Drag

“They ate”: Canada’s Drag Race fans react to Canada vs the World season 2 premiere

By Jordan Robledo

20th July 2024

The second season of Canada’s Drag Race: Canada vs the World has exceeded fan expectations.

The search for the second ‘Queen of the Mother-Pucking World’ started on Friday (19 July) with nine fierce queens making their grand return: Alexis Mateo, Cheryl Hole, Eureka, Kennedy Davenport, La Kahena, Le Fil, Lemon, Miss Fiercalicious and Tynomi Banks.

Like last season, the champion will take home $100,000 and join Ra’Jah O’Hara in the Canada’s Drag Race Hall of Fame.

After strutting down the runway in their sickening entrance looks, host Brooke Lynn Hytes revealed the season’s first twist, the Golden Beaver.

“On our turf, you play by our rules. Each week, the winner of the maxi-challenge will earn the power to save one of the bottom queens from lip-syncing for their lives,“ Brooke explained.

After the Golden Beaver reveal, the queens were tasked with their first maxi-challenge.

“We want you to split up and form global girl groups. Each group will perform a song off the new Canada vs the World EP… Drag Pop,“ Brooke continued.

“You will choose from one of these songs. ‘Bopulence,‘ an upbeat anthem about celebrating the opulence that comes with being a drag phenomenon. ‘Tongue Pop,‘ an in-your-face-clapback directed at the haters.

“And finally, ‘This Beat,‘ a slickening club track all about serving face and beauty.“

To set up the three girl groups, each queen was randomly selected by Brooke to choose the song they wanted to sing, with each team having a limit of three members.

Ultimately, Fil, Tynomi and Fiercalicious paired up for ‘This Beat’. Kennedy, Cheryl and Lemon made up ‘Tongue Pop,‘ and Kahena, Eureka, and Alexis created the ‘Bopulence’ girl group.

With their maxi-challenge assigned, the queens made their way to the stunning Canada’s Drag Race werkroom.

The contestants didn’t take long to set up their stations, with many of the ladies sticking to their respective franchise sisters.

Due to everyone pairing off so quickly, Eureka and Kahena agreed to set up their own corner of the workroom.

“La Kahena grabbed my hand, and she was ready bitch. I was like, ‘Sis, we in this together,’“ Eureka said in a confessional.

In the Canadian corner, Fiercalicious cut the pleasantries, asking Lemon and Tynomi if they wanted to start up an alliance.

However, the proposal wasn’t fully embraced by Lemon, who opened up about her previous experience with queens not having her back.

“I don’t like the word alliance. I’m not here to play some social game. I’m here to be a fucking good drag queen,“ she added in her confessional.

In response to Lemon’s hesitancy, Tynomi assured her Canadian sister that she had their backs.

After getting out of drag and receiving an encouraging piece of RuMail, the ladies got down to work on their girl group numbers.

On ‘The Beat’s’ side of the workroom, Fiercalicious threw some cheeky shade when she admitted to her teammates that she initially wanted ‘Tongue Pop.‘

“I just relate to that song more, like I have a lot of haters, and I’m a hateful person. But I do have a beat face, gorgeous mug,“ she said.

“At least we got the song, and it wasn’t one of the ugly girls like everyone else.”

While Fiercalicious had a more carefree attitude about the challenge, Tynomi described their upcoming performance as an opportunity for redemption due to her doing poorly during her season’s girl group episode.

Toward the end of their conversation, the trio named Lemon as their biggest competition because of her success in music and performing.

In a confessional, Lemon confirmed ‘The Beat’s’ suspicions, revealing: “I love writing. I wrote my entire album myself, so I feel very comfortable writing a verse.“

Lemon wasn’t the only queen in the ‘Tongue Pop’ team to easily navigate the song’s theme, which is about clapping back against the haters.

After the Canadian talented spouted off a clever rap bar using beef and meat metaphors, Cheryl revealed that she also wrote similar lyrics.

Lemon also described the song as an opportunity to channel the real-life hate they received since joining the Drag Race fandom.

For Team ‘Bopulence,‘ the trio discussed their group name – deciding on ‘Just Divas – before shooting off ideas for their lyrics.

Alexis and Kahena both expressed a desire to have bars in Spanish and French to represent their respective cultures, with Eureka deciding to lean into her country roots.

“We’re all three bringing something uniquely us, so I feel good,“ Eureka said in a confessional.

After finalising their lyrics, the ladies headed to the runway to learn choreography for their numbers.

However, upon their arrival, they soon realised they would be responsible for their routines.

During Just Divas’s rehearsal, Eureka and Kahena decided to give Alexis the title of lead choreographer, which the latter happily accepted.

“I am nominated to be the choreographer of the group, of course. I don’t mind taking the lead,“ she said in confessional.

While Kahena claimed not to be the best dancer, she ended up turning out the choreography.

