With her showgirl style, razor-sharp wit and no-f**ks-given attitude — from her hilarious disinterest in Viola and Catrin Feelings’ quarrel to her nonchalant exit line — Nyongbella has emerged as the breakout star of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK season seven.
Sadly, the trans icon’s popularity with viewers sharply contrasted with her experience on the judges’ panel, landing in the bottom three times. “Every single week, it was just never what I predicted,” Nyongbella tells Gay Times. “There’d be weeks where I thought they were going to hate the performance but love the look, or hate the look but love the performance, and vice versa. It was always a switcheroo with me.”
On this week’s challenge, the queens starred in “bonk-buster adaptations,” with Nyongbella performing alongside Catrin Feelings and Chai T Grande in Mucky Bitches as a high-camp horse diva. Despite eliciting laughs from viewers and delivering a unique take on the Absolutely Fabulous runway with an homage to Saffy, Nyongbella faced off against Sillexa Diction in the lip-sync smackdown and became the third queen to sashay away.
Here, we chat with Nyongbella about her elimination and overall Drag Race UK journey. She reflects on her “disconnect” with the judges, her plans for the talent show and Snatch Game, and her ambitious career goals: “I want to work in music, fashion, beauty… and the morgue.” KK, bye!
Nyongbella, how are you post-Drag Race UK elimination?
It’s been amazing. I mean, what’s great is that I left the episode in high spirits, so I didn’t leave on a downer kind of note. I don’t feel that energy, do you know what I mean? So yeah, I feel fantastic. I mean, I feel bad that a lot of people feel bad that I’m leaving, but I’m like… Don’t cry for me, Argentina. My life goes on, and I’ll be fab. This is only just the beginning.
“KK, bye”.
Exactly. KK, bye.
The delivery of that line killed me.
I’m like… what more is there to say? That’s how I felt. I’m always just going to be authentically myself and say how I feel and do what I feel. I was like, ‘I mean, you guys have put me in the bottom every freaking episode, so I’m not that thankful. I kind of suffered.’
You have truly been such a fun queen to watch, with your mixture of IDGAF attitude and being in your own world. It’s been refreshing.
Thank you so much. I’m really glad. It’s so great to hear because I was very apprehensive about how I would come across. There are so many different ways that people interpret who I am and how I present. To some people, it might seem like I’m in my own world. Some people interpret it as being aloof, or as being disinterested in other people, just very uncongenial and all this kind of stuff. People always spin things in different ways. I’m quite grateful that people took it in the best way possible.
Nah, you have a really rare and special talent of not giving a f**k while being as kind as possible about it.
It’s just the truth. One of my mottos in life, and I remember I would tell this to production every single day when they’d be like, ‘You need to hurry up, you need to do this, and you need to do that’ – I was like, ‘Nothing in this life is worth getting a wrinkle over.’ So, I’m not stressing over anything because stress gives you wrinkles. Just don’t kill yourself over it, because if you kill yourself, then you’re dead… Do you know what I mean? And then no one’s happy.
So true, babe. Let’s reflect on this week’s challenge, because I pissed every single time you were on screen as Clip Clop.
Clip Clop. Do you know what was so hard about that as well? It was so hard knowing that I’m dressed as a horse who is [called] Clip Clop, without thinking about American Dad.
I’m a huge American Dad fan. Huge.
I’m glad you got it! I said it in another interview and the person was like, ‘What?’ Do you know how hard it was to do it and not just be like, ‘Here’s my hoof’? No one got it when I said it, and I was just like, ‘Ugh, my talent, my brilliance is wasted on you people.’
How tempted were you to embrace your inner Roger Smith as Clip Clop by unleashing a “neigh!” and then just completely destroying the set?
No, honestly! I was really prepared to just go really balls-to-the-walls crazy with it, but I was a late addition to the scene. You had the first two where Michelle was really hammering, ‘You guys are doing too much.’ So I was like, ‘Well, I don’t want to do that then because now I’m going to get told [off].’ If I come onto the set doing the thing that she said not to do, she’s going to look at me and be like, ‘You’re not following direction, you’re not paying attention, bottom two!’ So, like, I’m going to try and apply the notes as I’m getting ready to go on. It didn’t help anyway. I was still in the bottom, but hey.
Well, Roger would be proud of the delivery of your lines, especially “…sent me to the glue factory!”
Thank you. Was that the thing that the judge was talking about when they said, ‘You’re inflecting on the wrong parts’? Because I thought, oh, obviously horses become glue… you emphasise that. Maybe I interpreted it wrong. I don’t remember doing that. I don’t remember half the things I did or the things I said on Drag Race, to be honest with you.
With how funny you were in the challenge, and the fact that you delivered something different on the runway by paying homage to Saffy from Ab Fab, did you expect to be in the bottom?
If the challenge was at a different point, if I take out the track record of it all, I feel like I could have been low or maybe even safe. Who knows? But when you factor in the track record overall, it makes sense. I don’t think it’s contestable. Last week was a bit more like, whoa, compared to this week, to be fair. Every single week, it was just never what I predicted. There’d be weeks where I thought they were going to hate the performance but love the look, or hate the look but love the performance, and vice versa. It was always a switcheroo with me.
