Hey guys, so I posted here about a week and a half ago about how much I love RuPaul’s Drag Race and so today I thought I would give more insight to why I love it. I didn’t really know how to explain my fascination with it before but I think I can a bit better now.
So I have basically been watching the show non-stop since I first watched it and I have currently watched seasons 4-6 and I am caught up with season 7. I decided to watch them in reverse order for no reason other than I heard seasons 4 and 5 were really good.
But the show is just that addicting that it’s literally the only thing I have been able to talk about recently and I that’s kind of how all my obsessions go. Once I like something everyone needs to know about it which I admit can be really annoying…so I would like to apologise to anyone who follows me on social media because I know all my tweets lately have been all #RuPaulsDragRace haha.
Anyway, I think the main thing about the show that I love so much are the contestants. Normal reality shows just don’t have characters like these drag queens. I mean I think I love them because they all have such big personalities and are all so different. It’s good to have a lot of variety out there so you aren’t just seeing the same things every episode. Another thing about is, there don't seem to be that many contestants. I mean I know they start out with 14 but when you binge-watch the series that quickly drops down to five or six which you get to know very well.
I always become really attached to the top 3 drag queens of every season because after spending about 14 hours watching them you really feel like you know them. So the top 3 have always been my favourites out of all the queens. However because they are all so unique they definitely leave an impression on you, and even the ones that don’t make it far in the competition you remember, well almost remember, if they leave the competition in the first few episodes I normally don’t remember too much about them. But the longer they are in the competition the more of an impact they make.
Another thing about the show is that the challenges are…insane. I mean I guess I don’t watch a lot of reality TV but I don’t know a lot of shows that do challenges that involve dressing up manly men and turning them into full drag queens. That’s always quite entertaining to watch, there are some guys that would be really into it and some that wouldn’t. Which I think is really interesting to hear what other people think about drag in general.
Like, personally I never thought too much about it. I was never really against it or anything I accept it. And after watching the show I live for it. I mean the amount of work that goes into getting into drag is incredible and the difference between some of the guys on the show, when they are in and out of drag, is insane. You almost don’t recognise some of them…
And then there are those guys that look more feminine than you on the show and you know that’s when they did a good job. I personally prefer the fishy queens, but there are a lot of styles of drag out there that, if you are the person that can pull it off, it can be done really well.
I mean I think the show really does help you gain a better understanding of the world of drag queens because it’s not really something that is so easy to come by. At least not where I live, it’s like unless you are actively interested in this lifestyle you won’t know anything about it. But through the show I have learnt a lot of interesting things I find myself wanting to know more. To be honest, if I wasn’t a girl I’d probably be a drag queen. Hell, I kind of want to be a drag queen. I feel like I, personally can’t get away with wearing a ball gown every day but in drag? Yes, you can. I think it’s amazing.
Another thing I have learnt a lot about is the slang of drag queens. I don’t really know if these are things used in the everyday language by drag queens or just on this show but I love their slang. I was kind of introduced to it through Shane Dawson’s YouTube, like when he was hanging out with GiGi Gorgeous and people like that. Words like ‘hunty’ and ‘shade’, I kind of knew about but there’s a lot of terms like that.
My favourite words/phrases are probably ‘shade’, ‘no tea, no shade’, ‘*anything* realness’, ‘Sissy that walk’, ‘read’ and ‘condragulations’. I feel like I should incorporate these into my daily life just because they are so fabulous.
Also the one thing about this show that makes me love it a whole lot is the shade. I mean these queens be throwing shade like nobody’s business. I think season 5 is probably the one with the most shade. That whole rivalry between Alyssa Edwards and Coco Montrese had me HOOKED. It’s just so entertaining to watch and you’ll just never know what anyone is going to say next. Although sometimes the shade can be too much and you’d wish everyone would get along…kind of like in season 5 when everyone kept picking on Jinkx at the end. I mean I feel like it’s okay to be shady and bitchy at times but if you’re just that all the time I find it very hard to like you…
An example of that is Bianca Del Rio, at first I didn’t like her in the show because she was shady and bitchy to everyone but she actually turned out to be so nice and she did help the other girls when they needed it but at the same time she kept it real with the comments she made on the show. She was basically one of my favourite queens out of the entire series so far just because of the comments she made.
