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Drag Race España
Drag Race España just dropped quite possibly the stuntiest and gaggiest episode in the franchise’s herstory, and for once I mean that in a good way. I know that’s a bold claim! Lord knows there’s a whole lot of Drag Race out there in the world. In fact, this particular episode is the 21st episode of a Drag Race series to air in 2022 — and we’re only 14 weeks into the new year. Hell, this is the fourth talent show extravaganza we’ve seen this year, following the two that kicked off RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 14 and RuPaul’s Drag Race: UK vs. the World. That’s why I wasn’t too excited going into this week’s Drag Race España. Truly, how many more times could I watch a queen lip sync and do some choreo to her own track? I wasn’t expecting all that much above the norm for Drag Race España’s first talent show.
I was wrong. I was so wrong. And if you’re sleeping on Drag Race España Season 2, then you are wrong too. This talent show left my jaw fully unhinged and dangling. From start to finish, from that literally transformative first number to the “is she gonna jump from there?” to end all “is she gonna jump from theres,” Episode 2 of Drag Race España Season 2 is one that every single Drag Race fan has to watch — even if you’ve never seen a single episode of this spinoff before.
Let’s talk about how talent shows usually go. Since the challenge’s introduction in RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 2, we’ve seen some high highs (“Same Parts”) and some low lows (“Why you mad tho?”). We’ve seen queens kill a burlesque number (BenDeLaCreme’s night of a thousand nipples) and a burlesque number kill a queen (poor Farrah Moan). Queens have turned blowing bubbles, using velcro, and tucking their junk into talents — and then there’s whatever you call Jimbo’s talent.
We’ve seen a lot of talent/variety shows over the years, but we’ve never seen one as consistently OMG and WTF-inducing as what Drag Race España Season 2 just served.
All 11 acts were stupendous and/or perfectly stupid. All tea: every single queen who performed in España’s talent show would absolutely be ranked safe or high were they to perform in any other season — and even more tea: most of them would win. The gagginess partially comes from the budget. Almost every number was accompanied by a lineup of male dancers, all scantily clad in unique looks to heighten the mood. And a lot of these performances we set against ever-changing lighting, props, and backdrop, the likes of which we rarely see on any other talent show. Each number just looked polished to perfection, and the queens absolutely lived up to the hype surrounding them.
Drag Sethlas served G1 Transformer realness before voguing in those ginormous platforms. Jota Carajota gave us a comedic / gothic performance that showed off her vocals and keyboard skills, and Juriji Der Klee did the legacy of opera divas proud with those pipes. We saw a stunning selection of burlesque numbers, ranging from Venedita Von Däsh’s peasant-gurl-turned-sexpot number to Estrella Xtravaganza’s fast food striptease. The most avant-garde queens of the season — Marina and Onyx — delivered two breathtaking lip sync numbers, one an extraterrestrial fever dream and the other a heavenly vision.
Even the old standby, doing choreo to your original song, left the judges screaming. I’ll just say this: when it comes to turning the party with a performance in 2022, Jorgeous and Pangina Heals have a sister in Diamante Merybrown.
And as if all that ain’t enough, the episode includes a beastly runway that includes horrifying reveals and monstrous beauty the likes of which we’ve never seen on Drag Race before — and remember, we’ve seen a sexy gremlin lip sync for her life before.
Obviously just reading my vague descriptions of these numbers don’t do them any justice, and I’ve kept it as vague as possible because Drag Race fans need to experience this episode as spoiler-free as possible. This is the Drag Race talent show that you’ve been waiting for, and now every other talent show has to try to clear the high bar set by Drag Race España.
