Drag Race’s Dawn chose to lipsync against Amanda so she could ‘leave’ show
Dawn chose to lip-sync against Amanda Tori Meating in Drag Race season 16 for a very sweet reason. (Instagram/@amandatorimeating)
RuPaul’s Drag Race season 16 star Dawn has shared the poignant reason why she chose to lipsync against her “best friend” Amanda Tori Meating during the Lip Sync LaLaPaRuza Smackdown.
During the most recent Drag Race episode (12 April), the 11 eliminated queens were invited back to perform in a lipsync slay off against one another, in the hope of being awarded the title of “Queen of She Done Already Done Had Herses”.
In the first round, half the queens were chosen at random, one by one, to select who they wished to face off against. Then, the chosen queens got to decide on the lipsync song from a selection of queer favourite bops.
Dawn, who was eliminated in sixth place, was the first contestant to be selected at random, and she surprisingly opted to go head-to-head with her best pal in the competition, Amanda Tori Meating.
On the show, Dawn explained that she chose Amanda as she knew that she would select the lipsync song they would both want to perform: “Damaged” by noughties girl group Danity Kane.
And, surprise surprise, Amanda did. However, the lipsync didn’t go down in Dawn’s favour, and she was swiftly knocked out of the LaLaPaRuza Smackdown after Amanda, as the kids say, ate her up.
Now, in a post on X/Twitter, Dawn has explained that the reason behind her decision to lipsync against her sister was a lot more heartwarming and meaningful than fans first realised.
After one Drag Race fan suggested that Dawn chose Amanda because she knew her friend would beat her and advance in the lipsync contest, Dawn confirmed that was part of the reason for her decision.
“There were a lot of factors at play with this, but essentially I knew I wasn’t going to win, I was really f*****g stressed out about embarrassing myself again and wanted it over with,” she wrote.
“I figured the best course of action was to have fun on stage with someone who is literally my sister, my best friend, my confidant, all the while 1) knowing she would smoke me so I could LEAVE and 2) making sure she would continue on in the bracket!”
Dawn added that she was “anxious” and “didn’t feel prepared” to take part in the lipsync episode, due to “very difficult” circumstances in her life away from Drag Race.
While Amanda made it through to round two of the LaLaPaRuza Smackdown, she then lost out after being beaten by Megami to Cher’s song, “The Shoop Shoop Song (It’s in His Kiss)”.
Ultimately, Megami made it all the way to the final two, but was beaten by BBL queen Morphine Dion Love, who shook her backside all the way to the top spot (and won $50,000 in the process).
Will there be a RuPaul’s Drag Race season 16 reunion?
At the time of writing, there are no plans for a RuPaul’s Drag Race season 16 reunion.
In previous seasons, all of the eliminated queens and those who have made it all the way to the finale come back together almost a year on from filming, to look back on and discuss the season before the winner is crowned.
However, unlike most other seasons, season 16’s finale was reportedly filmed just weeks after the rest of the show, meaning a reunion wasn’t necessary.
The Lip Sync LaLaPaRuza Smackdown took the place of the reunion this time around, and this week’s episode will be the grand finale.
The top three are Plane Jane, Sapphira Cristál, and Nymphia Wind.
The RuPaul’s Drag Race season 16 finale will air on MTV in the US and WOW Presents Plus internationally this Friday, 19 April.
