Dahlia Sin to Heidi N Closet: ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ newbies, pt. 2
Half the fun of RuPaul’s Drag Race is getting to know a new batch of queens to become attached to and root for each season. Drag Race is a chance for queens to get a bigger fanbase and even stayed ties to Mama Ru herself after their time on Drag Race. So with Season 12 only days away at this point, it’s time to get acquainted with the new batch of queens.
We met Aiden Zhane, Brita, and Crystal Methyd already. But we still have nine more queens we need to introduce before they walk their way onto the runway for Michelle, Ru, Carson, and Ross to judge. So, let’s use those fundamental reading skills and get a feel on Dahlia Sin, Gigi Goode, and Heidi N Closet.
Dahlia Sin (Los Angeles, CA)
We won’t get to meet Dahlia until week two thanks to her placement in group two. But considering she’s the queen with the biggest social media follow pre-season 12, she’s going to be the one to watch. Originally from Brooklyn, NY, Dahlia takes her drag name from both the Black Dahlia and the idea of how being a queen is considered a “sin” by some.
Starting her drag career in 2012, Dahlia’s drag mother was Aja, former Drag Race 9 contestant. As she notes in her VH1 interview, nearly everything she knows about drag, she learned from Aja. While she was definitely more of a spooky queen back in the day, now she’s more a bangee queen with some kawaii tics, and a nice thick burlesque silhouette.
Already you can tell Dahlia is gonna get stuck in every moment of drama, just by her saying “A lot of people just look at me and think I’m a bitch, just based off how I look. Which is kind of true.” But since she’s the self-proclaimed petty queen, we wouldn’t expect anything less. She better serve those sick reads though, or she’s faking it.
Gigi Goode (Los Angeles, CA)
If you’re looking at Gigi’s name and feel like you’ve seen that name before, you’re not wrong. While Gigi comes from her real last name Geggie, Goode is taken from Fiona Goode, Jessica Lange’s character on American Horror Story: Coven. Easily the youngest contestant at age 22, Gigi has been doing drag since the age of 15.
Thanks to her costume designer mom, Gigi got her start at some “substance free venues” as she puts it in her VH1 interview. No surprise, as no club is going to let a 15 year old through their doors. While some queens call themselves look queens, Gigi truly is one, as really her main drag experience was through her outfits and looks. She was her own “life-sized Barbie doll” and that was her main source of entertainment.
But don’t expect her to only kill the look challenges. Gigi may not have as much experience performing, but she can still read a queen with no break and lip sync for her life. Gigi is clearly a queen looking for her time in the sun, and we can’t wait to meet her with the group one queens.
Heidi N Closet (Ramseur, NC)
As a queen from the Bible Belt, Heidi is no stranger to having to hide who she is. When closeted men would try to hook up with her, she’d always tell them to stop hiding in the closet. While the N stands for Nina, Heidi tends to go by Heidi N Closet for its resemblance to hiding in the closet.
From such a small town, Heidi never got to play up her fashion as much as she would like, so she’s much stronger performance-wise. The girl can do the pageant wave-like second nature, of course, she’s a performance queen. Heck, the girl’s a comedy queen just based on the reads she already did on her own tooth gap. Nobody better steal her material or someone’s gonna lose a reading challenge fast.
Honestly, if you really want to see why Heidi’s about to be on track to be the next Bianca del Rio minus the insult comic aspect, her VH1 interview compared to the other queens is just a comedy goldmine. She’s humble from being a fairly new queen competing against some bigger names, and she’s got potential to be the dark horse of Drag Race this season.
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RuPaul’s Drag Race season 12 returns to VH1 at 8pm on Friday, February 28th.
