The queens of RuPaul's Drag Race are known for having to lip-sync to iconic songs, but two queens on RuPaul's Drag Race: All-Stars 7 have performed a spoken word lip-sync instead for the first time in Drag Race herstory. In a normal season of RPDR, the bottom two queens are forced to "lip-sync for their life" in order to continue competing, but on this all stars, all winners season, the queens "lip-sync for their legacy" without facing any elimination. Without the stakes of elimination, RuPaul took the chance to try something new with a spoken word lip-sync.
The best and worst lip-syncs on Drag Race often feature songs iconic in gay culture. They either hold deep meaning for RuPaul or the LGBTQ+ community as a whole. Lip-syncs on RuPaul's Drag Race have featured songs from artists such as Ariana Grande, Diana Ross, Cher and Britney Spears, but never before has a lip-sync included a monologue from a television show until now. Sticking to the roots of the show, the monologue chosen is an iconic moment in sitcom herstory.
In episode 9, season 7 of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars, the lip-sync was a long monologue from the classic long-running sitcom Designing Women. It comes from an infamous scene in which Julia Sugarbaker (played by Dixie Carter) passionately explains the story of "the night the lights went out in Georgia." The Drag Race queens challenged with the task of taking on the show's first spoken word lip-sync were Jinx Monsoon, who still can’t sew but is easily capable of anything theatrical, and Monét X Change, who proved to have yet another talent of which many fans may have been previously unaware.
Both Monét and Jinx nailed this lip-sync, instantly making the showdown one of the most iconic and important moments in Drag Race herstory, setting a high standard for future spoken word lip-syncs. Monét ultimately defeated Jinx in the challenge as RuPaul chose Monét as the winner. With such a positive reaction to the spoken word lip-sync on AS7, there's a good chance RuPaul will include more spoken word in the franchise.
With many fans saying that this is the best All-Stars season yet, they have already begun speculating, predicting and pleading their cases for what the next spoken word lip-sync included on the show should be. Considering RuPaul was laughing and visibly enjoying the performance, it is likely for him to choose to do something like this again. Tune in to RuPaul's Drag Race: All-Stars, with new episodes premiering Fridays on Paramount+, for the chance to see more iconic lip-syncs.