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Dionne Warwick may have once asked of listeners “Don’t Make Me Over,” but the judges on RuPaul’s Drag Race seem to feel differently.
On last week’s episode (aired March 29), the five remaining contestants of RuPaul’s Drag Race were tasked with giving members of the Pit Crew dancers from RuPaul’s Drag Race Live in Las Vegas full drag makeovers. Transforming hunky men into fellow queens — with a strong family resemblance, of course — the girls also had to teach their new drag daughters how to work the runway with a short choreographed number.
Continuing her winning streak, Plane Jane impressed the judges with her drag daughter Lazi Susan, earing her fourth challenge win of the season. Meanwhile, Sapphira Cristál stumbled in presenting her daughter Shakira Cristál, while Morphine Love Dion’s introduction of her protegé La Tina didn’t thrill the panel, putting both queens in the bottom two.
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Lip synching to guest judge Kelsea Ballerini’s “Miss Me More,” Sapphira’s less-is-more approach to the artform paid off in dividends, earning her a spot in the coveted top four queens of the season. Meanwhile, Morphine’s string of lip sync assassinations finally came to end, with the “BBL queen of Miami” finally leaving the competition.
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Below, Morphine chats with Billboard about her time on the show, making it this far in the competition without a challenge win, her viral lip sync against Dawn and her approach to drag makeup that fans have been fawning over since she entered the work room.
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Congrats on making it to top five, Morphine! How does it feel getting to say that all these months later?
You know, while filming I had such a great time — obviously, not winning any challenges or any mini challenges was tough. I was like, “Oh my god, the fans are going to think I flopped.” But, the love I’ve been receiving has been so immense and intense and amazing that, honestly, I don’t think they even care about my track record, I feel like a lot of people just fell in love with my personality. Honestly, my run was perfect — well, obviously I should have made top four, but otherwise I’m very happy with how everything went down.
We gotta talk about your mug. You have clearly perfected the art of drag makeup — what advice would you give to young queens looking to emulate your look?
So, funny enough, I just posted a photo of myself the first time I was in drag, and girl, it was crunchy. That should inspire everyone that it is possible to go from rough mug to really sickening paint — it does, in fact, get better!
But yeah, it was a lot of practice and watching a lot of YouTube videos of now-cancelled influencers online. I also just grabbed a lot of different inspirations. Like, I will always say that Valentina is my No. 1 mug inspiration, her paint is one of my favorites besides Raven. They both are just … they molded me into my mug. It just took me a while to kind of perfect my own face, and the fact that I’m getting so much love for it is amazing.
Your paint is so good that Trixie Mattel adopted you on sight via The Pit Stop.
I know! I want that Trixie Cosmetics sponsorship, honey. But that’s Mother, so whatever she wants to give me, she can put me on her list — she can make me co-signer for Trixie Motel, whatever she wants I will be there for her. Love you, Mom!
But the other you thing you became very quickly known for on this season was your killer lip syncs. Did you have a favorite lip sync you got to do?
Oh, mine is obviously “Body” against Miss Dawn. I literally felt the spirit of Megan Thee Stallion consuming my body; like, she possessed me. I remember Sapphira telling us that she started crying for Dawn before the song even started.
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Oh, Dawn herself told us that the only thing she could think about during the lip sync was which wig she would put in which suitcase once it was over.
You know, the thing was, it would not have mattered who I lip synced against; that song in particular plays in Miami almost as a national anthem. Every morning, I wake up by paying homage to the Hotties by playing that song. It’s literally built into my nervous system at this point. So, when they told us what song was happening that day, I was like, “Oh, okay. I’m safe another week.”
I mean, I started out doing amateur drag contests competing against other girls, and Miami is known for having some of the best lip sync artists ever. So, coming up getting to watch these queens perfectly execute timing, knowing how and when to do a reveal or a split or punch someone in the face, was crucial. I learned from all of them, and then I ended up using those same tricks on them in my competitions, and won almost every battle contest I competed in in Miami.
On this episode, you and the other girls were tasked with a makeover challenge, which very much seemed like your exact vibe. When you’re not under the pressure of a reality television show, are you the kind of queen who enjoys giving makeovers?
It is one of my favorite things to do, absolutely. I do it often, and I don’t want to be dramatic, but I can change people’s lives — at least makeup-wise! I have done my makeup on other queens before, and they’ve changed their entire approach as a result. Almost every person that I’ve done looks exactly like me, so I was excited for this challenge, because I thought I was absolutely winning the makeover challenge right at the end. I’ve done weddings, I’ve done quinceañeras, I’ve done it all.
It’s helpful that your partner Miguel was simply so hot, and you were very aware of that fact.
Girl! Straight up, I think that’s why I lost this challenge, because I was too busy ogling. I was fully ready to leave set and start a new life with him. What’s so funny is he has truly the manliest face. For some, that would have been the hardest challenge, but I was slowly falling in love with him and saying, “I will do whatever it takes to make this man pretty.” And I don’t know, he really just was … I was so lost the whole episode because he was just so fine.
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Before I have to let you go, I’d love to know — what music have you been listening to lately?
Other than “Body” by Megan Thee Stallion, I have been obsessing over the new Kali Uchis album, ORQUÍDEAS, because it is insanely good. And also, Ariana’s “The Boy Is Mine” is supreme. It’s a bop.
Hunter Schafer has confirmed that while she and Rosalía are currently good friends, they were definitely more than that a few years ago.
In a GQ interview published Tuesday (April 2), the Euphoria star revealed that she dated the “Beso” singer for about five months starting in the fall of 2019. According to Schafer, it took her a few hangouts to realize that she and the musician shared more than just platonic feelings for one another; as of now, though, they’re just good friends.
“I have really beautiful friendships with people that I was once romantically involved with,” Schafer told the publication. “She’s family no matter what.”