Unfortunately, the same could not be said for Eureka, who struggled to hit her mark.

The ladies of The Face, aka Team ‘The Beat,‘ were the next group to plan their routine, which saw Le Fil as the lead choreographer.

“I love the fact that Le Fill has this calming but dominant energy and personality,“ Tynomi said in a confessional.

While most of their rehearsal went off without a hitch, Fiercalicious’s confident attitude seemed to get in the way of her fully absorbing the routine.

Unlike the other two groups, The Slapbacks, aka team ‘Tongue Pop,‘ showcased no reservations about the idea of creating choreography due to their previous dance experience.

However, this was an unexpected thorn for the trio because of their conflicting ideas.

“You’d think putting three dancers on a stage it would come like butter to bread, there’s too many cooks in this kitchen,“ Cheryl said in a confessional.

The next day, the ladies returned to the workroom to prepare for their girl group performance and first elimination.

While painting their mugs, Lemon and Cheryl opened up about their nerves for the challenge, with the latter praising the Golden Beaver twist.

“I’m so happy for the beaver because it’s down to lip sync for your life,“ she explained. “And to be honest, you’re my only alliance.“

In an additional confessional, Cheryl revealed that despite her having another UK sister in the competition, her relationship with Lemon is her only priority.

On the other side of the workroom, Eureka revealed to her Just Diva bandmates that she was initially worried about performing in the challenge.

When Alexis asked for further clarification, the Drag Race season 10 star explained that her trans journey has impacted her confidence due to the negative response she’s received in the past.

“Drag is my saving grace often, but it’s still kind of hard to find my confidence there too, to be honest, but I feel better today than I did yesterday,“ she said.

Elsewhere in the workroom conversation, the ladies opened up about what they were doing before returning for Canada vs the World.

Kahena revealed she toured France and Belgium with Drag Race. Kennedy shared that she won another pageant and started a new romantic relationship with a trans man.

“This is the first relationship where I haven’t felt taken advantage of,” she added in a confessional.

“I’ve had a shitty run of relationships, and I’m sure a lot of us drag entertainers have gone through that, and he’s just determined not to be that dude.”

Kennedy also revealed that she and her boyfriend are expecting their first child, which resulted in an excited response from the other queens.

Things took a sad turn when Lemon opened up about her experience with depression following her short-lived appearance on UK vs the World.

“It was just shitty, and it just made me rethink how I thought about myself for a bit. But then I realised life moves the fuck on, and I was like, am I going to consider myself a loser because of one thing that happened in my life?“ she explained.

“Or am I going to put the work in, make myself undeniably iconic, and then they’re going to have to have me back? So I did the latter.”

In a confessional, Kahena said she related to Lemon’s feelings since she was also first out on her season of Drag Race France.

With their faces beat and hair laid, the ladies headed to the main stage to perform their girl group numbers – which were filled with clever lyrics, stunning dance routines and a handful of comedic moments.

After their electric performances and walking the runway in their fierce “Wonders of the World“ ensembles, Lemon was named the winner of the maxi-challenge, winning $10,000 and gaining the power of the Golden Beaver.

Before heading into the final lip sync of the night, the bottom three queens – Eureka, Kahena and Alexis – pleaded their case on why they should be saved.

After Kahena gave an earnest testimony about why she should stay, the vibe took a tense turn when Eurkea attempted to make her case.

“I’m just being honest. I just don’t want to lip sync. I think my critiques were really positive. Personally, I saw them as the best from the group,” she explained.

“I’m also coming into this not wanting to be that girl that’s like, ‘It’s all about me all the time’, cause that is the kind of Eureka that I used to be, and I’m not that person anymore.”

Alexis didn’t buy Eureka’s statement, calling out the latter for claiming she got the best critiques of the group.

“The judges said to me that I was the standout of the group with my performance and also my runway, so how do you come to that conclusion?” Alexis said.

“You designated me as the group choreographer of the group. I had to take charge of the entire group, help you guys, actually go down on my level for you and you to shine because I didn’t want to be over the top with you guys, so the fact that you sit here and say, ‘I just don’t want to lip sync is kind of like hurting me.”

Ultimately, Lemon decided to save Alexis, resulting in Kahena and Eureka lip syncing to Charlotte Cardin’s track ‘Meaningless.’

Following their dramatic, emotional and energy-filled performance, Brooke named Eureka the winner, resulting in Kahena sashaying away.

“What I would take away from this experience is that I’m really bad at Drag Race, but I’m still an amazing drag queen. I’m the new legend of the pork chop. I’m the only double pork chop ever,” Kahena said in a confessional.

“I’m not yet proud of it, but it’s a title bitch, so I’ll keep it. This is not the last time you’ll see me.”

On next week’s episode of Canada vs the World, the queens will be tasked with starring in the new “who done it” reality show, The Hole.

See below for fan reactions to the season two premiere.