Drag Race UK’s Serena Morena on the wild story behind that ‘Crazy Frog’ lip-sync

A national period of mourning has begun as international treasure Serena Morena has departed RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs The World season three.

The future Miss Congeniality titleholder, Nobel Peace Prize winner and OBE for services to entertainment and international relations recipient was shamelessly told to sashay away during Tuesday’s episode (24 February).

The remaining seven queens were told to split into two groups and channel their inner old Hollywood for the ‘Silent Movie Acting Challenge’. Serena, paired with Drag Race Thailand’s Gawdland and Drag Race Sverige’s Fontana, apparently failed to hit the mark and was told she was in the bottom three, alongside Fontana and Drag Race UK star Zahirah Zapanta.

Sadly, considering she was saved by the Chippy Tea last week, this week’s winner Mariah Paris Balenciaga opted not to save Serena from the bottom, instead saving Zahirah. Her decision left Fontana and Drag Race Mexico star Serena Morena to battle it out via lip-sync.

What happened next is a clear example of why Drag Race is a 31-time Emmy Award-winning TV show: the queens performed to Crazy Frog’s rendition of “Axel F”.

Cue Serena cutting off her lurid orange wig and applying her makeup from the floor, and Fontana putting on a moustache-turned-merkin. It was one of the most bizarre lip-syncs in the show’s 17-year history, and Serena Morena can take a lot of the credit for that.

Sadly, RuPaul gave her the chop. By this point in the competition, she had been dubbed by fans and the show’s alumni as one of the funniest and sweetest contestants in years. 

Serena spoke to PinkNews hours after her elimination about that wild, wild lip-sync, her friendship with the other queens, and what it’s been like to be showered with love from the fans.

PinkNews: Serena Morena, I’m so sorry to see you here this week. Let’s talk about that wild lip-sync, which people are dubbing the craziest in Drag Race history. You did a wig reveal, did your make-up on stage, had a party horn, leapt about like a frog, jokingly read the lyrics from paper. How did your plan for the lip-sync come together?

Serena Morena: I remember when we were on the decision of if Mariah [would] give us the Chippy Tea and in my mind I was thinking what I’m going to do with this crazy song because it is a crazy song. 

After we deliberate in front of Mariah, we have 15 minutes to change our clothes and check your makeup and I remember being in a chair and there was a mirror and there was a girl from the [crew] Queen Team and I say [to her], ‘OK first thing I want to do is a wig reveal. I don’t know how but I will try a wig reveal with these two crazy wigs.’

The orange one was my very first wig in all of my career as a drag queen. The second one, I [thought], ‘I need to do a crazy story with this crazy song.’ And for my [runway look] I was blue in my face. I decided to wear this crazy green dress just to look like a green frog. At the same time the girl from the Queen Team told me, ‘What do you need?’ I told her: ‘Give me just scissors to cut my hair right now!’ She told me, ‘OK Serena…’

I remember I was in front of this mirror and I’m checking my makeup and I decided, OK, I will do some kind of [crazy] makeup. I put all the stuff inside of my slips and I say, ‘OK, that’s all what I need. I need this sheet where the lyrics are printed’ and I say, ‘OK I will try to read the lyrics’ but this is crazy. Then I put the powder on the floor and started doing this craziness. It’s [how] my mind works!

Kate Butch called you “the funniest person who has ever been on TV”. Others have called you an “international treasure”. What has it been like getting so much love from fans and the show’s fellow stars?

When I was invited to the season, I said to myself: ‘Oh Serena, how you gonna please the production team, then your [season] sisters?’ But in my mind was, ‘I don’t have this British humour, this British accent. [It’s] not even my language.’ But I always be very real to myself. As you can see me in the show, you can see me in my real life. I’m always trying to do or say funny things to my people and giving just a little bit of support because we need to do that always for the people that we love.

Obviously I’m not this good person all the time; I take my time to be angry, to feel other feelings. But during the process of the preparation and during the filming process, I just was very happy, very grateful, because as you can see right now there is so many drag queens in the world, so many drag queens in the franchise. You never imagine when the opportunity, they’re gonna give [it to] you. So I decided to enjoy the process even when I was very stressed as part of the situation. If you don’t enjoy what you are living at the moment you don’t have the opportunity to process in a good way.

You seemed so happy to be there the whole time, and super happy to be in the presence of RuPaul too. What was that like; do you feel like you and Ru connected?

The show, it’s about [making] RuPaul laugh. If she’s having a good time, the television works. Sometimes in front of RuPaul, I was very stressful because I said to myself, ‘If I don’t understand any word RuPaul’s saying [to] me, you will fail her because you [can’t] answer the joke that she’s going to give you.’ She always expects an answer in trying to make a joke. So when she asked me something I remember [thinking] ‘Oh my God I’m going to say that’. In that process of my stressful situation, I remember answering something like, ‘I don’t know what I’m saying, but this is what I have! Take it!’ And RuPaul [is] just laughing.

Never in my mind was my very first goal [to think] ‘You need to make RuPaul laugh all the time [so] the people can love you!’ No, never. I just [wanted] to be myself. Things come naturally, right?

This season does have plenty of tension between the queens but you seemed to get on with everyone. Which of your season sisters did you get closest with and are you in touch with them all now?

I think my good connection was with Fontana because Fontana is a Latina girl like me and she speaks four languages. So when she came to me and started speaking in Spanish, for me was like, ‘Oh yes!’ I need Spanish in my life because everything right here is in English!’ That is my connection with Fontana.

The second [connection was] with Minty Fresh because after we both were eliminated we have time to be together in the hotel in hours during the day. I always ask, ‘How is your life in your country? Tell me. Do you like to go to the sauna? Do you like to go to the bar? Tell me.’

Minty Fresh was very polite, very serious the very first time [I spoke with her] but after I arrived to the hotel as [an] eliminated queen, we started talking about our life. There are so many words in [the] Filipino language that [are] so similar in Spanish. I think I connect with these two queens.

When we [went] from the studios to the hotel, I remember all the queens [went] in the back of the car to speak, to have these chats. I was very tired of [having to] translate all day to understand the situation [in] the English language. I remember sitting  in the middle of the van and always there is a queen that sit next to me.

I don’t want to have any chat, but the queens [were] always [saying], ‘Serena, how do you feel?’ And I say, ‘Oh, I need to rest.’ But always we finished the situation, doing a chat in English. But it was the way that I have the opportunity to know every [one] of [these] queens.

I’m so glad you got to have those conversations and make those friendships.

Enjoy the rest of the season. It’s gonna be amazing – and the final! The final. Wait for the final…

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs The World continues on BBC iPlayer and WOW Presents Plus on Tuesdays.

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