'Canada's Drag Race' Superstar Priyanka Sounds Off on Her Big Win and All the Biggest Drama (Exclusive)
'If that little, scrawny brown boy can do it, so can I!'
What's her name? PRIYANKA!
Better still, make that Canada's Next Drag Superstar Priyanka. The children's TV host-turned-Toronto queen topped Rita Baga and Scarlett Bobo during Thursday's grand finale, snatching the crown, collecting $100,000 and becoming the first-ever winner of Canada's Drag Race.
Following her victory, Priyanka spoke with ET's Brice Sander about being the truest, Northest, strongest, fiercest Canuck in the Werk Room, getting read for filth by her mom and what she makes of all the drama surrounding judge Jeffrey Bowyer Chapman.
I want to start with "What's my name." That's something you've done for forever. If you scroll back in your social media, you've coerced thousands of Ru girls at this point into saying your name. You explained on the finale the meaning behind it -- to put the name out there, to have people pay respect to where this name comes from -- but where'd you get this idea to do that?
It was drag mother's idea! Xtacy Love, she was like, "Listen, everyone on Church Street thinks that you're Tynomi Banks, so if you could please start saying your name more often, that would be great. Thank you!" And I just took it and I ran with it. Then it was like, "What's my name? What's my name? Say my name!" all the time. Every day. Everyone's like, "We get it."
Well, now everyone in the world -- or at least select parts of North America -- knows your name.
It's wild! There's people from every country just being the most amazing and so excited about Priyanka winning Canada's Drag Race. It's messed up, man. All in a paper dress! [Laughs]
It's a big deal! You are the very first Canadian Drag Superstar. You get to represent Asian queens. It's big. What does this all mean to you?
I just love the idea that in a year from now, everyone's going to be like, "Yeah, Priyanka was the first-ever winner. And that's just normal. That's just in the history books." I think it's so cool, because I want, like, other South Asian people, West Indian people to look at me as a person of color and be like, "If that little, scrawny brown boy can do it, so can I!"
On the finale, you talked about how your dad didn't know you were gay, didn't know you did drag. You've shared your coming out story on Twitter. What was Dad's reaction last night when you got crowned?
He said, "Give me the check." [Laughs] He's so proud of me, it's so cool. He's up and down with this whole drag thing, like, he's supporting it because he understands that Drag Race is a big deal. But then his demons in his brain from his upbringing tell him that boys can't dress up as girls. So, I think that he's trying his hardest to support me, and then sometimes the upbringing comes in and is like, "No! It's wrong!" and he has to fight them off. So, I'm giving him time to process it, but at the end of the day, he's proud of his little boy.
He loves you, and I know your mom loves you. She was there at your party last night.
My mom is the one. Let me tell you something about my mom. Yes, we can talk about the amazing mother she is and the support, but I want you to know how she read my looks this season. I wore the black latex look episode two and she was like, "What was that garbage bag you were wearing?" After I bombed the improv challenge -- the second time I was in the bottom -- she calls me and says, "What were you thinking? I paid for all that TV school and that's what you did?" I was like, "Ah, sorry, Mom!"
Momyanka giving Jeffrey Bowyer Chapman a run for his money!
[Laughs] Not that!
We'll circle back to that in a second, but I want to talk more about your journey on the show. You were the narrator of this season, and I always love when the narrator takes the win home. But did you know you were going to be the narrator? Did you have any inkling that like, "My interviews are so good. They're going to use every single bite I give them."
"My interviews are so good. I'm so good at everything, oh my goodness." [Laughs] I had no clue at all! It wasn't until the fans started placing me as the narrator of the season, because they're all trying to figure it out. Everyone's always trying to crack the code to Drag Race... I loved it. I was just having fun in those interviews. I was just so happy to finally be able to be myself and be Priyanka out of drag on camera while competing to be the first-ever Canadian Drag Superstar. That's where all that happiness came from and me just getting my life and saying, "Go off, Jimbo! Get him, Jimbo!" or "Take Jimbo down, do you copy?" All of that was just me just trying to be myself.