Schafer also noted the two-time Grammy winner gave her blessing to confirm their history in the new interview. “It’s been so much speculation for so long,” the Hunger Games actress continued. “Part of us just wants to get it over with, and then another part is like, ‘It’s none of anybody’s f–king business!’ … It’s something I’m happy to share. And I think she feels that way too.”
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Billboard has reached out to Rosalía’s rep for comment.
A couple years after dating Schafer, the “Despechá” artist got engaged to fellow Latin music superstar Rauw Alejandro; the pair split in July 2023. Recently, rumors have linked her to The Bear‘s Jeremy Allen White.
Meanwhile, Schafer says she’s still recovering from her breakup with her Euphoria season 2 co-star, singer-songwriter Dominic Fike. “I had a really beautiful relationship with [Fike], and it really opened me up in that way,” she said of the “Babydoll” artist, whom she dated on and off in 2022.
The Cuckoo star also touched on the death of another Euphoria cohort — Angus Cloud, who passed away last year of an accidental overdose. He was 25 years old.
“I’ve never had a friend that I was that close to and that was my age pass before,” Schafer told the publication. “It’s really surreal. It doesn’t make sense. And yeah, it’s new. It’s a new kind of grieving.
“People really fell in love with Angus,” she added. “He was really one of the heartbeats of Euphoria. It’s always the people that are just kind of a little too good for the world and a little too pure. He was a f–king angel. He was sunshine.”
After you’ve sufficiently yee’d your haw with Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter, take some time to play a few tracks from your favorite queer artists. Billboard Pride is proud to present the latest edition of Queer Jams of the Week, our roundup of some of the best new music releases from LGBTQ artists.
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From Doechii’s banging new single to Becky Hill’s infectious new pop track, check out just a few of our favorite releases from this week below:
Doechii ft. JT, “Alter Ego”
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Leave it to hip-hop powerhous Doechii to create her own new genre for a new single. With “Alter Ego,” Doechii ushers in the era of what she calls “editorial rap” — a genre she describes as “if hip-hop and house music had a baby.” The result is an irresistible, Doechii-flavored banger, tinged with Eurodance synths and hard-hitting hip-hop beats, all accompanied by the Florida rapper’s unstoppable flow and in-your-face chorus. Add in City Girls’ JT for a fiery verse of her own, and you’ve got an A+ track on your hands.
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Becky Hill, “Outside of Love”
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It may only be March, but rising British pop star Becky Hill is ready to give you a summer dance anthem early. “Outside of Love,” the BRIT Award winner’s latest dance-pop single, leans all the way into the aesthetics and sounds that fans of Hill have come to love — her singular voice float over a thrumming beat through the song’s building verses, before exploding into a firework of electronic ecstasy on the thrilling chorus. If you’re looking for feel-good club vibes heading into your weekend, look no further.
St. Vincent, “Flea”
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St. Vincent is no stranger to the concept of lust — her seminal 2017 album Masseduction saw the singer-songwriter expounding on the topic ad infinitum. Yet “Flea,” the latest cut off St. Vincent’s forthcoming album All Born Screaming, still delivers something entirely different for Annie Clark. Bathed in blaring guitars and Dave Grohl’s bombastic drums, this “Flea” immediately burrows into you, toying with your pleasure centers as Clark’s writhing voice insists that she’s not letting you go without a fight — and after listening to this track, you won’t want her to let you go, either.
Blondshell feat. Bully, “Docket”
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If you’re ready to keep rocking, Blondshell and Bully have you covered with “Docket,” their infectious new single about the chaos of an imbalanced relationship. At the start, “Docket” presents itself as a hazy, mellowed-out piece of self reflection, where both Blondshell and Bully are looking for some validation about the push and pull of romantic ambivalence. By the time the first chorus hits, though, listeners find themselves in a full-blown rock song, with chunky guitar chords amping up the pair’s call for “a curse” or “a bug” to help their partner find “someone who’s more in love.” As catchy as it is deeply relatable, “Docket” lands as an immediate standout in both artists’ already-stacked catalogues.
Cakes da Killa, Black Sheep
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Much like the titular animal of his latest LP, Cakes da Killa has regularly found himself pushed to the margins of the music industry simply for being himself. So, why not give them a taste of what they’re missing? Black Sheep stands as one of the emcee’s best works to date, continuing his genre-defying style with renewed panache — jazz, house, R&B and rap all meld into one sound throughout the project — while his writing game reaches yet another career-high. Go ahead, keep underestimating Cakes; he’ll just keep showing you how wrong you are.
Stand Atlantic, PVRIS & Bruses, “GIRL$”
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Take a group of queer women and ask them to write a song about women, and magic can happen. Stand Atlantic’s latest alt-pop jam “GIRL$,” featuring fellow alt-rockers PVRIS and Bruses, sees a trio of women delivering a hearty middle-finger to misogyny, unrealistic body standards, femmephobia and plenty more. The song’s hooky verses build up the tension, only to let it release in total catharsis on the amped-up chorus. Need to vent? Just press play.
Check out all of our picks on Billboard’s Queer Jams of the Week playlist below:
Following calls for him to withdraw from and boycott the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest over Israel’s inclusion amid the ongoing war in Gaza, Olly Alexander explained why he will still be participating in the annual competition on Friday (March 29).
In a statement posted to his Instagram, Alexander responded to activist group Queers for Palestine, who wrote the singer an open letter asking him to withdraw from the contest. “I wholeheartedly support action being taken to demand an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, the return of all hostages and the safety and security of all civilians in Palestine and Israel,” he wrote. “I know some people will choose to boycott this year’s Eurovision and I understand and respect their decision.”
The “Dizzy” singer continued, saying that he took “a lot of time to deliberate” over the correct course of action, and decided that withdrawing from Eurovision “wouldn’t bring us any closer to our shared goal.” Alexander said he and a number of other contestants spoke and decided that “by taking part we can use our platform to come together and call for peace.”
