Sasha Velour Reveals What She Had Planned If She Performed "Stronger"
The grand finale of RuPaul's Drag Race Season 9 will go down as one of the greatest nights in the show's history. Not only because of the strong top four queens left standing, but also for the format change that had them lip syncing against each other for the crown.
The songs that Ru selected for their lip syncs were kept in two separate mystery boxes and Peppermint chose box number two which contained Britney Spears' "Stronger."
So that left Whitney Houston's "So Emotional" for Shea and Sasha's showdown. Sasha's already iconic rose petal performance helped her become America's next drag superstar—but did Sasha have the same performance planned if she had gotten "Stronger?"
"I had scissors strapped to my thigh and I was going to cut the wig until I was bald — to be stronger as a bald queen at the end," Sasha revealed on BuzzFeed's Drag Race recap podcast, The Library.
Sasha also explained to The Library the metaphor behind the rose petals and the significance they have for the song:
"It's a song about loving too much. Roses as a symbol of love, but then an excess of them that's almost a mess or disturbing or grotesque. That's where I wanted to take it. I'm falling apart and exploding with this love metaphor... I felt truly so emotional standing up there onstage lip-syncing against my best friend in the competition."
She elaborated even more when Brian Moylan interviewed her for Vice:
"I actually had a different performance prepared if I drew "Stronger." I had a pair of scissors strapped to my thigh, and I was going to cut my wig until I was bald. I even found a way of removing that wig without the petals, so no one would have know that I had rose petals under there."
Can we just thank the drag gods that "So Emotional" was left for Sasha so we would be blessed with her legendary performance?
"At the end of the day all four of us put on good shows and that is great drag in my book," Sasha added on The Library podcast.
Can we get an amen to that?
Below, watch Shangela and Bob the Drag Queen on the Season 9 finale party red carpet.
RuPaul's Drag Race Season 9: RuVealed airs Thursdays at 8/7c on Logo.
