Every Lip Sync From ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ Season 17, Ranked

RuPaul’s Drag Race hasn’t had a proper double-sashay on a main season since neither Dax ExclamationPoint nor Laila McQueen managed to survive their “I Will Survive” lip sync in season 8. If there was ever a moment to bring the format back, it was with this “Get Him Back!” performance. Hormona Lisa, despite assuring the audience that she was going to “do everything that I can do” to win the number, mostly walked from one side of the stage to the other. Lana Ja’Rae, meanwhile, served up some sex on the runway, but still largely failed to make this Olivia Rodrigo track all that interesting. 

Some of the fault belongs with the song choice — “All-American B—h,” “Obsessed” or even “Bad Idea, Right?” would have all been better lip sync songs off of Guts, and “Get Him Back!” is certainly not the obvious choice here. But at a certain point, you have to look at the material on the stage and recognize that neither of these queens did nearly enough to make it work. 

As established above, the cardinal sin in any Drag Race lip sync is being boring. Acacia won this lip sync because she did something, whereas Hormona Lisa’s approach to an Ariana Grande banger was … to sort of walk around the stage and kind of mouth the words. Meanwhile, Acacia didn’t do much moving at all to this objectively upbeat pop banger — in part because her dress was likely difficult to move in — leaving us mystified as to how this episode could end with no one going home.

Watch the lip sync here.

Your honor, I demand a do-over of this iconic lip sync song. “Buttons” is a staple at nearly every drag bar in the U.S., with everyone from baby queens to legendary performers taking a stab at this sensual (and silly) number. Yet in its first appearance on Drag Race, what we got was one queen trying to get a mattress to do her lip syncing for her while another one essentially went on autopilot. Joella’s performance to this number was so bad that it almost swung back around to being ironically great by the end — but, when she was given a second chance at doing Snoop Dogg’s verse, Joella simply shut down. Kori King easily won here, and even then we still weren’t satisfied with the injustice done towards this all-time great lip sync track. Bring “Buttons” back for All Stars, Ru. Please. 

Watch the lip sync here.

The “Unholy” lip sync is a tale of two queens moving in completely different directions. After weeks of coasting by in the competition, Lana Ja’Rae began to rise in the judges’ estimations towards the end of her tenure on the show, and her performance in this lip sync shows that gain in confidence — every one of Lana’s movements are calculated, planned and sexed-up, even if they weren’t entirely interesting to watch. 

And then there’s Lydia “Butthole” Kollins, a queen who, with both of her past lip sync performances, proved to rely on ingenuity and charisma in selling each and every one of her numbers. She started her performance very well, turning on camp aesthetics to make this performance as over-the-top as possible … and then the scissors came out. Trying to cut herself out of her restrictive dress, Lydia ended up ultimately abandoning the lip sync itself, simply trying to get her skirt off. The combination of those two facts made “Unholy” perhaps the most shocking lip sync of the season, as the would-be lip sync assassin of this season finally got sent home. 

Drag Race producers, if you’re reading this: Please stop doing three-person lip syncs. Too many girls on the stage makes it practically impossible to keep yourself focused on any one person performing, which makes the whole lip sync a wash. Especially with a song as excellent and well-suited for a lip sync as “360,” we want to see each of the girls get their moment to Charli’s club banger. Kori winning feels about right — she delivered the biggest performance, which in turn made her stand out from the other two girls on the stage, which makes it easy to single out her performance. But the whole number would have been better off had there only been two girls on the stage.

Pacing is key in a lip sync, and the simple fact is that Hormona Lisa did not pace herself when it came to “Liza With a Z.” Within the first verse of this high-camp theater number, Hormona very quickly and very boringly peeled off layer after layer of clothes and wigs, making them feel less like reveals, and more like, as Suzie Toot aptly put it, “when you get home from work, and you’re exhausted and you just gotta get that bra off.” Lydia, meanwhile, understood that all she had to do was wait for exactly the right moment to perform one of the dumbest reveals in Drag Race history to a conehead with baby bangs. This was by no means Lydia’s best performance, nor was it by any means Hormona’s worst. But the only thing that should be going “ssnozz” here is Lisa with an “S,” not the audience watching this performance.