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In its original open letter, Queers for Palestine applauded Alexander’s “vision of queer joy and abundance you’ve offered through your music, and share your belief in collective liberation for all,” then asked him to “heed the Palestinian call to withdraw from Eurovision … There can be no party with a state committing apartheid and genocide.”
Alexander also shared a statement from a collective of other Eurovision participants — signed by himself, Ireland’s Bambie Thug, Norway’s Gåte, Portugal’s Iolanda, San Marino’s Megara, Switzerland’s Nemo, Denmark’s Saba, Lithuania’s Silvester Belt and Finland’s Windows95Man — saying that they “stand in solidarity with the oppressed and communicate our heartfelt wish for peace, an immediate and lasting ceasefire and the safe return of all hostages.” They added that they felt “it is our duty to create and uphold this space, with a strong hope that it will inspire greater compassion and empathy.”
Queers for Palestine later responded to Alexander’s decision, saying that while they “welcome” responses from both the singer and his fellow contestants, they found both statements lacking. “When [Alexander et al] use that voice to downplay the genocide in Gaza by vaguely calling it a mere ‘situation,’ they misuse their power. When they choose to ignore the call for a boycott issued by the largest Palestinian coalition, in historic Palestine and in exile, they risk condescending to the people who are being occupied and massacred and are asking for our solidarity.”
This is not Alexander’s first time sharing his thoughts on the ongoing war in Gaza. Shortly before he was announced as a participant in Eurovision 2024, the singer signed an October 2023 open letter from LGBTQ activist group Voices4London calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and calling out Israel as an “apartheid regime.” After Alexander was announced as the U.K.’s representative for the annual contest, a source for the Conservative Party spoke to The Daily Telegraph to criticize the BBC for choosing the singer as a representative for the U.K., calling the decision “either a massive oversight or sheer brass neck from the BBC.”
Read both of Olly Alexander’s full statements below:
It’s a Thursday morning in Silver Lake, Calif., and singer-songwriter Lauren Sanderson is already feeling the fatigue set in. “It’s been all hands on deck 24 hours a day,” she sighs. “Anyone who’s in this industry and not drinking coffee might be insane.”
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The 28-year-old singer has a good reason for her exhaustion. While Sanderson spent much of her career bouncing between major labels (she signed to Sony’s Epic Records for her 2018 EP Don’t Panic before departing the label in 2019) and more boutique organizations (Rix Records, Young Forever Inc.), the singer is now taking the do-it-yourself approach to its most literal conclusion.
“I’m an only child, and I think the more I grow up, the more I realize how much I might sometimes be overly independent,” she says, laughing at herself. “I would rather go into this year, make the best album of my life and really meet the specific goals and vision I have for myself than rely on someone else. If a manager can do it for me, then I can do it for myself.”
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The aforementioned best album of her life is still coming down the pipeline (with a tentative July release date set in place), but those wondering what it might sound like recently got a first taste. “They Won’t Like This,” the recently released lead single from the new LP, features Sanderson at her most confident as she casually asserts that she simply doesn’t care how people perceive her. “I got a theory, yeah, it’s something they won’t like,” she raps on the song’s swaggering first verse. “‘Cause I’m not supposed to be myself, but I just might.”
The song was born out of what Sanderson calls “rejection exposure therapy,” where the singer opens herself up to the possibility of being dismissed in order to overcome her fear of it. “There’s that moment where you’re about to do something that you really want to do, but then something in your brain is like, ‘They’re not gonna like that, they’re gonna judge you,’” she explains. “But you can’t mistake judging yourself for other people judging you. It’s like, are they gonna laugh at you? Or are you laughing at yourself?”
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Despite the confident persona she projects to her fans, Sanderson still struggles with rejection — even when it comes to a song about the combatting that very idea. “I loved this song, but I still got in my head and told my girlfriend, ‘I don’t think that I should put it out, I don’t think people will like it,’” Sanderson says. “She looked at me and said, ‘Girl, then what the f-ck did you make this song for? Isn’t that the whole point?’”
Part of the reason the song immediately resonated with the singer is precisely because it reflected the sound of her early career, when she still lived in Indiana and started releasing rap-influenced pop tracks on her own. That, she points out, was her goal in approaching new music for 2024.
“My biggest inspiration for this whole album, this single, all of it was my younger self. It was for the 19-year0old girl who had no clue how to make a song, but she just started saying how she felt on a beat,” she says. “It’s actually really cool to now look back at her, to hear her words for big dreamers and to apply them to my current self.”
That dedication to her younger self also manifested with her new approach to doing business in the music industry. After spending the last six years of her career deferring to managers, promoters and executives at various labels, Sanderson is back to doing all of work for herself.
Sure, the prospect of managing her own career can be daunting — “It can be, like, ‘Oh, f-ck, this is a lot,’ and the goal is not to manage myself forever,” she says — but the singer-songwriter points out that she’s done it all before, albeit on a smaller scale. “This is exactly how I started in Indiana,” she says. “I was my own fake manager, I was a fake booking agent, and I booked an entire 28-city tour that I drove myself around on … I don’t know if it’s because I’m a Capricorn or what, but I love to send an email. I love to make a Dropbox folder.”
Part of her promotion strategy, as it has been with nearly every artist making their mark in the industry as of late, has been TikTok. Over the last few years, Sanderson accrued over 500,000 followers on the app, posting videos ranging from teasers of her latest songs, to diaristic entries on mental health, queer affirmation and more.
Now, that particular tool in her promotional strategy is in jeopardy. In January, Universal Music Group announced that they would be pulling their entire music catalogue — including the work of signed songwriters — from the app saying that TikTok was “trying to build a music-based business, without paying fair value for the music.” In the intervening months since, multiple music organizations have come out in support of UMG’s protest, and even independent promoters have warned clients against relying too heavily on the app for virality. Meanwhile, the House of Representatives recently passed a bill through to the Senate that, if made a law, would effectively force ByteDance — the company that owns TikTok — to sell the app to another company or have the app banned throughout the United States.
