In the final episode, Sasha Velour, Peppermint, Sheé Coulee and Trinity Taylor went head-to-head in a lip sync showdown. All four delivered incredible performances, but Sasha had something up her sleeve that propelled her to the top. Entering the stage with a single rose, she ripped the bud from the stem in a fierce gesture. As the lip sync continued, the gloves came off—literally—littering the stage with more rose petals. Unique to this performance, Sasha, normally bald, donned a wig. As the crescendo of the song hit, Sasha spastically removes her wig, scattering even more petals as the audience erupts.
In her second lip sync, Sasha enters the stage, her face completely covered in what looks like a white alien gas mask. Even though all eyes are on her, all thoughts are on Valentina. As the lyrics begin, Sasha snaps away the mask from her jaw, then proceeds to peel away the skullcap of the mask–more audience eruptions and it becomes clear who is taking home the crown. Sasha Velour slayed that lipsync.
"The world needs drag now more than ever,” said host RuPaul. “Sasha Velour represents the future of drag. Her charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent arouse and inspire a generation of young people to live boldly, act up and paint with all the colors of the rainbow.”
“Now more than ever, drag stands as a beacon of joy and strength for queer people, said Sasha Velour. “It always reminds me to dream big and dress up by my own rules, to be serious and ridiculous and childish and brilliant! Take my advice: if you want to be queen, just make your own crown!”
Velour sashays away with the title of America's Next Drag Superstar and a cash prize of $100,000, beating out 13 of the nation's top queens including Miss Congeniality winner, Valentina. Season eight winner Bob the Drag Queen was on hand to crown her successor in front of a packed house at Los Angeles’ Alex Theatre.
This season QLife was fortunate to interview many of the queens ahead of the premiere. In addition, QLife published a cast leaderboard, encouraging readers to vote for their favorite queens each week. Over 35,000 votes were cast during the season. In addition to the leaderboard, QLife hosted a new web series titled "The Morning After." Each Saturday morning, Broadway actor Alex Ringler would host a video conference recap of the previous night's show. Joined by six to nine panelists each week, the show blended Hollywood Squares and The View into an all new social media video format that streamed each week over Facebook Live.
