SPECIAL THANKS TO JASMINE ALOMA AND SOFIE VAN DE GRAMPEL AT THE BBC

Zahirah Zapanta may not be the UK’s Next Drag Superstar, but it’s fine. As the Filipino Goddess demurely (and correctly) tells GAY TIMES, “I’m so fierce it hurts. It hurts so much. It’s crazy being this fierce.”

Girl groups made a return on this week’s episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, with the ten remaining queens writing ghoulish lyrics and recording chilling vocals in hopes of securing the UK’s Halloween number-one. Despite giving it her all, Zahirah’s performance and ‘Call Me Mother Nature’ runway (unfairly) received middling reviews, resulting in a lip-sync smackdown against Lill to guest judge Mabel’s smasher ‘Don’t Call Me Up’. Ultimately, Zahirah was told to sashay away.

“At that point in the competition I was frustrated, and I said that on the runway because, every week, I wanted my moment to shine,” says the Nottingham queen, who admits that she was at a disadvantage in the lip-sync due to Lill’s impressive track record. “They put me in the bottom three for the design and acting challenges, and I couldn’t have anymore free passes. So, that was against me. Lill obviously had a win and has been smashing challenges up until that point.”

Here, Zahirah reflects on her “eye-opening” Drag Race UK experience and “traumatic” final episode, before revealing her insanely brilliant character for the Snatch Game. (She would’ve won, tbh.) Read ahead for the edited and condensed interview, or watch the exit chat in full below!

Zahirah, Filipino Goddess and Strictly Come Dancing star, how are you doing babe?

You know what, I’m weirdly good. The fan response has been so incredible and this experience has been nothing short of a dream. It’s an amazing cast and season so far, and we’re just starting, mama! I’m excited to see the rest of the girls smash it, and I’m happy with my time there as well.

It doesn’t make sense with my fantasy, or your fantasy, that both of the Filipino queens have gone by episode four. Fuming.

I know, how sad. There’s hopefully going to be more opportunities for me to shine. And I’m so fierce it hurts. It hurts so much. It’s crazy being this fierce. So, it’s only a matter of time for me. It’s my chance to elevate myself. There were things on the show that I looked back on and thought, ‘I would change this, this, this.’ As a creative, that’s what I look at. Since we filmed, I’ve grown so much. To go back and be able to access myself on TV along with the rest of the world, it’s eye-opening. It’s so useful for me and my drag and I love it. I was authentic and completely myself. Are there things I would change in terms of runway or whatever? Absolutely. But, we all do that as creatives, right?