For her part, Sanderson recognizes the influence that TikTok has over the music industry right now — but she’s quick to point out that adaptability is more important to success than chasing viral trends. “Some people have built TikTok to be this thing where musicians feel like if you don’t have a million followers on the app, then you might as well just write yourself off,” she says. “TikTok is literally just an app, it is not the make or break for every artist. It definitely would suck if TikTok stopped existing … but if it was gone, I would definitely just start posting Reels. It’s really that simple.”
It certainly helps that before she pursued a career in music, Sanderson worked as a motivational speaker in her teens and early twenties. She could be giving a TED Talk or simply posting an inspirational video on YouTube, but Sanderson always made it clear that her goal was to help uplift anyone who were willing to listen to her.
That facet of herself remains entirely unchanged — even on “They Won’t Like This,” as she’s done with many of her past releases, Sanderson spends the song’s outro instructing her fans to “stop f–king doubting yourself and be this god that you are.”
She chalks up her mood-boosting tendencies to a “delusional confidence” she’s had since she started her career in Indiana. “I had to go to this place in my head and be truly so delusional and convince myself I already did massive things that I hadn’t done. In my head I was like, ‘I’ve already sold out Madison Square Garden,’” she says.
But now, she points out that some of the fantasy has already become reality. Over the last five years, Sanderson has opened for bigger artists like Finneas and Chase Atlantic on their respective solo tours, helped write songs for alt-R&B star Joji’s chart-topping album Smithereens, and cultivated a motivated, ever-growing audience of fans.
“Sometimes I forget that my confidence isn’t really that delusional,” she beams. “Now I have actual proof that I can do this.”
Throughout her career, Reneé Rapp has made it a point to be as open about her sexuality as possible. But in a recent social media post, the “Not My Fault” singer told her fans that enough is enough.
After Rapp started referring to herself as a lesbian in multiple public appearances over the last few months, discourse began among the singer’s fans, with some openly asking if the star still identified as bisexual. Rapp put an end to the speculation on Monday (March 25) in a post on X: “if I say I’m a lesbian I am a lesbian and if someone says they’re bi they are bi,” she wrote. “I’ve had enough of you witches.”
Over the last few years, Rapp has spoken about identifying as bisexual, even writing about her experience as a bisexual woman on the song “Pretty Girls” from her critically acclaimed debut album Snow Angel. But during her appearance as a musical guest on Saturday Night Live in January, Rapp performed as herself in a sketch about celebrity lip-reading where her fellow cast members referred to her as “little lesbian intern Reneé.”
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Since then, Rapp started speaking about owning her identity as a lesbian. In a recent cover story for The Hollywood Reporter, Rapp said she was still navigating the new label that she placed on her sexuality. “I’ve only recently started referring to myself as a lesbian, and I’ve only recently been in a relationship where I’m like, ‘Yeah, I’m a lesbian for sure,’” she said. “I’m watching all these movies and parts of gay culture, specifically lesbian culture, and I’m like, ‘I love this.’”
Fans were quick to share messages of support for the singer on social media, reminding other users that how Rapp identifies her sexuality is her business, not theirs. “no cuz i’m glad she’s spoken up about it cuz literally who are u to tell her anything about herself,” one user wrote. Another added that “y’all forget sexualities can change they’re just labels.”
Rapp recently made headlines after winning the 2024 GLAAD Media Award for outstanding musical artist. Taking to the stage at the March 14 ceremony to accept her award, Rapp used her speech to call for an “immediate and permanent” ceasefire in Gaza, while encouraging viewers to “continue to advocate for yourselves, continue to advocate for your friends, your queer friends and for those who can’t advocate for themselves.”
Check out Rapp’s post below:
if I say I’m a lesbian I am a lesbian and if someone says they’re bi they are bi I’ve had enough of you witches— RMJ (@reneerapp) March 25, 2024
With only a few episodes left until the grand finale, RuPaul’s Drag Race season 16 needed to take a short bathroom break.
On last week’s episode (March 22), the top six contestants were paired off into duos and asked to makeover gender-neutral bathrooms for an HGTV-style renovation comedy challenge. Designing a space rather than their outfits, the girls needed to come up with cohesive themes and larger-than-life presentations to make the judges laugh.
Thanks to their 1920s speakeasy-inspired bathroom — and a pair of well-crafted characters — Sapphira Cristál and Plane Jane nabbed a dual win, making them the two most-winning queens of the season so far (Sapphira with four wins, while Plane follows with three). Meanwhile, Dawn’s performance in the Museum of Modern Fart fell short of the judges’ high expectations, while Morphine Love Dion couldn’t find her spark in her her hellish commode.
Finding themselves in the bottom, Morphine and Dawn lip-synched to Megan Thee Stallion’s hit song “Body.” Weaponizing her curvy figure and slick dance moves, Morphine owned every second of the booty-bouncing track, earning her spot in the hotly contested top five. That meant Dawn turned to dusk, and the Brooklyn queen was sent packing.
Below, Dawn chats with Billboard about her time on the show, becoming the unofficial narrator of the season through her confessional clips, her explosive “doo doo clown” fight with Plane Jane, and why she thinks she never stood a chance against Morphine in that Lip Sync for Your Life.
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Dawn, you made it to top six! How do you feel about your run on the show?
Thank you, my greatest accomplishment! Looking back on the whole run, I have nothing but gratitude and happiness. I feel incredible, I could not be happier about how it all happened. Obviously, I didn’t get any wins, I guess I didn’t “make my mark” in that capacity. Like, there was no moment that was “about Dawn,” but even through that, I made it to top six on an incredibly stacked season! I have watched every single episode and been so happy and satisfied with what I was able to provide for the audience.
