This article contains spoilers on who was crowned during the season six finale of Canada’s Drag Race.
During the season six finale of Canada’s Drag Race, the final four queens met up for a chat and a photoshoot with season five’s reigning The Virgo Queen on the back of a motorcycle, wrote their own songs, recorded them with music icon Rufus Wainright, and choreographed a performance with Hollywood Jade.
There was a little drama between Scissor Sisters Eboni and Van over Eboni saying Sami was her biggest competition and Van feeling slighted after winning four challenges, and helping her all season. Like true sisters, they cleared the air and made up before hitting the main stage one last time.
All of the talented season six queens from coast to coast made their return to the main stage, and Hazel was crowned as this season’s Miss Congeniality. Eboni and Van were named the top two of the season. After a lip sync to “Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl” by Chappell Roan, Toronto’s Van Goth was crowned as the season six winner, and officially became Canada’s Next Drag Superstar.
In an interview with 29Secrets, the Toronto queen speaks about her epic challenge win record, being a kind-hearted villain, and unguarded authenticity.
First of all…Congratulations!
Thank you so much! Oh my God, I can’t believe it!
You are about 13 hours into your reign right now. How does it feel to be Canada’s Next Drag Superstar?
It feels amazing and it also feels very correct. I feel like when I walked in the competition, I was like, “I already am Canada’s Next Drag Superstar”, and I just basically had to prove that to the judges on why they should pick me to be the winner.
But I knew from the moment I walked in…honestly, from the moment I submitted my audition tape, I was like, “I am Canada’s Next Drag Superstar”, because I’m the best drag queen in Canada.
If you could describe your journey this season in three words, what would they be?
Iconic, dramatic, and real.
I must say, this season was full of such fierce queens, which made for tough competition. You just said that you walked in, you knew you were gonna be Canada’s Next Drag Superstar, but on that first day in the werkroom, who do you think was gonna be your biggest competition, and how did it change throughout the series?
The two I thought were my biggest competition on the first day were Saltina and Velma. I thought, “damn, these divas did not come to play!” The judges were living for them in the first week. But I think it changed because I think this season everyone was so talented, like you said. I think what really made the cream rise to the top or so they say is confidence and self-assuredness.
I feel like both Velma and Saltina had everything it took to even win the whole thing, but unfortunately, they got in their own way. And I think that what really separated the top four from the rest of the group was that we just knew how to pick ourselves back up when we were down, and really keep pushing and keep going.
You are the self-proclaimed villain of the season. Fans of Drag Race have seen their fair share of villains over the years. There’s a correct way of playing an endearing villain, which you did flawlessly, in my opinion.
Yeah.
How do you walk that line with being shady boots without coming across as just hateful?
I think to me, it was always about the competition. I don’t hate anyone in this cast. I actually love all of them. I think they’re all amazing. I’m very competitive, so everything that I ever came at someone for was about the competition itself. I never came at anyone personally. I never crossed that line.
I knew that in that way I could go home and sleep at night and be like, “well, I just, I’m just playing a game”. And I think the other piece of it was a lot of the times in life, I feel like if you just stand up for yourself, and you have a lot of confidence, people will call that cocky or whatever, I think people will label that as being villainous. But to me, I just knew who I was, and I knew what I was willing to accept from people. And when they spoke to me in a way that I didn’t accept, I just pushed back.
When we talked earlier this week, you mentioned that talking about your status with the other queens in episode 4 was a personal highlight for you this season. Why was it important for you to talk about that on camera?
There was actually a clip of me on camera in episode 7, where I said, “I hate being vulnerable”. It’s scary to me, and I think that that’s exactly why it was important. It was important for me to grow as a person as well, and feel like I could leave the season and be like, “You know what? There’s so much strength and vulnerability”, and I’ve never in my life seen myself cry like that, and talk like that, be so vulnerable like that. And I feel like it really resonated with people around the world.
But also it even resonated with myself, watching myself back and I was like, damn, maybe I should tap into that more and just show people a little bit more of the heart underneath it all. To have Rufus Wainwright in this episode say “Van has a hard exterior, but she’s really a giant teddy bear”, that is literally exactly who I am. And for him to clock that from meeting me once or twice on set was insane to me. Like, damn, he really read me.
