September 3, 2021
Watch: Herstory Made on 'RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars' Season 6 Finale
READ TIME: 3 MIN.
This story contains spoilers about "RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars."
The sixth edition of "RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars" was one of the longest seasons in the show's history with 12 episodes. And after last night's finale episode, the winning queen made "Drag Race" herstory with a major first.
What pushed the show to its greater length was the game-within-the-game that led to an episode featuring all of the eliminated queens in a lip-synch battle to see which would return to the competition. It paid off for Eureka, who came back to the show after having just been told to "sashay away" by beating Silky Nutmeg Ganache. As we saw, Silky fought her way back, winning four lip syncs in a row but faltered when she faced Eureka.
Eureka's return pushed her to the top of the pack for the finale as she won the challenge after winning the lip sync battle. Though her biggest competition Ginger Minj (the runner-up from the seventh season of "Drag Race" in 2016 and then finished eighth on the second season of "All Stars").
But in the judge's evaluations, it was Ra'Jah O'Hara who got the comments usually reserved for a worthy of a winner. She was the strongest in the finale's challenge, in which each queen wrote a verse to a country song celebrating America by RuPaul with an assist by Grammy winner and LGBTQ ally, country star Tanya Tucker. In her original rap, she addressed Black people and the American Dream. "I'm proud to be an American ... but I can't really state that it's�my�America," she rapped. "Can't breathe, 'don't shoot' running through my brain. Nothing good on the news, and it's all the same."�She also nailed it with her elegant runway look, head-to-toe in purple, which became her signature color.
It was, though, Kylie Sonique Love who impressed Ru and the judges the most, and was named the winner. Her final runway look was a red, white and blue number that at first felt underwhelming until she offered her commentary about how she aimed to reclaim the American flag as "something we can all be proud of" as a trans woman living in America. She also came through in the final lip-sync. "...his�was the moment where Kylie became our season's winner," writes Paul McCallion in his recap for Vulture. "I was completely enraptured from start to finish, and I found myself begging to see more of her when they would cut away to the other queens. To top it all off, her stumble turned somersault cemented her status as lip-sync assassin and performer for the ages. Pure charisma and stage presence down boots! A master class. It feels so right when Ru calls her name and we see her prancing down the runway holding that scepter. Congratulations, Kylie, you richly deserve it."
"Her win makes history as she becomes the�first trans contestant�to take the crown, although�'Drag Race Thailand'�had a trans winner on the second season," writes Digital Spy. "... Kylie previously appeared on the second series of the show way back in 2010, coming in ninth. The win also means Kylie holds the record for the�'All Stars'�winner who did the worst on their original season."
Kylie won the $100,000 prize and a�year's supply of Anastasia Beverly Hills make-up. She joins winners Chad Michaels, Alaska, Trixie Mattel,�Monet X Change, Trinity The Tuck�and�Shea Coulee�in the Hall of Fame.
A video of the final four watching the moment when Kylie wins is trending on social media. "It's actually real, bitch. It's real," Eureka tells the shocked Kylie.
"You know I never won anything before," Kylie says, "Well, anything that counts."