I hear you, but I wholeheartedly disagree on you not “making your mark” — because not only were killing a lot of these challenges, but your confessionals were maybe the most entertaining parts of every episode.
[Laughs.] I guess that’s my win — do they give out challenge wins for best confessionals?
You were the narrator of the season without a doubt, because you were simply unafraid to be unfiltered and occasionally unhinged in those clips. What was the energy you were trying to bring to those sessions?
OK, the keyword there is trying — because let me tell you, I was not trying to do anything! I rolled into that confessional chair and I was just excited, happy to be there, ready to cut up and shoot the s–t. Sometimes, I was definitely a little too comfortable in that confessional chair. But, it worked out for me, because what you are seeing is deeply authentic to me as a person. That’s how I talk to my friends and the people I love. I’m not sitting there timid, scared to say how I feel.
I mean you really came after us theater gays in that one episode.
I’m sorry! [Laughs.] There’s one specific moment of that particular confessional that happened — when I was about to start talking s–t, there is a twinkle in my eye, and then suddenly I go, “No, wait, I shouldn’t say that.” It was so funny.
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You also did one of my favorite things that queens do on this show, where you would walk into a scene, ask the other girls a very pointed question, and then slink back into the background to watch the drama unfold—
That was crazy, because I straight up didn’t even realize I was doing that until I watched the season back! What I like to say is, “I will never start drama, but I will make sure as hell that it never ends.”
But there was one exception to this trend, which was the now iconic “doo doo clown mess” moment between you and Plane Jane. You really just called her dress boring and she cracked. What was that legendary reading session like in person?
That might have been my favorite moment on this season, just the way that I said something so … benign, honestly! I just said “the dress is ugly,” and I figured she would just say, “Okay, I hate you,” and move on. She cracked so effortlessly! She stands up like a vulture and circles me, and I’m just sitting there cackling, like, “Yeah, girl, keep going!”
What’s so funny is she kept “reading” me, but ultimately she was just stating facts. She said I was dressed like a clown — correct, I was. You’re saying I’m wearing children’s fabric — also correct, and exactly the point of the outfit, thank you, girl. She was not saying anything that hurt my feelings, because I was like, “You understand the concept behind the outfit, amazing! Now please sit down!”
When this latest episode started, you and Morphine were the only girls without wins — how does that factor into your state of mind, especially this far into the competition?
Interesting. One thing I was feeling a lot around that time, probably like episode 11 to 12, was that … I don’t mean this in a pessimistic way, but I’d kind of given up on winning a challenge. My main goal, at that point, was just to have as much fun as I possibly could. In my experience, that is what would translate to the judges and to the audience. I remember thinking that I wasn’t letting go enough. In episode 11, I wanted to let go more, but then I got paired with Mhi’ya, so I said, “We will try again in episode 12.” And then I made it to the next week, and “Body” happened — so what’s a girl to do?
Oh we are going to discuss the “Body” of it all, but before we do, I just want your take on this challenge. I think this bathroom makeover HGTV parody might be one of the strangest main challenges Drag Race has done in a while — do you like it when the show gets a little unhinged with its challenges?
Girl, I haven’t been able to enter a public bathroom since this challenge, the trauma. I mean, I had Nymphia to reign in, who wanted to, like, paint poop on the walls! But there’s something about this show, where they’re sometimes telling us, “Please, let’s not do fart jokes, let’s not do piss jokes,” and then they ask us to decorate a bathroom and make it funny — we’re gonna make fart jokes, girl!
But all of this is to say: As absurd as it was, and as frustrating as it was to go home on this challenge, I also think that one of my favorite aspects of Drag Race is the absurdity of it all! When we get into these kind of challenges, it’s actually iconic.
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Which brings us to the lip sync. Once you were in the bottom, in that tight dress, against Morphine lip synching to Megan Thee Stallion’s “Body,” was there any part of you that thought, “I can win this?”
No! [laughs] Are you kidding? What was going through my head was, “Which wig am I going to put in which suitcase?” Like, as much as I want to think and I want to say … actually, no, I won’t even say that! I am never going to beat Morphine to “Body” by Megan Thee Stallion! The BBL queen of Miami? It’s a wrap for me, sis! She could’ve been on her sixth lip sync with a broken leg, and I still would have gone home. I just have to be at peace with that!
Before I let you go, I’d love to know — what music have you been listening to lately?
I have been streaming Eternal Sunshine on repeat, no skips, over and over. It is crazy. My favorite songs are definitely “Supernatural” and “We Can’t Be Friends.” But other than that, I’ve also been listening to a lot of Beabadoobee, and I’ve been getting very into this first new song from Rainbow Kitten Surprise in six years. That’s been my playlist, lately.
It may be Cowboy Carter week, but the silvery disco ball strobe lights of Renaissance — the first act of Beyoncé’s presently unfolding trilogy — continue to illuminate the world. On Monday (March 26), the Human Rights Campaign debuted Renaissance: A Queer Syllabus, a sprawling collection of academic articles, essays, films and other pieces of media rooted in Black queer and feminist studies and directly inspired by each track on Queen Bey’s Billboard 200-topping dance album.
Curated by Justin Calhoun, Leslie Hall and Chauna Lawson of the HRC’s HBCU program, the syllabus will serve as an educational resource designed to honor, analyze and celebrate the joy, resilience, innovation and legacy of the Black queer community. The syllabus will be shared with nearly 30 historically Black colleges and universities, including Howard University, North Carolina A&T University, Prairie View A&M University and Shaw University.
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Released in the summer of 2022, Renaissance was and continues to be a bonafide cultural phenomenon. A lovingly researched ode to the Black queer roots of dance music filtered through her intensely personal relationship with her late Uncle Johnny, the album captivated fans around the world and shined a much-needed light on the unsung movers and shakers of Black queer art and culture. The album won four Grammys — including a historic win for best dance/electronic album — housed a pair of Billboard Hot 100 top 10 hits in “Break My Soul” (No. 1) and “Cuff It” (No. 6) and spawned a record-breaking stadium tour and accompanying box office-topping documentary concert film.
