13 of RuPaul's Drag Race's most iconic lip syncs of all time 💄
The time has come... to lip sync... for your LIFE
Last updated 21st Apr 2021
With season 13 of RuPaul's Drag Race about to draw to a close we look back at the most iconic lip syncs! If you're accustomed to the show then you'll know that at the end of every episode, after the judges' critiques, the bottom two contestants of the episode will go head to head and 'lip sync for their lives' in order to remain in the competition.
The format is consistent across all franchises of the show with the only changes being in some All Stars seasons, where the top acts will lip sync for the top spot and the power to send someone home.
Check out the most iconic lip syncs EVER:
India Ferrah VS Mimi Imfurst – 'Don’t Leave Me This Way' (season 3)
This lip sync is the most famous from the show's early lip syncs. Mimi's lip sync doesn't start out as planned, she struggles to shake off her restrictive dress, she then moves to try to overshadow her rival India by trying to stay in front of her and stealing focus.
India clocked this and took to walking off the sage to perform right in front of the judges' table, but Mimi took it one step further and lifted India and carried her back to the stage. The move took everyone by surprise and India even yelled out for help!
In no surprise to anyone, Mimi's move did not work in her favour, and prompted RuPaul to utter the now famous quote, "drag is not a contact sport", before asking Mimi to sashay away.
Latrice Royale VS Kenya Michaels – '(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman' (season 4)
This lip sync proved that it's not always about dance ability when it comes to lip syncing for your life! Aretha Franklin's beautiful rendition of this song calls for a grounded, heartfelt performance.
While Kenya's high energy dance moves may be impressive, it just isn't what is asked for the song. Latrice was able to bring Aretha to the stage with this performance and for that she proved why she is such a talented performer and deserved to stay.
Raven VS Jujube – Dancing on My Own (All Stars 1)
In the first season of RuPaul's Drag Race: All Stars, the contestants found out that they would be competing as pairs throughout the season. This helped some and hindered others, by the end of the season the remaining contestants formed strong bonds with their partners.
A clear example of this bond came from Raven and Jujubee, who had competed as team Rujubee. In the penultimate episode, the pair had to lip sync against each other for a place in the final three.
The emotions that came from being forced to lip sync against someone they'd worked with all season merged with Robyn's 'Dancing on My Own' created one of the most moving performances we've seen, you could even see judge Michelle Visage shedding a tear!
Roxxxy Andrews VS Alyssa Edwards – 'Whip My Hair' (season 5)
Who could forget this incredible lip sync? In fact, this lip sync produced two of the most used RuPaul's Drag Race reaction GIFs!
When Roxxxie and Alyssa ended up in the bottom two, we knew we'd be in for a phenomenal performance. But what we weren't expecting was for Roxxxie to change the game when she went to pull off her wig – only to reveal another wig hidden underneath!
The move set a new bar for the show; from then onwards, if you were going to pull off your wig there better be another one underneath!
Chi Chi DeVayne VS Thorgy Thor - 'And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going' (season 8)
In this episode the contestants had to create a political campaign to become the first drag President of the USA, a type of challenge that always appears in a season that airs during an election year. The bottom two ended up being Chi Chi DeVayne and Thorgy Thor who lip synced to Jennifer Holiday's version of 'I Am Telling You I'm Not Going' from Dreamgirls.
When Chi Chi passed away in the summer of 2020, this lip sync was re-shared across social media as a reminder of how brilliant a performer she was. Chi Chi delivered a passionate and moving performance that will live on as one of the most beautiful performances in Drag Race history.
Alyssa Edwards VS Tatianna - 'Shut Up and Drive' (All Stars 2)
All Stars 2 is considered to have one of the best Drag Race casts in the show's history, in this episode all the eliminated queens of the season so far returned for a chance to be brought back for good. The top two out of the eliminated acts were Alyssa and Tatianna so they lip synced for the chance to stay.
Alyssa is known for her impeccable dance abilities, (what do you expect from someone who has their own dance school?) but Tatianna put up quite the fight. The jaw-dropping performance from the pair was strong enough that both of them got to remain in the competition!
Sasha Velour VS Shea Couleé - 'So Emotional' (season 9)
From this season onwards, the finale became an even greater spectacle for the US version of the show, with the top four having to battle it out in a lip sync for the crown.