This challenge I was like, ‘Okay, they’re probably going to hate the look because it’s so pedestrian.’ It was pedestrian to the point that one of the handlers was like, ‘Queens, you need to get ready to go on the runway. Are you not getting changed?’ I was like, ‘… I have.’ And they were like, ‘But you wear this all the time. I could have sworn you wore this this morning.’ And I was like, ‘No, it was in a different colour.’
So I thought they’d read it for being so pedestrian, and then they were like, ‘We’re obsessed with this! We love this! This is so ingenious!’ Then the performance, we had some issues in our rehearsals, but everyone did, so what does that mean? I felt like the end result looked pretty okay so I was like, ‘Okay, maybe they’ll like that.’ And they were just like, ‘No, we hate this.’
This was your third week in the bottom, which did not feel deserved. Last week, especially, fans thought you were going to be in the top…
So did I.
So, looking back, what do you think the judges wanted from you?
Honestly, I couldn’t tell you. I got some critiques/slash suggestions in the first episode and I was like, ‘Well, I’m not doing that.’ I won’t go into the specificities of it, but some of the comments or critiques just felt very counterintuitive to the points that were being made. Obviously, in the first week, what made the edit was RuPaul saying that she feels like my personality is put on, or it’s not authentic, and I’m being a bit fake, and dah, dah, dah. Then hearing them give suggestions like I should present more of this or do more of that… I was like, ‘You are kind of asking me to do what you’re accusing me of doing now, so I don’t think that makes any sense. I won’t be doing that.’
Then there were some other critiques like, ‘I hear what you’re saying, but I can’t really do much about that now.’ Saying things like, ‘Your runway needs to be more this, be more that,’ which is valid, but I brought what I brought with me. I can’t do anything about it. Even the performances, I think from girl groups onwards they were much more along the lines of, ‘You’re not doing bad, you’re doing good, but just not as good compared to everyone else.’ I don’t know what I’m supposed to take from that, because I’m not going to throw pearls at everyone and knock them out just to cripple them. That’s the only course of action I could think of to make myself look better. Is that what you want me to do?
I know throughout my time on Drag Race, I did my best to actively improve, progress, and showcase my best self as best I could at every challenge. I hope people see that I tried my best to fight every single week, I made it work as best I could, and I have no regrets.
You absolutely shouldn’t. It’s extremely cliché to say that, although you didn’t win, you won the hearts of fans. You were memorable every single time you were on screen and showed who you are. You should be so proud.
I am so proud and grateful. When you are doing something that’s someone else’s production, you never know how it’s going to be produced. I could have gone on the show and just been like invisible girl… No edit, no nothing. They could have made me the villain. They have complete carte blanche to edit me however they wish, and I have no control. I have no say over it. So I’m grateful that I was portrayed in a very true-to-life manner.
How does it feel to know you’re providing such incredible Black trans representation for people watching at home?
It is such an honour, honestly. I know the hurdles that Black people and trans people face, and then when you combine the two, I know the hurdles that both communities face. I feel like drag and Blackness, drag and transness, has such a complex relationship. When it comes to being Black, especially in creative jobs, the creative future is not really the idealised version. Most people who are Black in the UK are probably first or second-generation. Out of love, most of our families want us to be doctors or lawyers, things that have respect and security.
So when you’re like, ‘I’m going to be a starving artist who puts on a wig and works at a bar for drink tokens,’ they’re a bit like, ‘No…’ My being on the show can hopefully represent Black artists, and even all artists of colour who may have family who aren’t fully supportive or don’t fully understand their life. Seeing me on the show can inspire them to know that when you have parents who support you and help you without stifling you, you can achieve greatness. When you’re in a position where you have to stifle your true self to appease other people, there’s a sadness that comes with that. I would hope my Black viewers and people of colour saw that and were inspired.
When it comes to the transness of it all, especially in this context, I’ll focus on trans women, trans femme, and drag queens… For a lot of trans people, including myself, doing drag was a good gateway into the feminine. It allowed me to wear skirts and heels, and there was an excuse behind it. You still have that internalised guilt like, ‘Am I wrong for doing what I’m doing?’ When you do drag, it’s kind of like a scapegoat: ‘Oh no, I’m doing it for a purpose. It is fine. I’m wearing the heels, I’m wearing the makeup because I’m doing drag.’
But after a while, as you start to embrace your femininity or your trans identity more, drag can start to feel like a conflict of interest. When you do drag, people start to view you as a man in a wig. It starts to feel weird, and you start to feel alien in your own body. My being on the show, being openly trans and loving being trans, while also openly loving being a showgirl and a drag queen, shows that you can embrace both sides. Seeing me bring them together, loving both sides and amalgamating them, it helps other people know that they can do that too. You can experience drag and be trans, and you don’t have to choose one over the other. I think that’s the greatest thing, and I’m so happy that I got to showcase that to everyone.
You recently launched a GoFundMe to help support your transition, with so many fans rallying behind it on social media. What does it mean to you to see that kind of support?