Wig glue brands, listen up — Kori King needs a sponsorship ASAP. During the “Wet Dream” lip sync, the Boston star nailed her performance, managing to keep the energy and the vibes all the way up as she kicked, bucked, jumped, vogued and split her way down the runway. But the energy got out of hand when she dropped so hard that her wig came flying off — a big no-no on the Drag Race mainstage. Still, King’s performance managed to outshine Acacia Forgot, who served up a lot of sex appeal with her sultry performance, but couldn’t match the manic energy that Lambert’s song so clearly called for. 

It’s not so much that Suzie definitively won this lip sync, but more that Lucky definitively lost. Suzie’s performance was fine here: She delivered the “hot lesbian” energy that Sam Star pointed out, she played on the joy in Rihanna’s voice and she delivered a safe, easy performance to this beloved single (even with her stupid “stanky leg” joke). Lucky, meanwhile, didn’t give much emotion at all (a strange choice for this song, in particular), and relied largely on the same gag that won her last lip sync. Having basketballs for boobs is funny the first time you do it — but once everyone knows what’s coming, the novelty wears off, leaving a performance that simply could have been much better. “We Found Love” was not a great lip sync, but it definitely wasn’t the kind of “hopeless place” Rihanna was singing about.

It’s hard to lip sync to RuPaul’s all-time favorite artist in front of RuPaul and that artist’s daughter. Yet Suzie and Sam gave it their best shot, trying to serve up the desperation and longing in The Boss’ voice. Even though Suzie gave a more spirited performance, it seems that Ru appreciated Sam’s subtler, more emotional approach to the icon’s hit song, resulting in the most shocking elimination of the season. The results may be coloring our opinions here, but it remains clear from the amount of outcry from the fans that we are not alone in being shocked that Suzie Toot’s stirring performance and winning track record wasn’t enough to keep her around for the finale. 

Watch the lip sync here.

There was a lot of dog-piling online for “thee (self-described) Slaysian Diva of L.A.” after her brief run on season 17. But go back and watch Joella’s lip sync against Lucky Starzzz from episode 3, and you can see why Joella lived in such fierce delusion. Throughout Paula Abdul’s late-’80s smash “The Way That You Love Me,” Joella utilized the words to her advantage, kept the judges focused on her and pulled off a series of solid (and yes, basic) stunts. Lucky Starzzz gave a good effort, but her performance came off as sweaty and sloppy as she tried to pull out every trick in her bag to remain in the competition. Say what you will about Joella, but one thing is for sure — she cleared the boards with her Paula performance. 

Talk about a messy lip sync. Crystal Envy was clearly as shocked as the rest of us that she wound up in the bottom, so she pulled out every stop to try and stay. That meant crawling through Lana Ja’Rae’s legs, accidentally bumping into her competitor and dropping to the floor at every given opportunity. Lana Ja’Rae, meanwhile, couldn’t keep her wig to herself as she sent it flying with a jumping dip on the song’s final chorus. Yet somehow, the “Hands to Myself” lip sync stands out as a performance that is just barely greater than the sum of its parts — from the storyline to the shocking result, this number at least made for great reality TV, even if the two chaotic performances didn’t quite amount to a great lip sync.

Watch the lip sync here.

Arrietty is great at a lot of things — it’s just become clear that lip-syncing might not be one of them. With an 0-3 record on season 17, the drama queen came as close as she ever has to snatching a win with “Blow Me (One Last Kiss).” She gave energy, she knew her words and she was on-theme. But the continuing problem with Arrietty’s lip syncing style is she just seems like she’s trying very hard every time she does it — to the point where the actual performance of the song gets lost amid a flurry of stock dance moves. Kori, meanwhile, has proven that she knows how to give an emotional, funny performance while still executing her signature moves. This P!nk lip sync could have been the turning point for Arrietty’s redemption, but she just couldn’t bring it over the finish line quite like Ms. King.

