It’s back only 6 months after All Stars 5, a mere moment after Drag Race Holland and potentially clashing with Drag Race UK. The Drag Race calender is more chaotic than The French Revolutionary Calendar and that’s saying something.

This isn’t so much a ranking because how can you really rank 13 people after seeing 2 looks and about 4 minutes of footage – but it’s certainly an order of how much of an impression they left.

Rosé

Her Meet The Queens VT was by far the lowest in energy and because these are filmed after the season aired it screams of Early Boot or shock elimination that she feels slighted by – hey she might as well follow in her friend Jan’s footsteps. She also managed to pack in the most RuPaul bootlicking – beating Utica by a mere whisker.

Joey Jay

Her main thing is that she doesn’t wear wigs, which she managed to mention a total of 7 times in her 3 minute video and because of this she does look a lot like Phoenix entering the Werk Room in season 3. At least we can rely on her not unnecessarily ripping her wig off in a lipsync. I enjoy her take on drag – it’s cool to have someone doing a more masculine femininity because the Drag Race bubble has been so absorbed by very femme styles of drag. I’m sure she’ll be out within the first 3 weeks and it’ll probably be because of a lack of a wig.

Elliott

If you think I’m writing “with 2 Ts” after her name every time you’re wrong – I learned my lesson from Marc-with-a-C in my Bake Off recaps. She’s a Vegas queen which almost certainly means there’s drama on the horizon but don’t let her Wilma Flintstone: The Later Years fool you – the girl can dance! She’s a trained ballet dancer after all.

Tamisha Iman

I love an old-school Queen on the show and lets just hope she’s more Kasha Davis than Tempest DuJour. It’ll be an interesting dynamic with her being the drag mother of fellow cast queen Lala Ri – although the fact Lala didn’t even mention her in her VT is… concerning. Tamisha makes most of her costumes, wigs and jewellery herself which I always appreciate on the show – it’s something I really miss about pre-season 7 Drag Race.

Nina West 2.0

I don’t really know which of them is older but Nina was on Drag Race first so she was the BETA test. I think I’m mostly kind of cool on Tina Burner because I didn’t gel with Nina West – although Nina being on a nigh on unwatchable season didn’t help matters. I’m looking forward to Tina’s campy aesthetic – again it’s something Drag Race has started to shy away from.

Kahmora Hall

Being the drag sister of Season 12 winner Jaida Essence Hall stands her in good stead, being the drag mother of Season 11 First Boot Soju does not so Kahmora could go a multitude of way. Personally I love her deliciously delusional heiress character because I can kind of tell it’s an affectation and isn’t just a straight up Kimora “What’s an adjective” Blac situation.
She doesn’t consider herself a pageant queen but because of her drag family just kind of gives off the vibe – she’s more of a glamorous, showgirl-y queen which is fine for a few episodes and then you do an acting challenge and get rail-roaded.

Utica Queen

Opening your RuVeal VT with “Utica is kooky, quite the kook. Very kook, much kook, so kooky. Also a little bit spooky so I do the spooky and the kooky.” is certainly hell of a red flag. She’s like the perfect distillation of both Gigi Goode and Crystal Methyd which is honestly terrifying but at least her runways, which she mostly designs and makes herself, should be fun if completely batshit insane. I mean, she showed up to this looking Mary Poppins goes to the Lollipop Guild and shoplifts a bunch of hats.
I did enjoy her describing herself as “The Switzerland of Drag” which implies the existence of a Drag World War this season.

Lala Ri

Daughter of Tamisha Iman and a self styled dancer in her 3rd year of drag – she has all the makings of a great queen! I just hope she doesn’t get floored in the sewing challenge because she admits she cannot sew despite trying to learn. She also wears a lot of leotards because she is mainly a club performer so hopefully she’s managed to cobble together a wardrobe of not-leotards she’ll be fine – we don’t want another season 10 with umpteen bodysuits.
But she’s got the most sparkly personality and is cute as a button which could carry her through a significant portion of the competition.

Olivia Lux

She is just the cutest thing! And more than a little sinister, she’s like a drag Chucky doll. She’s a little drag foetus, having only been doing it for just over a year and it’s her first time auditioning. I really like her but I can see her getting easily overwhelmed by the competition but maybe her New Jersey roots will get Michelle Visage to cast her a pity vote every now and again – it worked for Carmen Carrera!
She has some really great lipsyncs on YouTube – there’s one of her at home doing Girls Just Wanna Have Fun and she’s dressed as an IKEA bag and it’s pure magic. She says she likes to play the piano on stage so if she manages to somehow reveal a tiny piano during a lipsync and play it like Schroeder from the Peanuts on stage I will have no choice but to stan. (thank you for the correction on the Peanuts character.)

Kandy Muse

Well if it isn’t the meme queen and worst kept secret in Drag Race casting history herself! Honestly, everyone knew she was on the show before she did. I’m not as enamoured with her as all of Twitter seems to be but I’ve got to hand it to her that VT was the funniest one her whole Danny DeVito in drag persona will make fantastic television.
She’s also a legacy queen, being the daughter of Aja who was quite successful on the show, and then you have her sister Dahlia Sin who came 13th on a 12 queen season but it’s hard to see Kandy as anything but a finalist – if purely by the peer pressure of not eliminating a pre-season fan fav.

Denali

First of all, if you haven’t seen Denali’s Let’s Get Loud ice skating lipsync, GO WATCH IT! It has the most incredibly reveal and backflip – it’s insane. She’s the first ever Alaskan queen on the show – which certainly adds a freshness to the usual 5 New York queens. If her Ice Queen Frilled Lizard look in the Meet The Queens VT is anything to go by she’s also got some fierce looks up her sleeves and she focuses a lot on her looks and is nervous for Snatch Game which means she either goes out that week or wins it.

Symone

I’m not sure Symone will go very far but I will be devoting a significant portion of my brain capacity to that wig – I didn’t need algebra anyway. In fact her whole Lacoste polo shirt bikini is delightfully bonkers and I need all of her runways right now. She admits to getting in her own head a lot which has me concerned – I’m already too invested in her.
She’s friends with Gigi Goode which might stand her in good stead with her runways – although hopefully not as many tailored coats.

Gottmik

I apologise for calling her GottMilk the entire time, kind of dug your own grave there. Gottmik is obviously getting a lot of buzz because they are the first transman to compete on the show – and just so there isn’t any confusion their preferred pronouns are she/her in drag and he/him when out of drag.
The look is incredible – sort of cobra in the court of Versailles – it’s certainly one of the more memorable looks. She draws a lot of inspiration from Raja which is always a good thing in my eyes and I can’t wait to see her genderfuck runways that she has promised us!