DD Fuego explains why her time on RuPaul’s Drag Race season 18 matters despite being the Pork Chop queen

RuPaul’s Drag Race season 18 queen DD Fuego has explained why her time on the reality show is important in today’s politically tumultuous climate, despite her being the first contestant to be sent home.

In episode two of season 18, the New York-based performer and her fellow 13 season sisters were tasked with performing in a “Q-Pop” girl group, inspired by the mammoth rise of K-Pop. DD Fuego ended up being in a group with Athena Dion, Darlene Mitchell and Mandy Mango, and found herself in the bottom two alongside Mandy Mango.

The pair competed in a lip-sync to Dove Cameron’s “Too Much”, with DD ultimately being the queen to get the chop.

Though her time on the show was cut upsettingly short, she has explained why her appearance still matters during a time of rapidly increasing anti-immigration sentiment and ICE raids under president Donald Trump.

“I think the rhetoric that some politicians use is very divisive, but I think people of any kind of political affiliation seek good people and can recognise it,” she exclusively told PinkNews.

The drag performer and fashion designer, who was born in Monterrey, Mexico, is of Middle Eastern, Mexican and American heritage.

“People will be able to see me on their screens and hopefully root for me and connect with my story,” she said.

“You’re hearing people’s stories and you get to see people for who they are, you root for them, and then you realise ‘Oh, I’m rooting for… someone who’s Mexican,’ who [you] didn’t know could look like me.

“You’re rooting for someone who’s Middle Eastern and you’re breaking down barriers of your preconceived notions of who those people are and then we stop being the enemy,” she continued.

“If you hear our stories, if you get to know us, you’ll realise the rhetoric that is meant to divide us, it’s not worth [it]. People are people and when you meet people where they are and you get to hear their stories, you realise that what Drag Race does best is bring people together.”

The versatile queen also hopes that Drag Race will provide her with a platform to continue connecting with her fans, because she has got a lot more to show them. 

“It’s always been very important to me that what I do has the widest reach possible and that I get to share joy and positivity and hopefully allow people to connect with their creativity and their spirits,” she shared. The entertainer has connected with her own creativity on numerous levels: in addition to performing in drag in New York, she designs looks, has created a colouring book and a candle, and makes music.

“Now that the show is introducing me to a larger world, I get to share that love and that spirit and that Fuego with more and more people,” she continued, before teasing some major upcoming projects.

“I don’t take that for granted and I’m so excited to share some new things with the world including a collaboration perhaps with a very famous fashion designer coming up.”

Earlier this month, Betsey Johnson announced they had collaborated with the star on a line of shoes. They go up to a size 13 in a bid to be inclusive, with $1 from each pair sold also being donated to the Elton John AIDS Foundation.

As for whether Drag Race fans will get to see the looks she had planned for the rest of season 18, she isn’t coy.

“The show presents an opportunity to the world of us walking the runway with these magical looks, but we put so much energy into the creation of these looks and some of them needed to be shot in different locations,” she said.

“I’m excited to take people on a tour around the world with my looks!”

RuPaul’s Drag Race season 18 continues on MTV on Fridays in the US and on WOW Presents Plus internationally.

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