunlight and sexy choreography, helming the project was a new challenge for the Queen Bud.
“This was such an undertaking, but I’m really glad I did it,” she admits. “I proved to myself that I can do pretty much everything on my own… I did want to prove to myself, that I can write out the storyboard, the vision, and then execute it while also still being on camera. It was a really freeing experience. I feel like it taught me a lot about myself.”
There’s also multiple reasons Gala was the way to go for one Laganja Estranja; the service partners with artists to let them keep a majority of their streaming revenue – unlike others – and also lets them manage their music, merchandise, and directly interact with their supporters. For Laganja, that means an autographed photo of the album cover or a smoke session with the icon herself in her LA garden…
“It’s incredible,” she gushes, adding, that she’s “never really worked in the web three space or with NFTs. So I’m really just like taking it slow. But I’m learning a lot along the way.”
As well as being a trailblazer in the music industry, Laganja is one of Drag Race‘s most iconic contestants, both of all time, and also to come out as trans.
She did so as a trans woman in 2021, and has been living proudly ever since; shortly after she made the announcement, in 2022, Drag Race entered an era that one could only call ‘The Reign of Tranos’. As helmed by season 14’s Kerri Colby, the iteration of the franchise ended up with the most trans contestants (Colby, Willow Pill, Bosco, Kornbread and Jasmine Kennedie).
For Laganja, seeing more and more girls following in her footsteps is a “beautiful thing”.
“We see people more and more comfortable to be themselves not only in the outside spaces in the clubs, but also in the forms of contestants on the show,” she says. “I think this is something that has existed for a very long time… but it’s been very hard to talk about.
Laganja adds a heartfelt caveat to the above, though, saying she, “just hope[s] that these other individuals who are coming forward at their early stages are going to be open, be vulnerable, talk about the difficulties [of being trans]… I wanted to see myself when I was young and I didn’t get to, so I’m hoping that for someone else I can be that.”
The “HAWT” pop goddess adds that, further to revealing to People that she is “ready to start exploring surgery” as the next steps in her transition, she’s got the dates booked in for early September
“I was living in my body unhappy for over a year, I tried exercising, I tried dieting, it just wasn’t working,” she tells us.
“Ultimately, I knew [surgery] was the long term plan, even though I tried to pretend that I could get healthy, I knew the plan was to eventually have … fat transfer. I’ve just been scared, you know, it’s a big step. And I wanted to make sure I was ready.”
“A lot of people pressured me … to have a surgery right away,” Laganja adds. “And this is why I’ve tried to be so open and vulnerable, so that people can see there are different options. There are plenty of trans people who can’t afford surgeries or don’t want surgeries. And that doesn’t make them any more or less valid as a trans individual.”
Paving the way as a trans trailblazer isn’t the only feather in Laganja’s cap; ten years on from her Drag Race tenure, and her vernacular on Drag Race lives on in the lexicon of homosexuals et al everywhere. Is it something that the icon herself ever thinks about?
“I mean, of course. I’m an artist!” she laughs. “All artists think about their influence and hope that they’re leaving their mark on society in the world at large. So I definitely think about it, and I’m very grateful for it – now, obviously I want to grow on that impact…”
And grow on that impact she has. So where to next, for Laganja, then?
“I try to remain true to myself… I’ve discovered through making songs like “HAWT”, which is more pop forward, that it really is my passion. And I do see myself as a pop star, and I do see myself with the ability to be on bigger stages. And I think my music is a way to achieve that.”
“HAWT” by Laganja Estranja is available exclusively on Gala Music.
