The latest Drag Race UK vs the World queen to get the boot shares why her elimination was ‘right’
Who should win season two of Drag Race UK Vs. The World? (BBC)
The fourth queen eliminated from season two of Drag Race UK vs The World has revealed why it was ‘right’ for her to be sent home – and why her fellow bottom queen was ‘frustrating’.
Warning: spoilers for episode three of Drag Race UK vs The World season two follow.
After last week’s branding slash acting slash improv challenge that saw the first Drag Race UK queen sashay away from the competition in the form of Jonbers Blonde, the eight remaining international queens were tasked with playing the challenge to end all challenges; Snatch Game.
With a variety of characters on show, including the Statue of Liberty and Manny Pacquiao, Tia Kofi landed in the top for the second week in a row for her Anne Boleyn impression, opposite Drag Race Down Under‘s Hannah Conda’s Shirley Temple. The bottom two queens were revealed to be Drag Race Holland‘s Keta Minaj (also for the second week running) and Drag Race UK‘s Gothy Kendoll after a respective Fran Drescher and Kim Woodburn impression.
With the Werk Room chats underway with the rest of the cast, the fate of the UK’s porkchop (Gothy Kendoll) seemed sealed, as she openly told Tia she “wasn’t going to be able” to address the judges’ consistent critiques of wanting her to come out of her shell – and Keta (who landed in the top two in week two) was open in her desire to stay.
But, after a lip sync which involved Tia and Hannah crying at the discotheque, the UK alliance proved strong with a shock elimination for Keta.
Speaking exclusively to PinkNews about following in Mayhem, Arantxa and Jonbers’ footsteps, Keta explained why strategically, it was “right” for her to get the chop – and reacted to Gothy’s not-very-convincing pleas to stay.
Keta triumphed during the Snatch Game on her original season with an impression of the late Cock Destroyer, Sophie Anderson – but viewers will now know that Drag Race UK turns out to be a different story. So what how did Keta feel going into the challenge with a previous win under belt?
“At the beginning, I was like: ‘I’m gonna rock it,'” Keta explains, before adding, “I was ready to kill it. But then something snapped or something happened And I blew it. I like, I think I went out of my body. I saw myself and then I just…”
At the end of the sentence, Keta erupts into devilish cackles, presumably imitating the inner saboteur that Ru so often talks about.
When asked to pinpoint the exact moment that Keta’s Fran Drescher impression went sideways, the Drag Race Holland runner-up says that it was “right after” Ru’s first question to her – and then explains why.
“For Sophie Anderson, I had a much better preparation. I was much more secure… And this time around,the look was there but let’s say the preparation wasn’t what it needed to be…. But I didn’t have the jokes down and that’s what Snatch Game is about.”
After Keta says that being judged by RuPaul is liked being judged by “God,” we talk about Tia’s lipstick choice and chat before hand, which ended up resulting in the Dutch queen home over the British one – and why Keta wasn’t exactly hopeful that Tia would pick two UK queens to go home, back-to-back.
“The week before [Tia] already picked Jonbers’ lipstick and saved me, so of course there was a chance that she would save me again,” she explained.
“But I wasn’t expecting it. Because could she eliminate a UK Queen for the second time? Can you can you do that to your country? No, you cannot. You cannot. So I understand.
“Gothy is also a friend of hers. So I understand. Do you want to get rid of strong competition? Yes, I understand. I was talking about like, ‘Don’t you want to be in the finale with the strongest? And then her eyes lit up, and I was like, ‘Oh no, what did I say?'”
At the time of interview, Keta hasn’t seen the episode, so when we inform her of the fact that Gothy doesn’t exactly plead to stay during her chats with Tia and Hannah, Keta’s reaction is genuine.
“That’s frustrating, of course. I’m sure that I was going to excel in the next challenged… I would have killed that. So, yeah, I do feel bad about hearing that Gothy was not fighting for it. But I’m also glad for her that she was able to show herself more.”
And when PinkNews asks Keta if she thinks that her elimination was “right”, she has a very diplomatic answer.
“Do I think it’s right?” she parrots, before replying in full. “If you want to play the game? Yes. Because I would have killed the dancing challenges. So is it right? Yeah. For me, though? No.”
RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs The World continues on BBC Three and BBC iPlayer every Friday at 9pm GMT.
