Season 11 of RuPaul’s Drag Race has finally come to an end. Spoiler alert ahead for anyone that hasn’t watched the finale and has avoided social media and friends at all costs since Thursday night.
Yvie Oddly became the first queen from Denver, Colorado to win RuPaul’s Drag Race. She bested fellow front runner Brooke Lynn Hytes in the end for the coveted crown. A’Keria C. Davenport and Silky Nutmeg Ganache were eliminated in the first lip sync rounds of the emotional and dramatic finale.
I’m extremely happy with this conclusion. Yvie was my pick from the get-go and that never wavered as the competition continued. There were others that stepped it up (A’Keria, Nina West, Vanessa Vanjie Matteo) but Yvie was an unstoppable force that had it in the bag the minute she walked into the werk room.
Yvie was the Sharon Needles of this season. That unique persona that has a spark to it that can’t be dimmed. Everything about her was fascinating including her unbelievable fashions, honesty and back story that made us fall in love with her instantly.
She also had no problem calling every single queen out who was problematic on the show, notably Silky. Did it get to be a bit much from time to time? To a certain degree yes. The fighting that occurred this season was a lot to handle, however I admired Yvie for standing up for herself through and through.
She also stood her ground for who she is as a performer while saying what the majority of the RPDR audience was feeling about her competitors who were constantly making excuses for how they were doing.
I also loved that she wasn’t on the top all the way through like some of the past winners including Bianca Del Rio and Aquaria. Love both but they were never really in danger of being in the bottom and it’s good to see a winner go through the chutes and ladders that this show is all about.
Her Whoopi Goldberg impression was terrible during Snatch Game. So what did she do about it? She brought it in a lip sync battle against Brooke that will go down in RPDR history as one of the best there ever was. Hitting rock bottom to only climb back up by episode’s end is nothing short of admirable and she was able to keep that energy going after such a mighty fall.
Yvie easily won the competition, at least in my eyes, during the final five challenge when they had to do the music video. She was the only memorable queen from that entire clip, and it helped propel her momentum into finale night that eventually secured her the win.
Heck, even Brooke knew that she was going to win when VH1 released the footage from the actual crowning that took place in San Francisco on Thursday night (the taped finale happened in Los Angeles a couple of weeks ago). The best part was that Brooke looked totally happy for her sister as opposed to being petty or frustrated that she wasn’t getting it.
Bottom line, Yvie slayed from start to finish and she was the right queen to win RPDR season 11. Here’s hoping she does the most with it as her career right now looks pretty damn good.
Congrats Yvie!
This is the opinion of one contributing writer and not that of Instinct Magazine or other Contributing Writers.