Drag Race UK’s Sally™: ‘I didn’t expect to make it past the first episode’

The one-of-a-kind kooky Newcastle queen of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK season seven, Sally, has been sent packing.

It’s arguably the season’s most shocking elimination to date, considering she was one of the earliest badge winners after slaying the design challenge in episode two. She also placed ‘high’ in the acting challenge, and was yet to fall below safe.

And yet here we are. After her performance as Smeg in ‘Peter Pansy: The Rusical’ grabbed the judges’ attention for the wrong reasons, she was put in the bottom two alongside Brighton babe Tayris Mongardi. After an impressive performance – on both parts – to “Don’t Rain On My Parade” by Shirley Bassey, Sally was told to sashay away. Not before RuPaul could tell her what a star she was, though.

“Performance challenges are my Achilles’ heel,” Sally told PinkNews hours after her elimination. “When I got to the Rusical, I was like, this is the hurdle that I need to jump over to get to the end essentially.”

Sally talks to PinkNews about RuPaul’s response to her and how it changed her perception of her drag, and gets emotional talking about the bond she built with her Drag Race UK season seven sisters.

PinkNews: Sally! How are you feeling after your elimination episode? How was it to watch back?

Sally: Miserable! I’m very happy with the situation and the outcome. I think it’s allowed me to realise that I actually am a good performer. Going up against Tayris in the lip-sync, for seven months I’ve been like, ‘Yeah I actually am a s**t performer’. That’s how I basically ruminated on my drag. I literally just couldn’t fathom the fact that I did a good job in the lip-sync. I was just like, ‘No, there’s no way I’m going to survive this.’ In my head I was like, it’s just going to basically be shots of Tayris devouring me. I [thought] I actually am holding my own against her a little bit, which is good.

It was a arguably the best lip-sync of the series. A lot of fans had you down as a top four contender. Did you think you’d get that far?

Sally: I went into Drag Race with very low expectations. Your dreams can be taken away within an instant if they don’t like your drag or aesthetic. I didn’t expect to make it past the first episode, let alone win the second one. I have such a low opinion of myself, and low self-esteem. Even if I am good at something I will find a way to be like, ‘Oh I need to do better this way or that way. Oh, the hat’s falling off my head, I should have done this, I should have done that.’ I need to realise that my expectations were on the ground.

So when I got to the Rusical, I was like this is the hurdle that I need to jump over to get to the end essentially because performance challenges are my Achilles’ heel. This [was] the only thing [I was] worried about. So for me, mama, I was just like, this is the hurdle. So I wish I could have gone all the way. I’m really sad that I didn’t and I’m just hoping that I did everyone proud.

To have those feelings, and then be told by RuPaul that you are a character and a star, that must have been affirming.

Sally: I’ve had such a weird little journey in drag and not to dog on myself again, [but] I’ve had more failures than successes in drag and I think that that is so important to say to people. If you’re a two-month-old drag queen who’s winning five crowns and is like, ‘Mama, I’m sickening hunty boots slay,’ it’s not always going to be like that. The journey is a winding road of hardships, failures, things that are going to go wrong, and that’s OK. It’s allowed me to realise I actually am a star. Trying to navigate the voices that have tried to push me down and [said I am] not worth the time and effort and energy, for RuPaul – who is the boss and CEO of drag – to turn around and go, ‘You’re a star’. Mama, it puts the voice at bay. It lets me sleep at night.

Has that moment changed your perception of yourself and your drag?

Sally: The thing that I’ve learned the most is that I need to be kinder to myself. To understand that I was good enough to get cast. I was good enough to win a badge. I was good enough to stand in a room with [other contestants]… these people have experience. Obviously I was going around in my head, I was like, ‘Catrin’s famous on TikTok. Paige has been on Broadway. Bones is literally the queen of Soho. Tayris has won vogue balls and pageants.’ 

I know I’m in my head, I know who these people are and I’m against them. Genuinely for me to be able to hear those words from RuPaul has allowed me to go, ‘right OK. I actually am deserving to be in the same position as these people.’

When RuPaul calls someone a star it usually means she wants them back for All Stars. Are you down?

Sally: Oh, yes, maybe. Haha. I would love to do it, but I need a little bit more time in the oven, so when I go back I look like the ‘Ash Baby Meme’. Imagine my entrance look…

Before you sashayed away, everyone came up on stage and hugged you, so you must have built a sense of being equal with them during the show. Talk to me about the bonds you made.

Sally: It really took me back when they did that. I think about that moment quite a lot. I remember nearly falling to my knees when they all came up. I went to Drag Race with not many friends, I really did. I learned so quickly there that I actually need to cherish the people that I have around my close circle. The fact that 12 strangers really took a shine to my personality and really enjoyed my company and really saw something in me? The fact that it stopped being a polite golf clap when people went home to literally everyone coming up on stage and hugging us? That’s a lot to me.

I’m so glad I did Drag Race because I’m now allowed to be able to have such a sisterhood with so many people and be friends with people who are so fierce and so cool. When I go home I’m going to be watching that on repeat because to me, that’s the thing that got me at the end. I had to literally compose myself again and then say my silly little exit line.

You seemed to have a particular bond with Tayris. On the mainstage, after you spoke to RuPaul about getting in your own head, she held your hand.

Sally: I knew who she was and knew what she did. We’ve been on prospective cast lists every season it seems. We’ve been rumoured [to be on Drag Race] together for a very long time. That’s how we followed each other. The fact that she really gravitated towards me? She said in one of her YouTube videos that I reminded her of her sisters back home and that’s the highest compliment for me because I love Brighton drag. Brighton drag is so fierce, it’s so camp, it’s so incredible.

I was so enamored by her. Her energy was just so infectious in the Werk Room. I just got so close to her. She’s so passionate about what she stands for in drag and how she presents her drag and how she visualises her drag. Being queer is a protest and it’s always going to be a protest. It’s a political statement. She got this new school take on political protest within drag that is so refreshing and needed right now. It’s so encapsulating. I found myself just drawn to her and like her wacky ways and just being able to just have such a security with her at Drag Race was just something that I could never thought of happening.

That is so lovely. One final question – on Fashion Photo RuView, Raven gave you a boot for your ‘Having It Large: Oversized Fashion’ runway, saying it wasn’t oversized. So, settle this: was it oversized?

Sally: I only take criticism from people who actually wear fashion. So um, thank you so much, really appreciate it! I do remember her looks on season two and All Stars for that matter, so… love you, Diva! I’m glad that Raja loves me though, that’s fierce.

RuPaul’s Drag Race UK continues on Thursdays on BBC iPlayer and WOW Presents Plus internationally.

This interview has been condensed for clarity.

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