Season 6 of Canada’s Drag Race delivered fans weeks upon weeks of entertainment from a group of talented and diverse queens the franchise has become known for. After eight episodes of fierce competition, the final queens left standing to compete in the grand finale are PM (Vancouver, BC), Sami Landri (Moncton, NB), Eboni La’Belle (St. Catharines, ON), and Van Goth (Toronto, ON). All four queens, with their unique drag styles, will battle it out one last time for the crown in the January 15 finale.
After a truly sickening season of twists, turns, goops, and gags, 29Secrets caught up with this season’s final four queens ahead of the season’s last episode.
Van, you are the undisputed, and undefeated design challenge queen of the season, and also the first queen to do so in the show’s history, which is incredible. What was your favorite look you made this season?
Van Goth: I would say it’s my first design challenge. Look, I just feel like it best represented me and it was like the one moment in the competition where I got to just do it. And then having Icesis, someone who I look up to as a drag queen and Brooke Lynn go back and forth with who would wear the outfit was the creme de la creme, and Brooke Lynn literally said my outfit was perfection. No notes. So, it’s like I couldn’t have asked for anything better than that.
In your opinion, what is the most important step in designing a new look? What’s the step that you would never take a shortcut on?
Van Goth: Ooh! The fit! I think the fit is the most important. You can have a simple dress and the fit needs to be the fit. So, never, never, shortcut on the fit.
Eboni, your authenticity is one of your greatest strengths, and it has been so inspiring to watch all season long. What tips and tricks do you have to harness that real and raw self-confidence even when you’re not feeling your best?
Eboni La’Belle: I would say just always be honest and be kind. Especially to yourself, because if I’m just lying to myself, well then, I’m going to be delulu, and then I’m going to drive myself mad. And if I’m beating myself up for things I can’t do, then I’m giving permission for everyone else to do that to me.
So, I would say just treat yourself with kindness, and be honest with yourself. It’s okay to not always be on the top and have your crap together. You just have to be honest with your feelings so you know how to work through them.
And you’re a St. Catharines queen, but you’ve performed all over. Where is your favorite place to perform?
Eboni La’Belle: Ooh! Maybe ’cause it’s recent and I’m biased. I’d say Halifax. Halifax was amazing. They treat the girls right down there. Oh my gosh!
If you could pick anywhere in the universe to perform, where would it be?
Eboni La’Belle: Oh my God. Uranus.
Sami, you’ve been popping off on social media from your hilarious videos before stepping foot into the werkroom. How do you think that that impacted your time in the competition?
Sami Landri: It impacted it greatly. I think by doing these videos that I’m known for, and doing my style of drag, this niche that I’ve carved out for myself gave me confidence to follow my instincts, to stand strong in my singularity, and to know that if I follow my guts, even if it doesn’t align with what most people would do, I’ll be fine because I know where my lane is and I know how to best drive in that lane.
You’re a pioneer in the Acadian drag scene. One of your dreams is to bring drag to small towns across Canada. Why is that important to you specifically?
Sami Landri: Well because I grew up in New Brunswick and I’m, I’m actually back home at my mom’s house right now [laughs]. To me, my first drag shows I saw were from out-of-town people who would travel and come to Moncton to do drag shows. And there’s this weird misconception that people from big cities always view small town folks as like, dumb, and kind of count them out. And there’s this thing where drag is viewed as something that only exists in big cities, and drag exists everywhere. So many smaller communities have working drag artists, and I grew up in that system first.
And to me, personally, in a selfish way, small town crowds tip the best, and hype you up the best. When I am outside of the big city and I’m doing shows, that’s when the crowd is the most hyped. So, it’s also feeding me as well.
PM, you started doing drag to gain confidence while studying ballet. What were you able to harness from your years of ballet training and bring to your drag performance?
PM: Well, movement just definitely lives within me and is trained into me. So, performing, I’d say it was just better for me to be doing drag for where I was in my life than in a ballet company ’cause it’s so rigid. So, I feel like drag just allows me to enjoy movement and enjoy performing without worrying about somebody on the side kind of nitpicking and or judging you at every single movement. It’s interesting that I say that and then I come to a competition, but you know, we’re all a little twisted [laughs].
You are the first contestant in the show’s history that has survived three lip syncs, and now you’re in the finale! What is your favorite move or trick to pull out in a lip sync that really pushes it over the edge?
PM: Oh, a move that I don’t think a lot of people give credit to is knowing your words. I think you gotta know your words and or be able to show why you’ve chosen not to lip sync. I think it’s really the mouth that drives drag.
What is one piece of advice you would give to the queens next season stepping into the werk room for the first time?
Van Goth: I would say, don’t be afraid to be yourself and let it all hang out. I think the beauty of our season is we were all very honest and raw and authentic, and I think they need to keep that going. Don’t be scared of what the fans are gonna say about you because let’s be so real. Even the nicest person on the season will still get hate from the fans. So just be you and you will attract the people that love you to you.
Eboni La’Belle: I would say take risks. There’s no formula. Don’t try to replicate, and there’s that fine line of “don’t reinvent the wheel”, but also like, baby, if you know how to reinvent a wheel, reinvent the damn wheel! Take those big swings, even if you miss.
