Ahead of Friday night’s season 12 finale, past victors including Jinkx Monsoon, Alaska and Sasha Velour look back at what the crown meant for them
An hour before the first episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race season three aired on US cable network Logo TV, Raja turned up for her gig at Micky’s, a popular gay bar in West Hollywood. Months had passed since filming had finished on the series, and despite knowing she was the winner, baby, little else in her life had changed.
It was January 2011, and the US reality competition was still very much in its infancy. While today (global pandemics aside) queens are booked up for a whirlwind of international tours as soon as their casting on the show is announced – global rights deals giving the cultural phenomena a vast and lucrative international audience – back then, things were more low key. She might have pocketed $75,000 in prize money, but after filming finished, Raja went back to working as a makeup artist, doing drag on the side as before.
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