From the economic impact of Beyoncé’s silver fashion aesthetic to career boosts given to Black queer icons such as Kevin Aviance, Ts Madison and Honey Dijon, Renaissance proved itself to be much more than a standard LP. The HRC understood that there was a chance to make a real impact across education and activism through the lens of the record.
“There are ways that we can embed the impact of her lyrics into real life. It was serendipitous for this to happen,” said Hall, director of the HRC’s HBCU Program. “All the anti-DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] laws were being introduced in the same states that she was doing concerts in. So, what would it look like for us to put our best thinking together to put articles, books, and movies to all of the songs on her album?”
On May 15, 2023 — just three shows into the Renaissance World Tour — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill banning DEI initiatives in public colleges. A month later (June 14, 2023), the governor of Beyoncé’s home state of Texas, Greg Abbott, signed a bill prohibiting DEI offices and the hiring of DEI staff at public higher education institutions.
The juxtaposition of rising anti-queer sentiments and Beyoncé’s Renaissance era anchors the syllabus’ arrangement. The syllabus begins with a brief statement summarizing and reiterating the HRC’s June 2023 LGBTQ+ State of Emergency statement, which they declared “for the first time following an unprecedented and dangerous spike in anti-LGBTQ+ legislative assaults sweeping state houses.” The final pages of the syllabus contain both a reprint of Beyoncé’s statement in memory of O’Shea Sibley — a young Black queer man who was murdered in Brooklyn back in July 2023 for simply voguing to Renaissance -—and an additional statement from the HRC denouncing hate crimes.
“I think when you preface something [with] a state of emergency, you get the lay of the land and how important [the] syllabus is,” said Calhoun, an HBCU program manager at HRC. “It brings a sense of urgency and realness to what’s actually happening to queer youth, especially black Queer Youth.”
Calhoun — alongside Hall and Lawson — began work on the syllabus in October 2023, dividing the album’s 16-song tracklist into different themes and building hubs of additional secondary resources that expound on said themes. Despite Calhoun’s initial concerns that breaking up the tracklist would “lose the flow” of the album — Renaissance is intentionally mixed and sequenced to emulate a seamless DJ set — he ultimately agreed that the approach helped the syllabus feel more like a lesson plan.
Six themes anchor the syllabus, ranging from “intersectionality and inclusivity” to “social justice and activism.” Fan favorite tracks like “Alien Superstar” and “Thique” rope in the origins of the body positivity moment and iconic speeches from Barbara Ann Teer (including the one sampled on “Superstar”) under the umbrella of “empowerment and self-acceptance.” “Energy,” the song behind the infamous “mute challenge,” gets new readings by interloping essays from bell hooks and Patricia Hill Collins. Even less-famed tracks like “Move” (with Grace Jones & Tems) — which is paired with fascinating readings on the effects of colonialism on pre-colonial Africa and African perspectives on trans identity — get in on the scholarly fun.
Naturally, “Heated,” a song that had an intense, immediate impact on Renaissance listeners with deep ties to the ballroom scene, served as the crux of the syllabus, according to Calhoun. “It was the model child for how a section of the syllabus should look,” he explains. “There was so much to unpack in ‘Heated.’ You have Beyoncé’s Uncle Johnny, a Black gay man [living] during the AIDS epidemic — that lead to us [compiling different resources] about how we lost a generation of black gay men who were visionaries and people who paved the culture.”
The syllabus is a thorough resource, one that continues the HRC’s connection with Beyoncé’s Renaissance era. On Aug. 27, 2023, the HRC, with support from Beyoncé’s BeyGOOD Foundation, mounted the Equality Ball in Las Vegas, NV – an event that doubled as actual ball complete with a “Bring It Like Beyoncé” category and an educational resource pushing voter registration and sexual health awareness.
Although Parkwood Entertainment, Beyoncé’s production company, did not authorize or give “direct sign off” on the syllabus (Billboard reached out to representatives at Parkwood for comment), creating the resource was “a seamless process,” according to Calhoun. “We knew amongst the team which authors and which folks to go to for certain things, I don’t think any of us did many Google searches,” said Hall. “We knew where to go to connect the right [resources] to one of her songs [and] build a course out of it. It is really a testament to well-read, well-learned people. I feel obligated to say that because we don’t talk about ourselves like that. We’re smart. It would take folks with Howard degrees to put something like this together.”
From Pauli Murray and C. Riley Snorton to Audre Lorde and Sonya Renee Taylor, HRC’s new syllabus continues Renaissance’s mission of highlighting, amplifying and re-centering Black and queer voices. Of course, this syllabus is far from the first piece of Beyoncé-inspired coursework in higher education. Following the release of the Grammy winner’s culture-shifting album Lemonade in 2016, a slew of Beyoncé-themed classes debuted across higher education institutions — including the University of Copenhagen, Rutgers University, Arizona State University and the University of Texas at San Antonio.
For Hall, the rise of courses tackling social constructs through the lens of pop culture is only a good thing. “We’re in a powder keg right now, and it’s gonna pop around election time,” he says. “We have to get information to folks in younger generations. We need them to be connected to what’s really happening and a way to do that is through music and culture.”
Nonetheless, Hall and his colleagues aren’t oblivious to the fact that Renaissance exists in an intrinsically capitalistic context. “[It’s] something I grapple with so much,” notes Calhoun. “I had a teacher who once said that capitalism is the current structure and we have to live under it. This is how life operates. What is Beyoncé going to do to stop a capitalist structure? I just don’t feel like we’re at a point in the movement where we know what we want [people like her] to do.”
