The sixth season of RuPaul's Drag Race began airing February 24, 2014. Like the fifth season, the season featured 14 contestants competing for the title of "America's Next Drag Superstar". For the first time in the show's history, the season premiere was split into two episodes; the fourteen queens were split into two groups and the seven queens in each group competed against each other before being united as one group for the third episode.
Santino Rice and Michelle Visage returned as judges. Two new pit crew members, Miles Moody and Simon Sherry-Wood, joined Jason Carter and Shawn Morales. The winner of this season won a prize package that included a supply from Colorevolution Cosmetics and a cash prize of $100,000. This was also the first season where Absolut Vodka and Interior Illusions, Inc. were not sponsors for the show, more specifically for the Untucked episodes. The Interior Illusions Lounge was renamed to the Silver Lounge or FormDecor Lounge. The theme song played during the runway segment every episode was "Sissy That Walk" while the song playing during the credits is "Dance With U", both from the album Born Naked.
The winner of the sixth season of RuPaul's Drag Race was Bianca Del Rio, with Adore Delano and Courtney Act being the runners-up, and BenDeLaCreme being crowned season 6's Miss Congeniality.
Contestants
Ages, names, and cities stated are at time of filming.
+Contestants of RuPaul's Drag Race season 6 and their backgrounds Contestant Age Hometown Outcome Bianca Del Rio 37 New York City, New York Adore Delano 23 Azusa, California Courtney Act 31 West Hollywood, California Darienne Lake 41 Rochester, New York 4th place BenDeLaCreme 31 Seattle, Washington 5th place Joslyn Fox 26 Worcester, Massachusetts 6th place Trinity K. Bonet 22 Atlanta, Georgia 7th place Laganja Estranja 24 Los Angeles, California 8th place Milk 25 New York City, New York 9th place Gia Gunn 23 Chicago, Illinois 10th place April Carrión 24 Guaynabo, Puerto Rico 11th place Vivacious 40 New York City, New York 12th place Kelly Mantle 37 Los Angeles, California 13th place Magnolia Crawford 28 Seattle, Washington
Notes:
Contestant progress
Lip syncs Legend:
Episode Contestants Song Eliminated 1 Kelly Mantle vs. Vivacious "Express Yourself"(Madonna) Kelly Mantle 2 Darienne Lake vs. Magnolia Crawford "Turn the Beat Around"(Vicki Sue Robinson) Magnolia Crawford 3 April Carrión vs. Vivacious "Shake It Up"(Selena Gomez) Vivacious 4 April Carrión vs. Trinity K. Bonet "I'm Every Woman"(Chaka Khan) April Carrión 5 Gia Gunn vs. Laganja Estranja "Head to Toe"(Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam) Gia Gunn 6 Milk vs. Trinity K. Bonet "Whatta Man"(Salt-n-Pepa, En Vogue) Milk 7 BenDeLaCreme vs. Darienne Lake "Point of No Return"(Exposé) None 8 Joslyn Fox vs. Laganja Estranja "Stupid Girls"(Pink) Laganja Estranja 9 Adore Delano vs. Trinity K. Bonet "Vibeology"(Paula Abdul) Trinity K. Bonet 10 Adore Delano vs. Joslyn Fox "Think"(Aretha Franklin) Joslyn Fox 11 BenDeLaCreme vs. Darienne Lake "Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)"(Kelly Clarkson) BenDeLaCreme 12 Adore Delano vs. Bianca Del Rio vs. Courtney Act vs. Darienne Lake "Sissy That Walk"(RuPaul) Darienne Lake
Guest judges Listed in chronological order:
Adam Lambert, singer and actor Mike Ruiz, photographer Khloé Kardashian, television personality Lena Headey, actress Linda Blair, actress Lucian Piane, music producer and composer Sheryl Lee Ralph, actress, singer, and activist Gillian Jacobs, actress Heather McDonald, actress and comedian Eve, rapper and actress Trina, rapper Leah Remini, actress Lainie Kazan, actress and singer Bruce Vilanch, writer and actor Jaime Pressly, actress Chaz Bono, writer and activist Georgia Holt, actress and singer-songwriter Paula Abdul, singer, choreographer and television personality Neil Patrick Harris, actor David Burtka, actor and chef Bob Mackie, fashion designer
Special guests Guests who appeared in episodes, but did not judge on the main stage.
