Drag Race UK’s Kate Butch and Fontana on incredible finale: ‘I was about to puke’

The high heels are off and the winner has been crowned after an incredible season of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs the World came to a close this week.

Drag Race Thailand‘s Gawdland became the first international queen to win UK vs the World, beating UK queen Kate Butch in the final lip-sync for the crown.

But the entire top four were all worthy winners, with Sweden’s Fontana and US icon Mariah Balenciaga also in the running.

Now that the setting powder has settled, the nails are off and the wigs are being re-set, PinkNews sat down with Kate Butch and Fontana to discuss that unforgettable finale.

Hey queens! What an incredible finale. How were you both feeling before it aired?

Fontana: I was so excited, this journey has been amazing. I’m living my biggest dream, so I’m in a playground experiencing things I’ve never experienced before. So many things happened to me through this journey. I got to tell the world that I’m a transgender woman. I got to be featured in Vogue twice. It just made everything more beautiful.

And I got to inspire and connect with so many “bucket” people out there. Apart from the Swedish, the Brazilians, the immigrants, the trans, I was representing so many people that needed this spotlight, so it was absolutely amazing to connect with these people.

Kate Butch: I was really excited for it to come out. It was kind of the ending of an 18 month process, but it just felt like a lot of work and a long time coming to an end. It was a bittersweet kind of moment, but what I love about the finale is that you get all the queens back – for better or for worse – and we get to see our faves again in their amazing outfits. Like, can we talk about Melinda Verga? Both of their outfits this time? I was livid that we didn’t get to see any more of her!

Fontana: The world wanted to see more of her! I hope we get to see more of her, because I’m gagged. She was gone way too soon.

Kate Butch: I’m booking a ticket to Edmonton right now. I’m gonna go.

Kate, did you feel any pressure as the last remaining UK queen?

Kate Butch: I don’t think I put any pressure on myself. I think there were a lot of expectations and assumptions that people made, that there’s some kind of contract with the BBC that they have a UK queen, that it’s been rigged and it’s production interfering. I spent a lot of the time just thinking I’d love to win, but at the same time I don’t think I’d survive winning.

I would have loved to have been able to just fully celebrate the achievement. But based on previous seasons, people have assumed that this is how the season works and I’m glad that Gawdland winning, as she absolutely deserved to, has showed the world that UK vs the World isn’t what you necessarily expect it to be, and that hopefully future seasons will be even better without those extra assumptions.

Kate, I saw a video of you watching the finale with Naomy and it looked like you mouthed “thank god” when Gawdland won.

Kate Butch: I did. I didn’t want to seem ungrateful – I wanted to be in the finale. And I feel a little bit bad for thinking that, because obviously Fontana and Mariah would have absolutely slayed being in the top two. But at that point, I feel like a lot of the response would have been unbearable for me and I just didn’t want to go through. I would have loved the £50,000, let me say that.

Absolutely! And Fontana, you recently came out as trans with us at PinkNews, so thank you for trusting us with that. How has life been while performing on a global stage and also sharing something so personal with the world?

Fontana: It was a lot, babes! Being in the spotlight is overwhelming to all of us, dealing with people’s opinions. It was very scary. I was facing all this back when we filmed – risk of deportation, working all the time, all my hours at the mall to get a visa so I could stay in the country, and I was already facing this transition but I was not ready to tell the world as my community is overanalysed.

Drag Race is our safe space. I would say the only safe space trans people have at the moment on mainstream television. So it would have been fab if I could have come out on the show, but being non-binary was such an important and special part of my process.

People were saying like, ‘Oh, she was the lost one to know!’ Babes. It was not yesterday that I woke up and called PinkNews. No, I’ve been going through gender transition therapy for 12 months. A lot of things have been changed in my personal life.

Being trans in this world, when you come out, it’s such a strong and brave statement, because babes, I come from the country that kills most LGBT trans people in the world for 17 years in a row. I’m a very proud Brazilian, but our statistics towards our community are horrible. If I have a trans stamp, it’s scary to travel to Brazil because my papers are still in my old self.

So it’s a lot on the table to deal with, but for me, I just couldn’t hold it any longer. Thank you PinkNews for taking such good care of my story and really giving me the respect and the platform that it really deserves. I’m very thankful.

You both had one of the best lip-sync songs in the finale with “Ride on Time”. How do you take on a song with no lyrics!?

Kate Butch: I wanted Broken Heels. I was gutted. It’s hard when the songs don’t have a rise and a fall or a journey or lyrics that mean anything. It’s difficult. I think we both handled it really well, like, ‘We’re gonna do faces.’ That’s what we’ve got to do. It’s a song about screaming, we’re gonna look like we’re screaming. But this has been a season of quite interesting lip-sync songs. Fontana got to do the most iconic, probably in Drag Race ever.

Fontana: I must say, after doing the Crazy Frog, anything is possible! I loved doing the song. You know, if you translate the word frog to Portuguese, you can use the female frog as a word for p***y, that’s why there was a little moustache down there. So it’s these silly things that I get to do.

My lip-sync with Kate, I blacked out completely. I didn’t remember anything. That’s the thing with my anxiety, it’s really heavy. Honestly, it was such an honour doing this with Kate because it was our first time doing a lip-sync together and it was in the finale. You can really get expressive and go bananas.

But I must say, I was taking my wig out of my face because the hair was going through my mouth and I was about to puke, so it was traumatising. But I am so proud that I actually made it all the way to the top four.

We saw Serena Morena crowned Miss Congeniality… did you both vote for her?

Kate Butch: Yeah. We could pick our top three, and everyone was like ‘Serena number one’.

Fontana: Number one, number two, number three, I think that’s what I did. I’m so happy for her, she’s such a sweetheart, she’s the one I got the closest with.

Kate Butch: Yeah, I love her. She’s so funny and just the sweetest girl. I’m so glad that the world got to meet her and fall in love with her like we did.

Finally, what’s next for both of you? Kate, is Game of Wool season two on the cards after your knitted runway?

Kate Butch: Maybe if they need a co-host! I don’t think I’m going to do any more competitive things for a while, let me have a break. Especially knitting that quickly in a day! No, thank you. I’m going on tour with a show called “Choose Your Own Cabaret”. Since we saw the Chippy Tea decision, it wasn’t received impeccably, I’ve decided that I’m gonna abscond myself of all decisions and let the audience decide what happens, so that’s happening around the UK and Dublin. Then after that, the world’s my oyster. I’m going to do as much as I can with the time I’ve got left, which, the jury’s out on…

Fontana: I’m also going on tour but I don’t have a visa to leave the country, so that’s the thing that’s pulling me back. I was supposed to get out there and do a massive tour right now. It’s very frustrating to be facing this right now, because we worked so hard, so hopefully I get to do it. And hopefully I get to do Drag Con Brazil. Those are the two big things that I have on my calendar right now, but we shall see. We hope that things will get sorted soon, so I can get out there and meet everyone that’s been celebrating with me this incredible season of Drag Race UK.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

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