It’s so nice to be seen.
Yes! That’s the truth. I will do anything for my sisters. I’m very loyal. But I’m also a little hard and I push back sometimes, and I have a little bite to me.
Last time when we talked, you also said “I think the beauty of our season is that we all are very honest and raw and authentic”. What was something that you brought to the competition that was unique from any of your sisters this season?
I think I just wasn’t afraid to look bad. We talk about “I’m the self-proclaimed villain”, et cetera. To me, that just means I just wasn’t afraid to let it all hang out. Every time I had a feeling or a thought, I thought out loud. But I also thought with my facial expressions, you see so many times of the season where someone’s saying something and it’s just all over my face. You don’t even need to hear me speak.
You know exactly what I’m thinking. I think going into the competition, I just didn’t wanna hold anything back. I wanted to just lay it all out there and if I was wrong, I was wrong. But it’s just what I felt in the moment and I was just gonna say it or feel it on my face. So, I think what I brought to the competition was just a feeling of fearlessness. Baby that’s a quote! [laughs].
In Untucked Brooke even said “you can’t be afraid to look stupid.”
I mean, Drag Race is so interesting because you can’t hide. You can’t hide from the cameras; you can’t hide what you’re feeling. You are there all the time, every day, all day. You just need to let it out. If you’re trying to fake something and you’re trying to fake feeling something, or try to hide and suppress your feelings, you’re just doing yourself a disservice.
The truth is, we all feel things sometimes. We all are a little upset about something someone says about us. And sometimes it’s okay to just, you know, voice that and then have a conversation about it and move forward.
Which we got at the top of the finale, when you called out the other queens for not naming you as competition around the table.
Yeah! I mean,I would never sit there in a room and allow myself to be in a way disrespected like that. I feel like, put some respect on my name, gimme my flowers that I’ve earned. I worked for nine weeks to get there, and I won challenges in four outta eight episodes. So, it’s like I have a 50% win rate. If you’re not gonna gimme my props, then I’m gonna say something.
Speaking of which, this season you had four main challenge wins, which is a franchise record. We know you’re a design challenge superstar, but I wanna know if there were other skills that kind of surprised you throughout the competition?
I was shocked with the first episode. The “Not Sorry Aboot It” verse. I’m not a singer. I feel like I have a very distinctive voice. It’s hard for me to change it. I was shocked with how much the judges loved my performance and my verse. And thinking back on it, I’m like, you know what? It is very memorable. It’s very catchy. It’s in your head. You remember the lines “666. Little devil with the lisp. Now up my rate.” Like all those things are stuck in your head.
Even my final finale performance at the viewing party last night before the first verse was, even the first chorus was done. The audience was singing it along. They hadn’t heard it before. Like, it’s your first time hearing it, but it’s catchy!
Earlier this week you talked about how much winning would mean to you after all of the hard work that you put into auditioning and preparing to be on the show. Now that you have the crown, what are the wildest things you wanna do with your reign?
Let’s dream big. I would love to do a makeup collaboration with a company, or start my own little makeup line. I would love to work on a PowderPuff Girls tour with my sisters Aurora and Perla, who had previously been on the show. Eboni and I have been talking about doing a Scissor Sisters tour as well.
I really wanna also work on a one woman show. I want to tour the world. I wanna tour Canada. I want to do more long form content. I wanna do more television. I just wanna be present all the time everywhere, and I just wanna be that girl. I wanna be the best winner of Drag Race Canada’s ever had.
In a year’s time, you’ll be passing the crown to a new queen as Virgo did for you. What do you hope fans remember from your time as their reigning queen?
I hope they remember that it’s okay to just be honest, be real, be authentic. Let it all hang out. The good, the bad, the ugly, and just be you. I feel like, um, what, what was my quote earlier? Oh! A feeling of fearlessness!
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- Follow all of our weekly Canada’s Drag Race interviews for season six right here.
