RUPAUL'S DRAG RACE UK SEASON 2 TOUR REVIEW

Wow, that is a long title! When I was telling people I was going it was such a mouthful too. Either way, I had such a great time that I had to tell you about it.

If you haven't watched RuPaul's Drag Race UK yet then what are you waiting for? You can watch it here on BBC IPlayer.

If you are unaware of what Drag Race is completely, then it is a group of drag queens who compete in challenges and someone goes home every week until they crown a winner. There are many seasons in many countries so if you haven't watched any, do it!

A fun fact about me is that I wrote a 10,000 word dissertation on the representations in RuPaul's Drag Race for my final year of university (and got a first which I tell anyone, any chance I get).

Image from the BBC.

A bit of background information about the event

So, this was my second ever drag show. My first was seeing Lawrence Chaney perform in DYMK in Bournemouth, who is incidentally the winner of Drag Race UK Season 2, so I got to see them perform again.

The event was held at the Pavillion in Bournemouth and lasted from around 8pm until 10pm (ish). I went with my friend Kitty who asked me if I wanted to go around a month before. I didn't even realise they were touring so the tickets we got were resale ones at about £65, so they were a bit more expensive than the ones that went on sale the first time around but I was happy to pay that as I love most of the queens that were on season 2 and wanted to see them live.

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The queens

Every queen that was a contestant on season 2 performed at the show except Awhora, who had injured her knee a few days prior.

The queens who performed were as follows but in no particular order: Astina Mandella, Tia Kofi, Joe Black, Ginny Lemon, Cherry Valentine, Veronica Green, Ellie Diamond, Sister Sister, Tayce, Bimini Bon Boulash and Lawrence Chaney.

At the beginning, the queens all walked out and performed a lip-sync, giving us a bit of a taster of what they were going to be doing in the show.

After that, each of the queens performed one by one. Their performances mainly consisted of lip syncs, dancing and some singing.

I have to say each performance was iconic in it's own way. The only one I wasn't too sure of was Ellie Diamond dressing up as The Cat in the Hat. It was funny and I wasn't expecting to see The Cat in the Hat, but it just wasn't overly drag for me.

Even though I didn't like her too much in her season, I thought Veronica Green put on an outstanding performance. She can sing, dance and do it all and I want to wear her outfit on my birthday.

Another person I kind of slept on in her season was Cherry Valentine. After watching her documentary Cherry Valentine: Gypsy Queen and Proud, I felt like I got to know her way more, and when she performed it was amazing! I just don't remember seeing that on the show, I guess it just goes to show that they maybe give more air time to some queens over others. Her hips DID NOT lie.

Related: Drag Queen of Scots by Lawrence Chaney review

My favourite acts

For me, the best acts of the night were Bimini Bon Boulash, Lawrence Chaney, and Tayce. Are you surprised?

First of all, let's talk about Lawrence Chaney. I had already seen them perform so was wondering if it was kind of going to be the same as that but it was so different. On her season, Lawrence admitted to not really being a dancer, but she is so good at entertaining the crowd and so creative! I love Lawrence, one of my favourite drag queens of all time.

When Tayce came out in a high fashion robot suit, I knew we were in for a treat. I did not know what to expect with Tayce, she always looks amazing but it was hard to tell what her performance would be like. 

I feel like I can't even explain it, she just came out and the whole time we were wowed and could not stop watching. But in the background, there was some sort of weird futuristic robo porn going on. Was it weird? Yes. Was it iconic? Also yes.

Finally, we have Bimini, one of the most talented drag queens out there. She really can do anything. Firstly, the visuals coming up on the screen behind her were stunning. She also had a pole that she was climbing up and doing all sorts of things on. At one point I was scared she was going to fall off.

She really is the bendiest bitch in all of East London and she was serving us kind of 90s grunge realness at the same time.

At the end

Towards the end of the show, each of the queens came out in pairs with the person they had lip-synced against in the bottom two of show and Bimini was wearing the biggest heels I've ever seen.

Then, they all performed a routine together and came out and took a bow as you do on stage.

We honestly had so much fun and I can't wait to see more drag shows. 

I also made an Instagram Reel video of some of the queens performing so please watch that here. Sometimes you have to see it for yourself.

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