While there may be no current plans for a Cowboy Carter syllabus — “being from the Mississippi Delta, that would be dope, but it depends on Beyoncé,” quipped Calhoun — the HRC’s Renaissance syllabus is the ultimate proof that the Renaissance is, in fact, not over.
“We’ve made a course that adds to scholarship about Black queer futures and specifically ballroom and uplifting history that’s not as popular in academia,” says Calhoun. “It really adds to the academic cannon of Black queer scholarship in a way we haven’t seen before.”
Spring has officially sprung, which means it’s time to freshen up your warm weather playlists with some new tunes from you favorite queer artists! Billboard Pride is proud to present the latest edition of Queer Jams of the Week, our roundup of some of the best new music releases from LGBTQ artists.
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From Remi Wolf’s groovy new single to Adrianne Lenker’s stunning new album, check out just a few of our favorite releases from this week below:
Remi Wolf, “Cinderella”
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Everybody needs a good fairy godmother in their life — so, Remi Wolf decided to be her own. With “Cinderella,” the first single off the star’s upcoming album Big Ideas, Wolf breaks down all of her different moods into colorful subcategories, narrating the rollercoaster of emotion she constantly finds herself on. As you listen, the ’70s-inspired groove will slowly ratchet up, giving you ample room to dance off even your greatest worries. And that’s largely the point, as Wolf sings on this deliriously fun song; “Baby girl, won’t you dry your eyes?/ Don’t stress because you’re doing it right.”
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Adrianne Lenker, Bright Future
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In a music landscape where overproduction can feel like the new norm, Big Thief star Adrianne Lenker is offering something antithetical. On Bright Future, the singer-songwriter’s latest solo project, Lenker gives fans a direct line to the creative process — every song on the new track was recorded directly to tape, live in studio. Typically armed with her voice (as well as the voices of a few collaborators) and delicate guitars, Lenker proves her less-is-more thesis is well worth listening to, especially when paired with her phenomenal songwriting skills. Bright Future makes a big promise with it’s title; fortunately for us, Lenker delivers in spades.
Fletcher, In Search of the Antidote
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Fletcher’s ready to sing about something else. After a career’s worth of songs about love and heartbreak, Fletcher’s latest LP In Search of the Antidote sees the singer-songwriter turning her gaze inward, asking herself questions about identity (“Ego Talking”), self-defeating mentalities (“Attached to You”) and yes, occasionally, romance (“Crush”). With her lyrical skills honed to a new level, Fletcher proves throughout Antidote that she’s ready for the next challenge life throws at her, whatever it may be.
Girl in Red feat. Sabrina Carpenter, “You Need Me Now?”
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What happens when you take two headline-making openers from Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour and put them together on a song? It sounds like you get a pop banger. Girl in Red teams up with Sabrina Carpenter on the cutting “You Need Me Now?,” a driving pop-rock single that sees the pair of pop singers going for their respective exes’ jugulars. With powerful guitars and frenetic drums, the duo let their former flames know that talk is cheap, and their time is officially up. So, to answer the titles question — yes, we definitely need more Girl in Red and Sabrina Carpenter right now.
Gossip, Real Power
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Nearly 12 years after they released their last album, pioneering indie rock group Gossip is back and ready for more. Real Power sees the trio taking on a wide spectrum on sound, be it disco-pop (“Give It Up For Love”), funk (“Don’t Be Afraid”) or sheer rock (“Real Power”). But even with a variety of sonic textures, the group remains committed to what makes them Gossip — high camp aesthetics and powerful lyrics meant to challenge what you accept as the “norm.
King Isis, Shed
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After giving fans a panoply of pop songs on their EP Scales, King Isis would like to dive into something a little bit darker. Throughout Shed, that is exactly what the up-and-coming artist does, turning up the grungy punk aesthetics but keeping the artistry that fans have come to love, crafting a breif, affecting tour through the angstier side of their musical output.
Check out all of our picks on Billboard’s Queer Jams of the Week playlist below:
There was never supposed to be a “proper” Gossip comeback. After releasing its album A Joyful Noise nearly 12 years ago, the band — made up of lead singer Beth Ditto, guitarist Nathan Howdeshell and drummer Hannah Blilie — decided to call it quits and return to their respective lives, both in and out of the spotlight.
Fate, Ditto has since learned, works in funny ways. A brief 10th anniversary reunion tour for their Rick Rubin-produced album Music for Men in 2019 got the group back in the rhythm of things. But it wasn’t until the early days of the pandemic that Ditto found herself recording a solo album with Rubin in Hawaii, missing her bandmates.
“We have such a language that we have developed together,” she explains to Billboard via Zoom. “When you’ve done it for 20+ years, you just know what the other person is saying. It happens in band practice a lot, with me and Hannah and Nathan.”
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Calling up Howdeshell and Blilie to come work with her on a new album, Ditto is happy to say Gossip is officially back in 2024. Real Power, the band’s sixth studio album (out Friday, March 22 via Columbia Records), is both a return to form and a breath of fresh air for the pioneering rock group. Continuing their time-honored tradition of blending Northwestern punk aesthetics with dashes of dance, soul and funk, the fabled trio spend much of the 40 minutes of their newest album addressing a world that has changed — both for better and worse — in the intervening decade since their disbanding.
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Yet when Ditto first asked Howdeshell to come write and play on what would have been her second solo LP, she hadn’t intended to stage a headline-making reunion. As the childhood friends worked together on her project, Ditto says she noticed reticence from Howdeshell.
“He was holding back, because he didn’t want to step on my toes, you know? He was like, ‘This is your record, so I don’t want to have too much say over it,’” she explains. “It didn’t feel right to have Nathan just play on the record, but not give him the credit that he deserved for it. I asked Rick directly, ‘Should this be a Beth record or a Gossip record?’ And he said, ‘Obviously you should do what you want, but this should absolutely be a Gossip record.’”
