RuPaul’s Drag Race star Dawn has clarified her actions during last week’s Lip Sync LaLaPaRuza Smackdown.
Ahead of the season 16 finale, the eliminated contestants returned to the competition to duke it out in nine lip-syncs for the title of ‘Queen of She Done Already Done Had Herses’ and a cash prize of $50,000.
For a majority of the lip-syncs, the queens were chosen at random and tasked with selecting their opponent, who then had the privilege of deciding the song.
In round one, Dawn made the decision to battle her bestie Amanda Tori Meating, shocking their fellow contestants (and social media) in the process. After deploying all of their tricks to Danity Kane’s ‘Damaged’, Amanda was selected to advance to the next round.
Following the episode, Dawn provided a “full explanation” as to why she chose to compete against her closest sister from the season.
“There were a lot of factors at play with this, but essentially I knew I wasn’t going to win, I was really fucking stressed out about embarrassing myself again and wanted it over with!” she tweeted.
With the drag gods picking Dawn to lip-sync first, the queen “figured the best course of action was to have fun on stage with someone who is literally my sister, my best friend, my confidant”.
My full explanation didn’t really make it to air so I’ll explain! 🧵🧵🧵🪡 https://t.co/jv61j6jKgL
— Dawn 🌙 (@upuntil_dawn) April 13, 2024
I figured the best course of action was to have fun on stage with someone who is literally my sister my best friend my confidant, all the while 1) knowing she would smoke me so I could LEAVE and 2) making sure she would continue on in the bracket! There were more layers… 2/?
— Dawn 🌙 (@upuntil_dawn) April 13, 2024
to this too mainly in that this time in my life outside of drag when we came back to film was very VERY difficult for reasons I don’t want to talk about online so I just didn’t feel prepared, I wasn’t excited and I was anxious as fuck! I’m happy with how it all went down 🤍🤍 3/3
— Dawn 🌙 (@upuntil_dawn) April 13, 2024
Dawn revealed that she wanted to “leave” the stage and for Amanda to “continue on in the bracket”, so she picked the self-described “C-E-HOE of S-E-X!” knowing that she would “smoke” her in the lip-sync.
“There were more layers to this too mainly in that this time in my life outside of drag when we came back to film was very VERY difficult for reasons I don’t want to talk about online so I just didn’t feel prepared, I wasn’t excited and I was anxious as fuck!” she continued.
“I’m happy with how it all went down.”
Ultimately, Amanda lost her following showdown against Megami, who then went on to compete in the final against Morphine Love Dion. While both queens turned it out, Morphine was declared the winner.
On next week’s finale, RuPaul will crown Plane Jane, Nymphia Wind or Sapphira Cristál as ‘America’s Next Drag Superstar’ and Sasha Colby‘s successor.