The “Illusion” lip sync felt less like a battle and more like a foregone conclusion. Sam Star, a queen with two maxi challenge wins who consistently impressed the judges almost every single week prior, was in the bottom for the first time; Lana Ja’Rae, a queen with no maxi challenge wins who had consistently underwhelmed the judges with her performances in the competition, was lip syncing for the fourth time. To paraphrase season 9’s Aja, Sam could’ve walked out there in a f–king diaper, and the judges would’ve said, “Sam Star, your smile is beautiful.” 

That’s not to say Sam Star did poorly in her performance; serving sass and nailing every word of the Dua Lipa track with the same level of polish that the judges had come to expect from her, Sam delivered the goods with this lip sync. Lana, meanwhile, did a stellar job defending herself. In what was likely her best performances of the season, Lana slinked around the stage in a barely-there bikini, tapping into the song’s seductive vocals to capture the judges’ attention. Lana probably edged out Sam with just her performance, but even before this lip sync was announced, the result was clear as day; Lana’s time was up, no matter how much she nailed this lip sync. 

After the chaos of the “Hands to Myself,” we as an audience needed a rematch between Lana and Crystal; and we’re happy to report that both queens delivered with this Sylvester lip sync. Both girls seemed less focused on desperately trying to stay in the competition, and more honed in on giving a good performance. Crystal showed off just how good she is at dancing, but couldn’t quite bring enough bubbly energy to this effervescent track. Lana, meanwhile, looked like she was having a ball with this number, duck-walking around the stage and letting her inhibitions fly out the window. She stayed crisp and clean while also letting herself find the groove of the track, helping her handily defeat her competitor for the second time in a row.

Of all the eliminated queens on season 17, Lucky Starzzz feels like the one with the most potential. We barely got to see what she was capable of before she got quickly eliminated in episode 3 thanks to a poor performance in the Monopulence challenge. So, getting to see her unleash her goofiest, campiest, wildest performance to Whitney Houston’s “Step by Step” felt like the fever dream we all needed.

To Acacia’s credit, she did a solid job in the lip sync, nailing her words and her reveals with ease, and giving us a good gag with her slow-motion death drop. But all eyes were glued to Ms. Starzzz — at least in part because she was dressed as a basketball with boobs. She gave us every ounce of energy we could have wanted for this performance, especially when she started double dribbling with her breastplate. The Starzzz, at long last, finally aligned for Lucky in this lip sync.

You know the producers were chomping at the bit to put Lydia and Kori in the bottom together — but to have it happen when this was the song feels like the stars aligning. The lovebirds of season 17 took similar approaches to this ‘80s banger, both amping up the pure, unabashed camp antics of the track with their over the top performances. Whether it was Kori pointing directly at RuPaul for the line “had to borrow 10 bucks from my old man” or Lydia’s unhinged face during the climactic chorus, these queens brought their A-game to this performance. But it was when they locked eyes, moved in close and made out on national television that the deal was sealed — the “Kiss Me Deadly” lip sync was one for the books, and easily one of the best of the season. 

We love seeing a storyline reach its inevitable conclusion on Drag Race, and that’s exactly what the final LaLaPaRuza lip sync delivered. The hilarious “animosity” between Kori and Suzie got unleashed for this fitting final number, with Suzie finally earning her recognition as the true lip sync assassin of the season. It was a nail-biter, too! Suzie’s cutesy dance moves and on-point facial expressions met an equal match with Kori’s boundless energy and swaggering charisma on the stage. But it became clear once Kori’s fake boobs busted out of their costume that Suzie was the more polished queen between the two, earning her the much-deserved win. Vindication tastes so sweet, doesn’t it, Suzie?

When the episode’s storyline intersects with the episode’s lip sync, great things can happen, as is the case with the “YA YA” lip sync from episode 10. After going from friends to bitter rivals in a single episode, Arrietty and Jewels Sparkles left it all on the stage trying to send the other girl home. And credit where it is due — Arrietty redeemed herself after her previous implosion in a lip sync (more on that in a bit). She brought as much energy as she could muster to this fiery performance, whipping every inch of her black human lace wig around the main stage.