My favourite challenge that they do on the show is probably Snatch Game. This is a twist on the Match Game where the drag queens have to impersonate a celebrity. This is always really interesting because you always want to know what character everyone has picked and if they can pull it off or not. Some people can do an amazing job whereas others…not so much. I just think it’s a really fun challenge especially if they can pull off their characters, it makes it really fun and enjoyable to watch. Otherwise it kind of just becomes a bit of a train wreck like season 4s Snatch Game was kind of all over the place…
Another thing I love about the show is the Runway looks. These girls make the most fabulous gowns, or they have someone else make them for them. But it is actually incredible some of the things they are able to make. I mean if I could sew I know I’d probably make all of my outfits. I always get excited to find out what theme they are going for on the Runway and what everyone is going to come out in. I mean you’ll never feel over dressed on this show, it’s go big or go home.
My dream is to one day be able to put a fabulous gown on and walk the runway of RuPaul’s Drag Race. For no other reason than to walk the runway. I think it’d be amazing and so much fun. Basically any reason to dress up fabulous and walk a runway, I’m in.
And of course the show would be nothing without it’s lip sync battles. I know that this is not something that is new and a lot of shows are doing lip sync battles now – in fact there’s an actual show all about lip sync battles, but I don’t think it can compare to the lip sync battles on Drag Race.
From watching the show I now believe one of the requirements to be America’s Next Drag Superstar is that you need to have a death drop or be able to do the splits or something to that affect because a lot of girls who end up lip syncing will death drop and it is quite amazing.
And overall the show is just a lot of fun to watch, I mean it’s definitely something different and crazy and totally out there but I definitely think that you should give it a go. I mean I never really knew what to think about it at the start but from the bitchiness and the fashion alone I knew I was going to love it.
I have to say I have a lot of respect for people that do this and through this show you can really see the struggles that some people have to go through and the things drag has done for them. I mean it’s so sad that so many of them have families that don’t support them and love them just because they do drag, I think it’s horrible. But that’s why I am so glad there is a show like this and a community of people like this that are so accepting of one another. It’s a huge family and I love it so much and so I just thought I would share it with everyone.
And of course I couldn’t go without saying how much I love RuPaul. I feel like that’s a given. Without her the show would be non-existent and I wouldn’t have gotten to know any of the amazing people who have been on the show. I mean RuPaul is just so inspiring and amazing and all of the things she has accomplished in life have been incredible. So keep it up mama! 
And so I think that’s everything that I have to say. I know I’ll be sad when I’m caught up with everything because I’ll be wanting more but we still have half of season 7 to go and they are even casting for season 8 which is fabulous. I look forward to seeing so much more from this show and the contestants and I just hope it’s around for a long, long time.
Now remember, “If you can’t love yourself how in the hell are you gonna love somebody else? Can I get an amen up in here?”
Okay, so I’ve heard a lot about this show, mainly through Tyler Oakley and Shane Dawson because they have talked about it on their podcasts. But I’d never watched it. I’m not really one for reality TV shows or competitions so I never really considered the idea of watching it but last night when I was at Hannah’s house, Camille put it on Netflix and we ended up binge watching it.
I love it.
Like oh my God. I have no idea how to describe it, it’s incredible. The things that they do on this show are so amazing and, of course, the shade, the shade is EV-ER-Y-THING.
So far, I have only seen half of season 6 because that’s where we started to watch from, but that’s fine by me. I love all of the season six contestants so much. They are all so sassy and fierce and amazing and just…wow.
It’s kind of crazy how much effort drag queens put into their look and I really admire it because it’s so amazing. Like they really go all out and it’s crazy but I love it.
I mean I love anything to do with fashion and beauty so the fact I didn’t get hooked on this show sooner is quite upsetting but I’m with it now and I’ll be with it forever.
And yeah; I guess that’s all I wanted to say really, I have a new TV show in my life and I thought I would share.
Oh and one more thing, I feel like this is very important so I had to share it too.
“If you can’t love yourself, how in the hell are you gonna love somebody else?” – RuPaul
Today I have decided to make a post talking about my favourite Glee songs. This seems kind of random and that’s because it is, but I feel like with the ending of Glee’s final season we should celebrate it and everything it was and so with that I am going to share with you some of my favourite Glee songs.
