Priyanka is the Drag Race Winner Making the Most of Her Win

In the years to come, this period will be remembered for certain cultural events; the death of Britain’s longest serving royal old boot, the legislative crack down on queer lives and trans rights, and the meteoric rise to stardom of the queen Priyanka. 

After winning the premiere season of Canada’s Drag Race, Priyanka has been a non stop tour de force; making music, celebrity appearances, viral videos and generally infecting us all with her inimitable joie de vivre. Previously, I would have said the timing of her Drag Race run was fortuitous, airing during the first lockdown of the Covid-19 pandemic to what was, essentially, a captive audience - but everything Priyanka has accomplished since shows us that she truly would have become a star with or without such flattering exposure. Our culture editor Misha MN managed to sit down with her just before embarking on the marathon of DragCon LA, a weekend that brings out the brightest and the best of all the franchises, and heard about her hopes and dreams, her new music and her thoughts on fellow icons Priyanka Chopra and Christine Quinn.

Priyanka, so nice to see you, how is LA?

It's wild, I’m staying at the Millennium Baltimore which is like a haunted hotel where they shot The Shining in. Even the lobby is haunted because of all the drag queens. It's like DragCon downstairs. Last night we came home from dinner and Bianca Del Rio was checking in. What keeps happening is that I get into these really deep conversations with all the queens, and end up helping them take their bags to their rooms and shit! It's the Canadian girl in me! I just have to help everyone. 

So what are you looking forward to most about this DragCon? 

Last year was such a whirlwind because it was my first one and I was so excited to set up a booth as movie theatre to show everyone my big cinematic universe. This year, I'm most excited because it is the full circle of the promotional material behind my single Bad Bitches Don't Cry. The story is about this fucking teacher who told me I'm not going to be a star. How do I tell my fans that that's the story? I'll put it in the music video! 

I went to my high school on Sunday, we're driving by randomly and I was like, Oh my God, we have to do the TikTok dance in front of my high school. So we pull up, we snuck into the parking lot and I did the Bad Bitches Don't Cry and it fucking blew up! Everyone's like oh my god this is amazing. 

My booth is Bad Bitch High. I've created a school that has lockers, an award display case, chalkboard and a teacher's desk. Then the photo op is like a class photo of all the different Priyankas. Everyone gets to take a class of Bad Bitch 2023 photo with me. I've created the safe space that I wished my school was and I'm excited for my fans to feel the love.

You’ve recorded the song with Ralph, who you met on Canada’s Drag Race, right?

I love her. I wrote the song with her. And it's funny. I liked her music, but I wasn't sure if it was going to be a match. And then when we sat in the recording studio and she was like, I have an idea. Bad Bitches Don't Cry. We end up writing it and becoming besties now. She's so talented. She has a song called Pain Relief coming out. Her shit is fucking good. She's on the brink of something big.

“I do think that we can't stop, we have to be even louder, we have to be more proud of who we are. We have to keep posting, we have to keep being nicer to each other and really having that community base, we're all gonna stick together to fight.”

I read that the track title was inspired by the icon Christine Quinn. If you could give her a message, what would it be?

Oh my god. I think that people are so threatened by her because she is such a bad bitch. I love that she so unapologetically just keeps going despite all of the things that she's faced with. My message for Christine Quinn would be to know that she's a certified bad bitch. She can do whatever she wants to do! And to sell me a house one day. 

I would love to meet her. And borrow her glamsquad, holy shit they make her look like an AI character.

You’ve been absolutely everywhere recently, do you feel like a star now? Or did you always?

I always hoped and I always dreamed of it. When I was in television school, I was like, as long as I'm entertaining people, I'll be the happiest. It doesn't matter! Even in my insecure days where I think that it's all gonna go away, at least I can still go to the local gay bar and perform there for the rest of my life. I just want to entertain people. 

Tell me about your Elle cover! That was so gorgeous.

It's so wild. When it happened, Robbie, my publicist, would talk about how fucking iconic it is all the time, because it felt bigger than anything we could ever imagine, right? You have projects, you get a publicist to get these cool interviews for you and they're working so hard for you. When Elle came knocking on the door, both of us were fucking gagged, because we're like, this is what dreams are made of. 

The experience was amazing. The impact of it was amazing. It ended up being their highest selling issue ever. I was so emotional because this is such a big win for people of colour and brown people and Guyanese people. People need to see that we can do it, it is happening for us.

And also to be obviously a drag artist on the cover of such a prestigious magazine. At the moment, there's all the anti-drag legislation and anti-trans legislation in America, but also it's happening in similar ways in the UK as well. What would your message for fans in places where it's becoming more difficult to be yourself?

This sleeping conservative bear was poked, and now this untapped sea of prejudice has swept up a lot of people - people who weren't bothered about drag queens before, who didn't give a fuck about the LGBTQ+ community before. They were just like ‘they do them, I do me who cares?’ But now there's actual laws in place that are so anti LGBT. It's scary. 

I do think that we can't stop, we have to be even louder, we have to be more proud of who we are. We have to keep posting, we have to keep being nicer to each other and really having that community base, we're all gonna stick together to fight. Mentality is so important. I mean, I'm very lucky because I live in a major city. I feel bad when I go to the smaller cities and they basically have to put on the rainbow eyeshadow, drive really quickly to the bar, go in the door, watch the drag queen, take it off in the car and leave. It's this very like closeted mentality. My hope is that all this hate right now is the peak, and eventually, it's going to explode and be gone. 

I saw that amazing video where you interviewed Priyanka Chopra, what was it like getting to work with her?

She's so beautiful. And so kind. I don't get nervous too often -  like when your stomach is in knots and you're shaking and you can't breathe - I don't get that way for a lot of things, but before I walked into that room my heart was beating in my ears. I was nervous, because you're never sure with people, right? But she was waiting with open arms, the longest hug ever. So beautiful. So incredible, so nice. 

She told me some really great stories of how she had to break barriers to get to where she is. In one world she was such a mega star, a huge Bollywood actress, and then she wanted to come to America to make it. And they tried music with her and it wasn't working. She was like, this makes no sense that I'm this big star in India and then over here, it's not translating. And I relate to that in the Drag Race world. It's happening and then I'm crossing over to mainstream pop music and you gotta pay those dues again, work your way up. It's a good reminder of like, you just gotta make it happen your damn self and you gotta keep going.

Anything else in the pipeline? I know you’ve been booked and blessed for a hot minute!

I was just in a Christmas movie called Meet Me Next Christmas with Christina Milian and Pentatonix. I know, huge! That'll be on Netflix. And then I'm on a Netflix show called Glamorous with Kim Catrall as well. 

Casting drag queens in major roles is so much more frequent now, like Jinkx Monsoon’s doing Doctor Who, Peppermint was in Harlem. It’s a great way of showing representation without being like, this is a gay thing. Casting us as normal characters in a normal situation is one of the most important things right now, and I love doing roles like that. There is something very special about sharing people's stories, and really highlighting how important queer people are in this world! 

Words: Misha MN

We fund our content and pay our contributors as an independent, feminist publication by asking our audience to subscribe as a member. There are tiered perks for members including free print zines, parties, digital content, mentoring and more! Find out more here and we appreciate your support.