But Jewels seemed almost supernatural here, floating from moment to moment in this number, all while embodying Queen Bey’s deeply unphased demeanor. Even when she tripped, she transformed it into a graceful dip and punctuated it by (literally) kicking her competitor’s crown off the stage. “YA YA,” from top to bottom, was an example of excellent reality TV storytelling, and it ended as every good story should; with the villain defeated and the hero victorious.

Watch the lip sync here.

Leave it to RuPaul’s Drag Race and take a song as objectively “meh” as Katy Perry’s “Woman’s World” and make it a deeply entertaining, absolutely fierce lip sync number. That’s in no small part thanks to both Suzie Toot and Jewels Sparkles, who delivered an excellent opening lip sync for season 17. In the song’s first half, Jewels was taking the win home — she expertly combined humor with some killer dance moves, wowing the audience, the judges and the other queens.

But then Suzie’s nine tapping toes came in, ready to steal the show. Extending her talent show gag of tapping out morse code with her foot gave Suzie that extra boost she needed, as she Charleston’d her way into the lead, barely taking the win from a still-polished Jewels. The real winner, though, was the audience watching at home, because we got to see a top-tier lip sync kick things off the right way for this season.

The LaLaPaRuza episode of season 17 is dedicated to the Ru-demption of one Susanne Toot, and rightfully so — fans were shocked to see her get eliminated just before the finale. While she wins multiple times throughout the episode, the win that matters the most (and where Suzie frankly performed the best) was the “Training Season” lip sync. Joella did fine in this lip sync, even if it often felt like she was pulling from the Drag Race Lip Sync Playbook.

But Suzie? Suzie transformed in this lip sync, becoming a queen serving sex, dance moves and a pitch-perfect performance to this Dua Lipa track. Every piece of her performance, from the outfit and wig reveals to her pirouettes across the stage to her playful head-tilt on the pre-chorus, was exactly what the song needed, easily giving Suzie the much-deserved win at the start of her tour de force in the LaLaPaRuza.

Much like Sam Star and Lana Ja’Rae’s showdown in the episode prior, the “1 Thing” lip sync between Jewels Sparkles and Onya Nurve seemed like a foregone conclusion. Onya earned four wins throughout the competition with no visits to the bottom two; Jewels had only one win and was lip syncing for the second time. 

That, however, is where the similarities end between “1 Thing” and “Illusion.” These two queens took radically different approaches to their performances that paid dividends for themselves and the audience watching. Onya delivered every word flawlessly while embodying all the attitude in Amerie’s voice. But Jewels came with completely correct choreography, flowing from one stunt into the next without so much as breaking a sweat. Even in a later season of Drag Race, where it often feels like double shantays are doled out generously, Onya and Jewels handily earned their respective places.

Watch the lip sync here.

There is a moment in the “Boogie Wonderland” lip sync where something magical happens. As Arrietty flails her limbs in the background like an inflatable tube person outside a car dealership, Lydia “Butthole” Kollins starts popping her knees to the beat. RuPaul, mouthing along every word with her, makes sustained eye contact with Lydia, as the queen grins, spins away and drops to the floor. THIS. IS. EXCELLENT. DRAG. 

Lydia didn’t enter this Earth, Wind & Fire performance with a set plan in mind, she simply let the boogie beats move through her body as she delivered one of the most impressively spontaneous numbers of the whole season. Sometimes, the best lip syncs are the ones with a clear, undisputed winner, and that is very much the case here — Lydia mopped the floor with Arrietty and her little shuffle dance, exhibiting exactly the skills it takes to dominate a lip sync on RuPaul’s Drag Race. 

Watch the lip sync here.

When it’s right, it’s right, and this lip sync is just right. Every element you could want is present here; the song choice is excellent (“Alter Ego” remains one of Doechii’s best songs to date), the moves from both queens are perfectly timed (Crystal’s flips and somersaults are astounding without feeling desperate); and the sheer attitude coming off both competitors is electric (Lexi literally starts the number with her middle finger up).

Crystal Envy and Lexi Love took the high bar set by the first performance of the season and said, “We can do better than that.” Even Doechii herself was living for this number, clacking her fan along with every beat. Lexi and Crystal brought “Alter Ego” to life with this high-octance, thrilling performance, and it still stands head and shoulders above the rest as the very best performance of season 17.