Sami Landri: If you have something in your head that you wanna say, say it! Because these conversations happen once, but will live on forever. When I watch the show, sometimes I see myself and I’m like, “oh, I know I was thinking that, but you know, I just, I didn’t say anything”. So that’s not how you want to finish your experience. You know, you have one shot to say what you have to say, so just say it.
PM: I was gonna say be unapologetic. Because you’re definitely gonna know people in there and you wanna make it to the end. So, whatever that takes, do it. Even if it’s gonna piss viewers off, just like really go in there and play. I don’t know, it’s, it’s fun that way.
Season 6 has been an amazing season of Canada’s Drag Race. What do each of you think your personal highlight of the season was?
Eboni La’Belle: I would definitely say the slayoffs. I think the viewers and the fans after watching that episode were like, locked in on me and I’ve just been getting so much good reception from that. And I mean, I always knew I was a good performer, but when you get that love for doing what you do on that scale, it just, it makes you feel really special.
Van Goth: Sewing is the obvious answer, but I’m gonna go with when I talked about my status on tv and I think that I was able to show a huge vulnerable side to myself whereas before that you only saw me be really tough and competitive and cutthroat. I think that similar to what Eboni said, I think putting that out there on this platform and receiving all these messages from people around the world who are in a similar position, or feel the same things as I felt that I expressed…there’s nothing like that feeling of making young people feel seen.
PM: I’d also say the slayoffs episode. As rough as that was, I got to show like the full range of PM from the stupid humor straight down to the ballad, and I was very happy that I got to show all those lip sync skills.
Sami Landri: It was the Céline lip sync, which is also in the slayoffs. I feel like it was the first time that I was really just doing the thing. Up until then, even when I did good in the competition, I was still kind of nervous or hesitant or, I don’t know, kind of like sometimes I would feel like fight or flight in different situations, but in that moment, I went into that lip sync knowing that I know what I’m doing. I know I got this and I know that if I just let go and have fun, it will be good. So that was a great moment.
If each of you could have a do over for any challenge you competed in this season, which one would it be?
Van Goth: I would love to do the reading battles again. I feel like it’s a challenge I could excel at and I didn’t do bad, but I didn’t do as well as I knew I could have done. Um, so reading battles for me.
Sami Landri: Snatch Game for real. I feel like this show moves really quickly and Snatch Game was earlier than usual. Literally the episode before, I’m lip syncing for my life in the bottom and I completely brought that with me in the Snatch Game episode. And that’s unfortunate because like I said earlier, this thing happens only once but will live forever.
That’s when I learned I knew that I had to let go of things because we finished Snatch Game and I was like, “I know that I didn’t do my best”. I know that was a challenge that I knew I could have done great. But because I brought so much of my self-doubt into that situation, I didn’t do as good as I knew that I could do.
PM: I would like to go back and do the infomercial challenge from week two, because knowing that, that was like one of the only chances we had to present that sort of way. I knew I could have excelled more, so I’d like to go back and eat those bananas a little differently [laughs].
Eboni La’Belle: Ugh, the infomercial! You know, we all saw…we all saw and it was funny for the wrong reasons.
One last question. I want to know what winning would mean to each of you, and what you would hope to do with your platform if you win the crown?
Eboni La’Belle: I’ve kind of bounced back and forth with what that would mean. But I think right now, especially with literally everything that’s happening in the world, I mean, trans people across all of Western America are starting to be genocided and, and I use that word with full intent.
We have missing and murdered trans women, Indigenous women, black people. It’s like everything’s regressing and it’s really scary for me. The big thing I wanna do is travel the world. And I don’t really see that as something viable for me. I think we need a little bit more light, so it’d mean a lot.
Van Goth: Winning to me would mean everything. I mean, like I’ve put so much work in this competition, even before I even got into the room. I auditioned five times, got denied on four of them and got in on my last try. I just put so much on my heart and my soul and my person beyond just like my drag.
I mean, I disclosed my status on tv. I talked about so many things. I showed myself in so many ways. Be it good, bad, ugly, whatever. I kind of let it all hang out. So, I think winning to me would be like a win for authenticity and being yourself, and just like putting it all out there, and just showing people who you are and being okay with not always being right or not always being nice, but you know, being who you are and kind of taking all that.
PM: Winning for me would mean that this thing that I’ve invested all of my time into is enough. Not that I need a crown to show that it’s enough, but I feel like that would just be the icing on the cake because I am already so proud to have this platform to show myself as a non-binary entertainer who doesn’t do drag the “correct way”. I just think it would be a big win, and a big party and a lot of happiness.
Sami Landri: To me, I’ve worked so much to be a full-time entertainer. I’ve worked so much to better myself as a person because I know that doing this job means a lot to people. It’s something that gets to people. And it sounds kind of silly to say, but I worked so hard to do the right thing. I worked so hard to be a good person, to do good.
It resonates also because I try to make people laugh by just being myself, by not taking things too seriously. So, to me, it would kind of help me broaden that party that I can invite everyone to and remind people that we can actually change this world by having fun and spreading genuine love and care for each other. And that is a big key to how we can better this world.
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- Follow all of our weekly Canada’s Drag Race interviews for season six right here.
