The mystery has been solved!
Shangela and Raja have spilt some major T on RuPaul’s Drag Race in their first joint interview in 10 years.
The two legendary stars sat down with Entertainment Weekly to discuss their iconic ‘rivalry’ on the third season of the Emmy-winning series, the three-week breaking in filming and the drama behind tulle-gate.
Shangela, who made her comeback eight years later on All Stars 3, recalled when she infamously popped out of a giant box and surprised her season three sisters.
“They said to listen for Ru’s keyword, which is ‘ridonculous,'” revealed Shangela. “When RuPaul says ridonculous, [I had to] jump up out the box…. girl, Miss Ru took about 14 takes before she did ridonculous after I had been rolled in!”
“I was so hot and sweaty in the box, and I could hear the girls talking. I could recognize some voices…. Raja has a very iconic voice, so I was like, that’s Raja! I knew her, I knew Manila, I was just hanging out in there waiting!”
Like the other contestants, Raja wasn’t ecstatic to see the return of Shangela, but that was down to some drama and conflama between the two that happened off-screen. According to Raja, who ultimately won the season, they came into conflict pre-season because Shangela borrowed one of her friend’s wigs and returned it in knots.
“That tension built up made for amazing television,” admitted Raja. “People still today, 10 years later, tend to think of us as being these rivals when oftentimes I really just want to make out with her.”
The stars also reminisced on the three-week break that occurred midway through season three, which Alexis Mateo recently explained was down to an incident between Shangela and Mimi Imfurst.
“To this day, World of Wonder have never had another incident like that one,” Alexis said on a 2019 episode of Hey Qween. “There is a reason why we got a break of three weeks after that episode.
“It was very pageant, it was crazy, it was out of control, it was real. I’m gonna say one thing: baby Shangela, I don’t fuck with her. She got power baby.”
When the queens resumed filming, they received ceramic containers emblazoned with the word “dolls” from RuPaul.
“I took my dolls container to my Tic-Tac lunch with Ru, and I asked her to sign it at the end of the segment,” continued Raja. “I still have my 10-year-old Tic-Tac inside of the dolls container…
“I’ve opened it recently and what was once an orange Tic-Tac is now a black Tic-Tac.”
During their conversation, Shangela also pressed Raja to admit the truth about her Hair Extravaganza runway.
In the 11th episode of season three, the contestants were tasked with making a sculptural outfit made entirely out of wigs. During Untucked, Yara Sofia informed Shangela that Raja used tulle fabric to support her skirt, which led to a confrontation between the two in the Interior Illusions lounge.
“There was tulle! There was a layer of it that held the hair in place,” admitted Raja.
“What I did with the hair was I pelted it, kind of like dreadlocking, where you tease hair so it becomes like felt, so I put a layer of sheer tulle underneath to keep the shape. But, yes, there was tulle!”
Entertainment Weekly’s interview with Shangela and Raja is now available on all streaming platforms.
Latest
