All Stars 8: Drag Race star Kandy Muse reveals why her epic final lip-sync was forbidden
Kandy Muse on All Stars 8. (World of Wonder)
RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 8 just crowned a winner, but the result could have been a lot different had Kandy Muse been allowed to execute her plan for the final lip-sync.
New York City’s most polarising drag diva Kandy Muse is full of surprises. After being eliminated on the Rusical episode of Drag Race season 13 – before RuPaul told her she wouldn’t be sashaying away after all – she returned to All Stars 8, only to win the season’s Rusical.
Plus, after displaying some less than stunning runway looks on season 13, she returned to the competition with some of All Stars 8’s very best garments. That “ASS The World Turns” get-up? Tens across the board.
Yet the biggest surprise she had up her sleeve during her All Stars 8 run was one that she sadly never got to actually reveal.
The finale episode, which aired on Friday (21 July), saw Kandy go head-to-head with Canada’s Drag Race fan favourite Jimbo in the fight for the crown. Both artists performed their own, original solo numbers, with Kandy’s routine to her song “Pay Me With Money” being the best by quite some way.
Yet, when it came down to the final lip-sync to Sylvester’s “Do You Wanna Funk?”, Kandy lost – and ultimately lost the crown. While Jimbo walked away with the $200,000 prize, Kandy had planned a lip-sync reveal that could have absolutely flipped the finale on its head.
In a new interview on Entertainment Weekly’s Quick Drag podcast, the 28-year-old drag superstar explained that she was supposed to have a bra that shot sparks and fire, but she wasn’t allowed.
“I was going to do this on season 13 at the finale, and then I [didn’t] have the time, and I was going to do this for the finale of All Stars,” she explained to EW’s Drag Race reporter Joey Nolfi.
“Have you ever watched [Lady Gaga’s tour film] The Monster Ball, when Gaga comes out from the floor during ‘Paparazzi’ with the fire tits?… I planned to do that with the silver outfit I had for the finale, but, apparently, to have fire on television, you need a licence.”
Jimbo isn’t exactly known for her lip-sync ability, famously losing six of the eight lip-syncs during her Drag Race tenure – yet she managed to impress the judging panel with a confetti cannon reveal during the finale performance.
However, it’s hard to see how Kandy Muse’s fire-tits wouldn’t have out-gimmicked the cannon, and potentially given her a free pass to the crown.
It’s not the first time that pesky fire safety regulations have prevented Drag Race viewers from seeing an absolute killer performance. Earlier this year, Drag Race legend Adore Delano revealed that she was set for an All Stars return for All Stars 6, but her planned talent show performance was barred.
“We were in like ‘last minute’ negotiations and I said yes last minute and they couldn’t clear my talent show in time,” she said in a TikTok back in January. “I was gonna spit fire! And I was gonna break. I had sugar bottles made, and I was going to put water in it and start breaking it over my head. It was gonna be epic.”
While Kandy’s fervent fanbase will undoubtedly be furious to learn that she could’ve walked away with the crown, the queen also came to the Quick Drag podcast with good news, revealing that she’s got some TV and film appearances in the works.
Since her All Stars return, the queen shared that she’s been inundated with offers of “auditions and movie roles”. She’ll also lead Inside the Producer’s Studio, a new WOW Presents Plus talk show alongside other Drag Race alumni who “had an iconic Untucked moment“, in which they’ll delve into “how to produce your life” on reality TV.
RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 8 is available on Paramount+ in the US and on WOW Presents Plus in the UK and internationally.
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