So all of the songs I am going to be talking about are cover songs because that’s what Glee did best. They did have a few original songs which I did enjoy which I might talk about in another blog post but this is about their cover songs. (Yes I am one of the few people that actually like their cover songs…)
It was so hard to choose my most favourite songs but these are the ones I keep coming back to and can’t stop listening to. So without further ado, in no particular order, here are my top 10 favourite Glee songs:
- If I Die Young
This song was sung by Naya Rivera in the Cory Monteith Tribute episode and I loved it. I mean I was an emotional wreck during that episode of Glee and loved all of the songs sung in the episode but this was my favourite. I don’t know why exactly it is that I keep listening to this song…I think it is probably because of Naya Rivera’s voice which I am obsessed with. It’s such an emotional song and with her voice and the context in which it was sang in, it was just…perfect. I haven’t heard the original version of this song and I kind of don’t want to because I think Naya’s version was so good.
- How to be a Heartbreaker
This was sung by Dean Geyer a.k.a Brody in season four of Glee. I really love this song in general because it’s got such a good beat and is really catchy but I do prefer the cover of the song to the original. I’m not really sure why but I think it might be because a guy sings it. And I know it sounds sexist but I just prefer that it’s a male singing it rather than a female. Plus on the show Brody was a male escort so the song kind of fit his profession and they had a dance number and everything on Glee it was pretty great.
- Brave
Sung by Naya Rivera and Lea Michele in season four. I really love this song, mainly because of the lyrics. I had this idea in my head that the song was quite old when I first heard it but it was actually quite recent. I love both the cover of the song as well as the original so I will listen to both from time to time, it just depends which one comes up on my iTunes shuffle.
- Stereo Hearts
This song was sung by a few cast members in season three in the Valentine’s episode. I loved the song just because it was a nice song and it was in the theme of the episode. Plus when Glee do group numbers, it’s always a pretty good time. I think I have heard the original of this song but I do prefer the Glee version, for no other reason than it’s the Glee version.
- American Boy
This song was sung in season five by Darren Criss and Chris Colfer and I am obsessed with it. I used to be obsessed with the original song when it came out but I loved that they did a cover of it on Glee. I especially love it because Darren and Chris sang it and it definitely brought back the nostalgia of hearing the song for the first time. Like to me it’s such a cringey song but I still love it and any ‘Klaine’ duet is a favourite of mine.
- Mean
Sung by Mark Salling and Dot-Marie Jones in season three I loved the message of this song. I also loved that it was sung by Mark and Dot-Marie because they are two characters on the show that have never sung together before and it was really nice. I don’t remember exactly what happened in the episode where they sang it but I do remember it was a really sweet moment between the characters and I thought the song was perfect.
- Smooth Criminal
Probably one of the best covers they ever did on Glee. It was sung by Naya Rivera and Grant Gustin in season three. For this performance they were accompanied by 2Cellos and I think that made it so much better. It was a very intense scene and I just loved Naya and Grant’s voices together it just works so perfectly. The scene is very enjoyable to watch and it is definitely one of my favourite performances of all time.
- Raise Your GlassSung by Darren Criss accompanied by the Warblers for the first time in season two. It was also covered again by Glee in the 100th episode in season five with Kristin Chenoweth. I really like this song because it’s such a fun song and it’s one of those songs that is really ‘feel good’. I love both the covers of the song as well as the original and so overall that makes it a really great song.
- Jessie’s Girl
Covered by Cory Monteith way back in season one, it is a really great cover. I think this song was perfect for this episode because at the time in the show Rachel was dating a guy called Jesse and Finn wanted to get back together with Rachel and so was jealous of Jesse and so this song just happened to fit right in. This was definitely one of my favourite Cory Monteith performances from the show and one of the few solos he had on the show.
- Doo Wop (That Thing)
Sung by Naya Rivera and Amber Riley in season five I felt like this song was made for these two to sing. I always love when Naya and Amber do duets because their voices are amazing together and this one was the best. I actually thought this was an original song, I had no idea it was a cover until I was looking it up, I haven’t heard the original but I don’t think I’ll like it as much as the cover.
Anyway, those are my favourite Glee songs and I didn’t realise until writing this just how much I love Naya Rivera. Like her voice is just amazing and everything she sings on Glee is so good.
Obviously there are so many more songs on Glee that I love and would happily sit and write about all day but I think 10 is a good amount – 11 counting Don’t Stop Believin’ so I’ll leave it at that. Please feel free to leave a comment telling me what your favourite covers of Glee were or even what your least favourite Glee covers were. I try not to be negative about the show because I love it so much but sometimes there were some songs that just didn’t need a cover like, the Chipmunk Christmas song…but that’s a whole other blog post for another time…
If you guys are interested in learning more about my favourite things about Glee then stay tuned because I think I will be doing a couple of other blog posts related to Glee in the future, just because the show is over doesn’t mean it won’t live on in our memories. x