Episode 4 Our Lady J, screenwriter, producer and director
Episode 14 Latrice Royale, Miss Congeniality of season 4 and contestant on All Stars season 1 Alaska, contestant on season 5 Jiggly Caliente, contestant on season 4 Ivy Winters, Miss Congeniality of season 5 Jinkx Monsoon, winner of season 5 Judge Judy, court-show arbitrator, television producer, author, and former prosecutor and court judge (via video message)
Episodes
Controversy
Use of the term "Shemale" in the "Female or She-male?" challenge of episode 4 led to complaints over transphobic slang specifically from the season contestants Gia Gunn and Courtney Act, as well as previous contestants Carmen Carrera, Willam Belli, and Kylie Sonique Love. Logo temporarily removed the episode from all platforms and stopped using "You've got she-mail" as the video message intro. Episode 4 was eventually put back up on streaming services with the "Female or She-male?" mini-challenge segment removed. From Season 7 onwards, the catchphrase "She done already done had herses!" was used as the new video message intro.
Soundtrack
In this season the theme song for the series remains unchanged from the original season, only being condensed to a shorter length to allow for more show time. As in previous seasons, while RuPaul enters walking the runway before the judging each episode his song "Cover Girl" plays; an instrumental version of the song continues to play while he introduces the judges and celebrity guests. The main musical change-up of the season comes during the runway while each contestant struts, modeling their looks. As in each previous season, the song changes to promote more album and/or single sales for RuPaul. The song this season played during the segment is "Sissy That Walk", from RuPaul's album Born Naked. Also from the album "Dance with U" plays at the end of each episode while the remaining queens dance on the runway, exiting the stage.
Born Naked essentially serves as a soundtrack for the season. Its release coincided with the season premiere, primarily for promotional reasons. However, in the time just after Logo's release of the season 6 "Meet the Queens" interviews, which announced and introduced the season's cast, an album entitled The CoverGurlz was released digitally presented by RuPaul, meant to promote the upcoming season. The single "Oh No She Better Don't" was also released during the season.
RuPaul Presents: The CoverGurlz
RuPaul Presents: The CoverGurlz is a 2014 compilation album by entertainer RuPaul, featuring the season 6 cast of his show RuPaul's Drag Race. The album was released on January 28, 2014. The album was only released digitally to iTunes and Amazon.
Background
Although previous winners and top-three contestants have been given the chance to collaborate with RuPaul either on a song[a] or by performing in one of the artist's music videos, respectively, this album marks the first time in RuPaul's Drag Race history that an album has been produced which features every contestant from the season.
The compilation consists of 14 covers of songs previously released by RuPaul, performed by all of the RuPaul's Drag Race season 6 contestants. It features tracks originally from RuPaul's albums Champion and Glamazon, as well as his extended play SuperGlam DQ, and the 2013 non-album single "Lick It Lollipop". The album also features an outtake from Champion entitled "Let's Turn the Night", reproduced with new vocals by Jason Carter and Miles Davis Moody of the RuPaul's Drag Race pit crew. April Carrión's cover of "Sexy Drag Queen" also features Jipsta from the original version of the song.[b]
As promotion for both the season's contestants and the, then, upcoming season, each contestant is also featured in a short music video for their cover ending with a montage of clips from their respective audition tapes. World of Wonder also produced a music video for the pit crew's song "Let's Turn the Night", which also promoted RuPaul's, then, recently released fragrance Glamazon, released as part of a limited edition make-up line with Colorevolution Cosmetics.
Release history
Before the compilation's release, RuPaul confirmed on Twitter that a new album, in which each of the Season 6 contestants covered a song from his catalog, would be coming out.
Reception
The week of release the compilation album debuted at number 6 on the iTunes Dance album chart.
Track listing (All writing credits adapted from the liner notes of the albums the songs originally appeared.)
Notes
References
External links (U.S.) Official website (Canada) Official Facebook page