Culture

Jimbo is exceptional at a lot of things: making jokes, producing high-concept looks, manufacturing reality television drama out of thin air for the entertainment of the masses … the list goes on. But lip-synching on television has never been her forte. In this weirdly lifeless lip sync to Joan Jett’s iconic “Bad Reputation,” Jimbo didn’t seem to grasp the full-throttle, in-your-face energy of the song, instead opting to walk back and forth to different sides of the stage while playing an air guitar. Season one star Shannel also had some trouble at the start, but with a quick costume change and a boatload of confidence, she brought what was needed by the time we hit the last note — which is more than we can say for her competitor.

This was … fine. “These Boots Are Made for Walkin,’” despite being a staple for drag performers around the globe, is a deceptively difficult song to give an engaging performance to. As we saw with Nicky Doll, things can very quickly get repetitive when you rely mostly on the “Walkin’” part of the song’s title. Meanwhile, Alexis Michelle made full use of her Broadway background, giving us acting before building up to her elongated split and unhinged runway strut towards the end of the song, pacing out her performance to earn a well-deserved (if somewhat safe) lip sync win.

Nobody was expecting to see this fated rematch between Jimbo and Pangina after their previous battle on UK vs. the World, which only made it all the more fun to watch in real time. Jimbo did pretty much what you’ve come to expect from Jimbo: bounce around the stage while serving crass comedy. But Pangina showed why she is a master lip-syncher here — timing her moves and switching effortlessly between campy humor and precise dancing, Pangina blew her former rival out of the water within the first few seconds of this lip sync.

At long last, Jimbo unlocked the key to winning her first All Stars lip-sync; get f–king weird. Diving back into her chaotic UK vs. the World character of Casper the Baloney Ghost, Jimbo spent her “Freak-A-Zoid” lip sync living up to the song’s title. Through intentionally bad dance moves, bulbous body parts that still puzzle the mind and some thrown slices of lunch meat, Jimbo served full mental patient realness with this deeply unserious lip-sync against an all-time-great assassin in Silky Nutmeg Ganache — and it paid off in spades.

There is such a thing as doing “too much” in a lip sync (e.g., Kenya Michaels in her “Natural Woman” lip sync against Latrice Royale back in season 4). That’s why we were so delighted to see Kandy Muse and Angeria Paris VanMichaels using the power of the dramatic pause when performing to this classic Grace Jones single. Both performers knew when to ramp up the sultry, sensual energy, and when to slow it right back down. But there was something magnetic about Kandy Muse’s sharp, intense performance here that made us want to pull up to her bumper and watch this top-tier performance.

Often times on Drag Race, you’ll hear queens speaking about the importance of “embodying the song” in a lip sync. Drag Race Canada season 1 winner Priyanka was clearly listening, because her performance to the Destiny’s Child classic is a clear example of that lip sync methodology. Along with giving us comedy and a few tricks, Priyanka took her time to infuse this performance with the carefree, “I do what I want” attitude that Beyoncé, Kelly Rowland, LeToya Luckett and LaTavia Roberson served on this turn-of-the-century classic.

It’s very rare that we get to see a collaborative lip sync on Drag Race; when Sugar and Spice attempted it in season 15, they landed flat on their face (in Sugar’s case, literally). But there’s something wholesome about Jaymes and LaLa joining forces to deliver a fun, memorable Gaga lip sync as they competed for multipliers to their final Fame Games scores. Sure, their words weren’t perfect, and their dancing was sometimes a bit stilted. But “Rain on Me” is ultimately a song about embracing joy, and we couldn’t help but smile watching these queens perform together.

Going up against a lip sync star as ferocious as Jorgeous in a head-to-head battle is a tall task for any performer. Yet LaLa Ri not only rose to the challenge, she exceeded every expectation. While Jorgeous showed off the technical mastery of her dance skills, LaLa imbued every beat of “About Damn Time” with the sense of effervescent joy that the song is meant to elicit, while also working her padded butt off to give just as many stunts as her competitor. There wasn’t a second that we didn’t believe every word LaLa was pretending to sing, which made watching the performance that much more delightful.

This lip sync was pretty much finished once Ru revealed that Jasmine Kennedie was the assassin sent to slay Jimbo — but that certainly didn’t stop the season 14 standout from demolishing the stage with her performance. Delivering a costume reveal, multiple dips and drops, a death-defying backflip into a split, and even her own tongue-in-cheek rendition of Dua Lipa’s iconic “pencil sharpener” dance, Jasmine delivered her best lip-sync performance yet, keeping the audience’s eyes locked on her throughout the entire lip sync.

We’re going to say this again: Aja is one of the best lip sync artists to appear on any season of Drag Race, and this “Freakum Dress” performance is a testament to that fact. Timing her remarkable stunts to the actual words Beyoncé was singing (special shoutout to the immediate wig reveal on “lemme fix my hair”), Aja owned every second of this phenomenal lip sync. That is not to say Kahanna did poorly — in fact, Kahanna was in rare form, pulling focus every now and then with her own energized antics. Yet it was still not enough to take away from this best-ever lip sync from Aja, who cemented herself even further as a lip sync legend over the course of two fateful minutes.

Everyone say “thank you” to Jessica Wild right this second. Even when paired with a phenomenal lip sync assassin like Ra’Jah O’Hara, the season 2 standout gave her audience a show with this delicious performance. Immediately ripping off her dress to reveal her titular “Coconuts,” Wild proved that simple can be the absolute best approach when fighting for a $10,000 tip.

Jessica bounced her plasticine pair with the beat and made sure every syllable she pretended to utter was dripping with pure sex, all while paying tribute to Spanish trans icon La Veneno. With “Coconuts,” Wild not only got the judges (and the audience by proxy) laughing hysterically — she also created an immediate gold-standard performance for all future Drag Race contestants.