Thus began the “piecemeal” process of putting together a comeback album from the comfort of Rubin’s home in Kauai. With a global pandemic raging, the production team had little choice but to build makeshift vocal booths and find creative ways of soundproofing studio space so an island breeze wouldn’t interrupt a take. “I would have to wear my swimsuit in order to make it through a take, because it got so hot in there,” Ditto offers with a laugh. “That approach made it feel way cooler than it could’ve been at a studio where everything was at your fingertips. You had to work for it, almost.”
The ad hoc studio was so slapped together, that at multiple points throughout the recording process, power for the entire building would blow out. It happened so frequently, in fact, that the trio and their production crew invested in multiple generators to try and keep some semblance of electricity running.
“One day, Rick was downstairs and I was upstairs with our engineer Dylan, and he said, ‘Is that the real power on, or is that the generator?’” she recalls. “And I said, ‘Real power … that’s a good line for a chorus.’”
When considering what “real power” meant, Ditto immediately turned her attention to Portland, the place she’s called home for the last two decades. The city had been flooded with massive protests following the death of George Floyd in May 2020; unlike many other cities, though, Portland’s protests continued strong through the summer and into the fall, becoming a centerpiece of then-president Donald Trump’s calls for “law and order” in Democratic cities.
Where others saw chaos and disorder, Ditto saw her neighbors putting up instead of shutting up. “I’ve always been really proud of living in a city where, for better or worse, people are protesting against injustice, and they’re mad enough that they burned a couple of dumpsters,” she says. “That’s the f–king world I want to live in — that’s why I don’t live in the outskirts of Little Rock.”
“Real Power” serves as the central, invigorating anthem on its titular album, driving a dance-punk melody through evocative lyrics, all while conjuring up scenes of protest against an uncaring system. “People in the streets are getting rowdy/ Come here to make peace but dressed to kill,” Ditto growls on the song’s verse. “Feeling overcrowded but I like it/ Do you feel what I feel?”
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There’s an easily-spotted similarity between “Real Power” and Gossip’s breakout 2006 single, “Standing in the Way of Control“; both tracks wield uptempo beats and bass-heavy melodies to call out discrimination against disadvantaged communities. Yet Ditto says, to her, the two songs could not be more different. “I have trouble connecting with [“Real Power”] live, because it’s one of the first songs I ever wrote with a story and a picture I was trying to paint,” she explains. “Whereas ‘Standing in the Way of Control’ came right off the top of my head — it was purely emotional.”
Outside of “Real Power,” though, the new album doesn’t often revel in the insurgent politics that defined so much of Gossip’s early days. As descendants of the queercore genre and heralds of the riot grrrl movement, Gossip used their success in the mid-2000s to platform their pro-queer, feminist and body-positive beliefs, often to the dismay of conservative onlookers. With federal rollbacks of protections for reproductive rights, a renewed slate of anti-LGBTQ laws sweeping the nation and a high-stakes election on the horizon, fans would be forgiven for thinking a new Gossip record would more thoroughly address our current cultural strife.
When asked about this, Ditto offers two explanations for the lack of protest songs on Real Power. The first (and simplest) is that the album is already a few years old. “The album was done, finished, signed, sealed and delivered long before Roe v. Wade had been overturned by the Supreme Court (in June 2022),” she says. “Since then … it’s gotten to the point where I can’t even name all of the insane, regressive s–t that’s happened.”
But her second point, and the one she focuses on thoroughly, is that rebellion and nonconformity are already built into the DNA of Gossip by default. Their presence as a band of mostly queer, all feminist rock stars is itself a middle finger to systems of oppression everywhere. As she sings on the album’s defiant opening line, “Every beat of my heart is a merciful act of God.”
Even with the release of Music for Men 15 years ago, the singer says she received constant critiques about the project lacking the “anger” of the band’s earlier output. “The album’s literally called Music for Men with a d-ke on the cover and made by feminist queers,” she chuckles to herself. “I guess that’s too subtle for people.”
“Everything that we do — even if it is just a dance song or a fun, seemingly harmless song — is done in the name of queer emotion and joy and empowerment,” she continues. “When you listen to something as a queer person, for a queer person, by a queer person, about a queer person, then suddenly everything about this is radical.”
Gossip
Cody Critcheloe
That sentiment shines throughout Real Power — even when Ditto is singing about her divorce from Kristin Ogata on heartbreaking ballads like “Turn the Card Slowly,” or just calling for a joyful expression of romance on funk jam “Give It Up for Love,” every sound is punctuated with a sense of unruly insubordination.
It’s a feeling Ditto is glad to see other queer artists embracing in 2024. Thanks in part to the work put in by bands like Gossip, Le Tigre, Tegan and Sara and other queer-fronted acts from the ’90s, the state of LGBTQ representation across the music industry has dramatically improved, even in the years since Gossip took their indefinite hiatus.
“It’s so cool to be 43 as someone who started out in this industry at 18, and to see all the ways in which things have changed,” she beams. “Because that’s really why we do it — it’s not about your ego, it’s not about whether or not you’ll make a lot of money or get famous. To me, the most important thing is just that the world is moving into place, and it reminds me that we are always going to exist, whether people f–king give us the right to or not.”
Of course, she points out, there is still much more work to be done to preserve the future of queerness in music. Along with honoring groundbreaking queer artists of the past — Sylvester, in particular, deserves recognition “for creating entire genres of music,” she says — Ditto hopes that representation spreads higher into the music business, beyond just the current class of queer-identifying artists. “We wouldn’t have to worry about [executives] meaning well if they would just step aside and let us tell our own stories and advance one another,” she says. “Put us in the positions that we deserve, because those are the positions that will allow us to make change.”
As for the future of Gossip as a band, Ditto is choosing to live in the moment rather than establishing unnecessary expectations. “It feels good to be a part of something and to know that it actually matters,” she declares. Come what may, she says, “We get to be our truest selves right now and make the art we want to make. That matters, more than anything.”