RuPaul just revealed he would have crowned this Drag Race runner-up given the chance again
RuPaul has said he would have crowned All Stars 3’s Shangela as a “double winner” if he’d had the chance on Drag Race, and we’re gagged (and in agreement).
While appearing on the most recent episode of Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen on 20 December, RuPaul was put on the spot by the talk show host.
“Which second runner-up queen would you have crowned as a double winner if you had the chance?” Cohen asked.
“Is there someone who didn’t win Drag Race over all the seasons, that in your mind, you thought that one [could have won]?”
Before he could even finish the sentence, though, RuPaul interjected with (the only correct) answer.
“Shangela! Shangela. She’s amazing. We’ve put her on the show, like, three times, something like that. She’s a fabulous queen.”
Shangela first appeared on the second season of RuPaul’s Drag Race way back in 2010. She was eliminated first, but returned next season to place sixth overall.
However, RuPaul is possibly referring to the Great Shangela Robbery of 2018, when she made it to the top four of All Stars 3, only to be snubbed from reaching the final two after the now infamous ‘Jury’ twist, which saw the season’s eliminated competitors vote for who they wanted to see reach the top.
Fans have since pointed out that Shangela was never going to be voted for favourably, having sent home half of the voting queens herself – but that’s TV, folks!
The next series of All Stars featured a double crowning with Monét X Change and Trinity the Tuck – could Ru have wanted one a season earlier?
Shangela also appeared on RuPaul’s Drag Race Holi-Slay Spectacular in 2018, which she technically did win, though so did the other seven queens, because it was Christmas.
Despite never actually snatching a Drag Race crown, she’s since made the final of Dancing With the Stars, has become a host of the Emmy-winning series We’re Here and has starred opposite actual Lady Gaga in A Star is Born.
In other words, she’s doing fine – but it’s nice for Ru to have acknowledged one of Drag Race’s brightest stars.