It means the world. It actually gets me a bit teary-eyed when I think about it, because from the get-go, I genuinely did not imagine the fan reception would be what it was. I had such a disconnect with the judges, and I felt like the judges controlled the narrative of how the season kind of goes. So I was like, ‘If I’m having a disconnect with the judges, I’m going to have a disconnect with fans,’ and then it’s just going to be a thing where I don’t resonate with them, or they don’t care for me. Right after Meet the Queens, it was a complete 180 from my expectations. People were just obsessed with this girl in butterfly brown panties saying, “Go suck your mum.” They were just obsessed.
And then with the GoFundMe… I’m not really a girl for getting too sentimental or emotional. I don’t like displaying weakness, I guess, or asking for help. You can see that on the show, even in the first episode when I’m crying. Tayris is fully bawling her eyes out, and I’m like, ‘I don’t want to cry.’ I still have those barriers. I’m a very guarded, barriered person. Having the GoFundMe was a way of knocking down those walls. My friend bullied me into setting it up. I wasn’t even going to do it but she was like, ‘If you don’t set that GoFundMe up, I’ll do it for you.’
To have it go the way it did is just beyond wild for me. It’s so crazy, and I’m just so grateful. You can never predict these things; you never know how they’re going to happen. I don’t take it for granted. I do my best to respond to everyone, to interact and give a bit back, because I’m nothing without the fans. I’m nothing without the people showing me love and supporting what I do. If the least I can do is comment back, send a heart emoji and get a response like, ‘I love you, mom,’ then why not? That’s the least I can do.
Next week is the talent show, and I saw on Twitter that you planned to do a burlesque number?
Yes, I was going to do a burlesque performance. I wish we’d done the talent show in the first episode because it’s the best way to brand yourself. I got to lip sync a bunch, but I wasn’t doing things that I would ever do. I’m so sorry, you would never catch me doing ‘Von Dutch’ – ever! Quite honestly, the first time I listened to the song in full was on Drag Race. I’d maybe heard a chorus or a ten-second snippet on TikTok. And I don’t know if you could tell, but I didn’t know any of the words… To be honest, I didn’t know the words to any of the lip sync songs. But it’s fine. I won every single lip sync, and you know what? Work. I’m not like a boom-cat queen. That’s not me. I’m not tricks and splits and kicks. I’m much more showgirl. I’m literally dressed like it today, like hello.
And you look gorgeous. This outfit cannot be confined to the house.
Thank you so much. I’m sorry, I’m still trying to get used to these new boobs I got. I was like, let me just put them on today, and they are driving me up the wall. Perfect time to try out something new when you have a row of interviews, right? But yeah, this is my talent show performance outfit. Maybe I’ll release the [talent show] song. We shall see.
Let’s get it to number-one. The first drag queen to top the UK charts? C’mon.
Could you imagine? I would kind of gag, but I feel like the fans have it in them to make it happen.
It’d go viral, be covered by accounts like PopCrave and ChartData, and you’d just quote-tweet,“KK bye”.
I mean, to be expected. Like, work! What’s new? What are the royalties? Do you know how surprised I was when we had the… what was the girl group song called?
‘She Ate That’.
I was on my [Instagram] Story like, ‘Guys, stream She Ate That! I need the royalties!’ Paige Three was like, ‘You don’t get any royalties from the song.’ I took down all those posts. I said, ‘Girl, don’t stream that goddamn song, I don’t give a toss. I’m not getting paid for it.’ No. I was like… girl, keep it.
I can’t with this… Before I let you go, can we talk about Snatch Game?
Snatch Game option one, main choice: Rachel Dolezal. As unhinged as I am, of course it had to be that! I had my little mayonnaise for my hot sauce in my bag. I had a whole plan. If I couldn’t do Rachel Dolezal, my backup was Fran Drescher as Fran Fine. I just wanted someone I could vocally lend myself to. I’ve been told I’m a little nasally, and she’s very nasally. It just works, doesn’t it? And it’s just silly in and of itself. I would’ve loved to do Elmo, but obviously… copyright. One of my plans was, if they asked me a question in Snatch Game and I got it wrong, they’d say, ‘The word we’re looking for was blank,’ and I’d respond, [Elmo voice] ‘Oh, what a hard word for Elmo!’ Just silly little stuff like that.
And I assume we’ll see one of these Snatch Games on Nyongbella vs the World?
Vs the World, yes.
But not the first season. It’d be classic Nyongbella to not show up for the first season of Nyongbella vs the World.
No, of course I couldn’t be on the first season. That’s the guinea pig season! They’ve got to fine-tune the kinks, and once they’ve done that, then I’ll come in.
What’s next for Nyongbella? Besides topping the UK charts…
Besides being a chart-topping sensation, I just want to be everywhere, doing everything. I want to be in music, fashion, beauty, working in the morgue. I want to be a businesswoman, open up a business, open an enterprise, work in animation, work in cartoons. Maybe do something in sports, because why not? I look cute in a uniform. TV stuff? I want to do everything. The world is my oyster!
Drag Race UK season 7 is streaming in the UK on BBC iPlayer.
You can visit Nyongbella’s “transition fund” on her GoFundMe page here.
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