In one of the preliminary rounds Sasha and Shea went up against each other and took on Whitney Huston's iconic song, 'So Emotional'. Many of us expected this to go in Shea's favour, since she had already proven herself to be a strong dancer who can pull off a fierce lip sync.
But the tides changed when Sasha grabbed her wig, and rose petals began to fall. The iconic moment helped secure Sasha's win and put a stop to Shea's hopes of winning the season 9 crown.
BenDeLaCreme VS Aja - 'Anaconda' (All Stars 3)
Continuing the All Stars tradition, the series opened with a talent show that saw BenDeLaCreme and Aja reign supreme. The pair were asked to perform Niki Minaj's 'Anaconda', a song that Aja could do in their sleep as they are a brilliant dancer as well as an impeccable rapper.
DeLa managed to take on the song that was unconventional to her style really well by hamming up the camp. She was already in a faux nude burlesque outfit from her talent show performance, so the silly faces and the nipple tassels created a bizarre and hilarious performance that bagged her the first big win of the season.
Kameron Michaels VS Asia O’Hara – 'Nasty' (season 10)
After the success of the lip sync battles in season 9, we got to see it done all over again in season 10. The contestants knew that if they wanted a chance at snatching the crown, they needed plenty of tricks under their belts. Especially after Sasha's rose petal move, these surprises needed to be BIG.
The first lip sync was Kameron against Asia who performed to 'Nasty' by Janet Jackson, what we'd find out is that Asia had quite the reveal planned.
As a concept it sounds rather magical, Asia was dressed in a colourful butterfly outfit which contained live butterflies that she would release during her performance.
When the time came to release the butterflies, things didn't go to plan, due to numerous reasons including the cold temperature of the theatre and the long waiting times as cameras were being set, the butterflies had nodded off. What we saw was Asia trying to keep it all together and perform while she dropped lifeless butterflies on the floor.
The six-way lip sync - 'Waiting for Tonight' (season 11)
In the third episode of season 11, the contestants were split into two teams who would parody evangelical TV and worship a diva. The teams chose Britney Spears and Mariah Carey, while team Britney pulled it out the bag, team Mariah was an absolute disaster!
When Ru asked members of the losing team who should should be held accountable for the failure, the team defiantly took a stand and said that they held a joint responsibility for their failure. So Ru made the decision that the entire team of six would have to lip sync for their lives.
This lip sync didn't really make for the best viewing, this lip sync saw six individual performances taking place simultaneously on the stage, which was just messy. In fact one of the queens even leapt off the stage, performing on the studio floor, which clearly didn't impress Ru.
Priyanka VS Kiara - 'I Drove All Night' (Canada season 1)
After the pair bombed in their Snatch Game performances, Priyanka and Kiara had to battle it out to hold on to their chances of becoming Canada's first drag superstar. This episode's runway theme was of the Canadian icon herself, Celine Dion. So of course the lip sync song would be her iconic cover of 'I Drove All Night'.
The pair put on quite the show with jumps and splits all over the place but Priyanka was the clear winner of this one. As well as being a hilarious ball of chaotic energy Priyanka showed how well she could move whilst also embodying the spirit of Celine.
Tayce Vs Cherry Valentine – 'Memory' (UK series 2)
After the first UK 'rusical' of Rats (a parody of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats) the bottom two contestants ended up being Tayce and Cherry Valentine. And keeping within the theming of the episode, the pair were asked to lip sync to Elaine Paige's rendition of 'Memory' from Cats.
Anyone who had seen Tayce live before the Drag Race would know that she can pull out an epic lip sync performance to camp, high energy hits. But this is far from upbeat so it could have been anyone's game.
There were strong performances from both, but Tayce was able to take it that bit further. With simplicity and stillness, Tayce was able to bring the performance to life which in itself took a good amount of acting skill, especially as she wasn't singing the song herself!
Sister Sister VS Ginny Lemon - 'You Keep Me Hanging On' (UK series 2)
After the contestants took part in a daytime TV inspired improvisation challenge, the bottom two ended up being Sister Sister and Ginny Lemon. Ginny left us all gagged when they made the decision themselves that it was time to sashay away.
As the music started, Ginny has a grin on their face as if something was going to happen, then as Sister went for gold, Ginny gave the judges a smile and walked off the stage. Sister continued her performance completely unaware of what just happened while her fellow contestants and the judges looked baffled.
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