Drag Race’s A’Keria C Davenport explains why she turned down the lip-sync smackdown

Aug 23 2021
Written by Maggie Baska

Drag Race alum A'Keria C Davenport All Stars goth

Drag Race alum A’Keria C Davenport discusses why she decided to turn down the lip-sync smackdown in the All Stars competition. (YouTube/RuPaul’s Drag Race)

RuPaul’s Drag Race star A’Keria C Davenport has revealed the reason why she respectfully declined the offer to compete in the All Stars lip-sync smackdown.

As you can imagine, spoilers are ahead. In the latest episode of All Stars 6, A’Keria was asked to come back and lip-sync for a chance at “Ru-demption” after being eliminated during the American Horror Story challenge earlier in the season.

But A’Keria said during the episode that she would “much rather respectfully decline than have my world shattered again”. The move resulted in Silky Nutmeg Ganache performing solo (sort of) for the judges to Aqua’s hit song “Barbie Girl”.

In a bonus scene from Michelle Visage’s exit interview series Whatcha Packin’, the long-standing judge questioned why A’Keria thought that walking away from the Drag Race runway was the best choice for her.

A’Keria C Davenport explained that she felt her “adrenaline pumping” at that moment and like she had felt herself “falling back in love with drag and the art form”. If she had competed, she hinted that she feared falling out of love with drag.

“And leaving the competition when Mama Ru asked me to sashay away, I could actually leave feeling like I presented how I wanted the world to see as A’Keria,” she told Visage.

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She continued: “It’s not always giving up, sometimes you have to take that same fire and drive and direct it somewhere else.

“And to know that in that moment, everybody has a season. In that moment, it just may not be your season.

“So this is your chance to bow gracefully and allow the world to fall in love with what you did present and actually give that somewhere else.”

“I think that’s a fair explanation,” Visage replied.

She added that the queen doesn’t owe an explanation to anyone and that A’Keria did what she what she believed she needed to do in that moment.

After watching Ganache’s stellar “Barbie Girl” lip-sync performance, A’Keria C Davenport revealed on Twitter that she might have had a hard time keeping it together during the smackdown if she had competed.

“B***h I would have just stopped and laughed at her,” A’Keria tweeted alongside a laughing with tears in eyes emoji.