I was relaxing in my apartment with my roommate and our fabulous drag queen friend last night where the topic at hand was the upcoming 13th season of RuPaul’s Drag Race.
In the middle of our discussion it dawned on me that they have yet to reveal who the guest judges will be this go around which is strange given how close it is to premiering on New Year’s Day.
Entertainers from many platforms have sat beside RuPaul, Michelle Visage and other Drag Race judges for over a decade however the ones who usually get the most attention appear in the season premiere each year.
This started in season 9 when Lady Gaga was its first guest where the queens had to channel many of her iconic looks, much to her amazement. Tons of emotional moments happened with the “Born This Way” singer who acted as more of a mentor than a judge to the queens especially in the program’s sister series Untucked.
Christina Aguilera, Miley Cyrus, Nicki Minaj and most recently Ricky Martin have followed suit in kicking off seasons 10, 11, 12 and All Stars 5, respectively.
The “Genie in a Bottle” songstress fooled everyone on stage when she pretended to be Farrah Moan, Miley dressed in disguise as a production assistant in the werk room before one of the queens figured out who she was and Ricky was part of the reading challenge which made the AS5 queens all hot and bothered while he simply stood there.
Then there was Nicki whose jaw kept dropping to the floor while the first seven queens in s12 (the other seven competed in the following week’s episode) spit individual verses on the song “I’m That Bitch”. This was followed by the lip sync to her iconic track “Starships” where Widow Von Du literally broke her body in order to win against eventually finalist Gigi Goode.
So clearly the first judge of each season whets our appetites for what’s to come. Question is, who will take on this important position for season 13? Here are five that we might be seeing next week.
Taylor Swift. The country-turned-pop queen would make a big splash if she appeared on Drag Race. For one, she’s good friends with consistent judge Todrick Hall and came out with an LGBTQ anthem in 2019 called “You Need to Calm Down”. Plus it’s good timing to promote her latest album Evermore which once again topped the Billboard charts in December.
Lil Nas X. Nas took over the world in 2019 with his record-breaking track “Old Town Road” and has continued to keep his fan base blissfully happy with songs like “Rodeo” and “Holiday”. On a personal note the openly gay rapper/singer would be fun eye candy to watch as the queens make their way down the runway.
Mariah Carey. Again, thinking in lines of promotion here as one of the most talked about books of 2020 was her very revealing memoir The Meaning of Mariah Carey. Also she’s, you know, a major pop icon who has yet to have one of her songs lip synced on Drag Race and it would be amazing to see her reaction should two of the queens do “Fantasy”, “Heartbreaker”, “We Belong Together”, the list goes on.
Ariana Grande. Yes, she guest judged before on season 7 almost six years ago. But her career since then has taken leaps and bounds to where she would be the perfect fit for the season 13 opener. Also she has a cheeky song called “Positions” which fits perfectly for the kind of lip sync performance we’d want to see from this talented new cast.
Beyonce. Listen, a girl can dream. This is 99.99999999 percent not going to happen but I’m simply throwing it out there in the universe in case it does.