You had plenty of yourself moments on the mainstage, too. Your lip syncs are two of the most iconic in Drag Race herstory -- not just Canada's Drag Race herstory, but Drag Race, the whole global phenomenon that this show is. If you had to pick one song to lip sync for the rest of your year, would it be "Hello" or "I Drove All Night"?
"I Drove All Night." My favorite part of that entire lip sync is when I said, "I'm not going home" and I jumped into the split on the bridge of the song and said, The taste of sweet kisses, your arms open wide, this fever is burning-- Like, who do you think you are, Miss Thing? I watch that lip sync and I can't believe I'm watching myself. It's wild.
And your poor pum-pum.
I got so litty I split my kitty!
Knowing what you know now and how it all played out, would you do anything differently? Would you do it again?
You know, I would do it all over again just for fun. Just for funsies! But I wouldn't change anything. I'm so happy I bombed Snatch Game, because I got "I Drove All Night." [And] although mentally it was a hard time being in the bottom a second time and it caused a lot of turmoil in my life, I'm happy it happened. Because then we got "Hello." I think my journey is so cool, because there's never been a Drag Race winner that's been in the bottom twice and to prove that you can really rise up and get your Pri-demption and get your crown is incredible. I wouldn't change anything. Maybe a runway. I would really want to vamp up my denim-on-denim look. That's the only look I'm like, meh. Forgettable.
So no Ru-grets? No Ru-pologies to make?
I would like to Ru-pologize to Kyne for calling you the villain of the season. I'm sorry.
That's big of you, because I think she maybe was. But that's nice of you.
I'm just trying to be nice today. [Laughs] Honestly, Kyne actually texted me something beautiful and she's very, very proud of me and she's such a nice person, I love her. And I'm not just saying that! She's nice. You don't believe me. Next question!
I trust you! This is a question on behalf of Trixie Mattel. I don't know if you've been watching her Pit Stops, but she's not OK with the lack of padding and boobs on Canada. What's going on? Why aren't we padded for the gods?
I wore boobs today! Canada's drag is so diverse, so we have a lot of queens that don't wear pads or don't wear boobs or it doesn't really matter. So to be put in a little bit of a box, saying, "You have to wear boobs" is, like, old news. I love Trixie so much, I do. But the other thing I will say about boobs and padding is it's all about silhouette. So, if you're not going to wear pads, maybe at least wear a corset on your stomach so you get the shape. It's not fun looking at a hot dog walk down the runway, you know?
We're circling back to Jeffrey.
Here we go!
He got a lot of hate online. I think the hate wasn't so deserved. I think he was doing his job, he was giving critiques. What do you make of it?
I think that you should mind your own business. This interview is over. [Laughs] No, I'm kidding, I'm kidding! My actual takeaway from that is I feel like the audience didn't trust the judges going into episode one, because they don't know them as judges. There's no rapport built, so they're looking at them like, "What do they know?" But we as the contestants, we went into this competition knowing that they're going to be there so we wanted to impress them. So, whatever they said, goes. Whenver a fan loves a Drag Race girl, something happens to them where they over-love. It's like me in a relationship -- stage five clinger. And these fans forget that just because you support someone doesn't mean you have to hate on someone else, and what's weird is that they started treating Jeffrey like a Drag Race girl. It was like us against Jeffrey, so whenever he would say something mean to us it was like, "Let's make Jeffrey look back to make Jimbo look better!" That's not fair. Do you think it's fair?
No, I don't think it's fair. I do think the audience felt like they could come for the judges a little more because it wasn't RuPaul and it wasn't Michelle Visage.
It was very, like, "Get her, Jade!"
My last question: Can we retire the word "sissy" now?
Let's do a séance for sissy. Sissy, you are done. You are over. It was the most annoying thing to come out Canada's Drag Race and we're here on Entertainment Tonight to say goodbye to it. Goodbye, sissy.
Canada's Drag Race is now streaming on WOW Presents Plus and airs Mondays at 8 p.m. PT/ET on Logo.
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