But will it be in drag, or not? That is the question.
Mikelle StreetThough RuPaul has been in show business for 30 years, the entertainer has never hosted Saturday Night Live. Yes, she’s made a cameo appearance and yes there have been moments on the show heavily influenced by RuPaul’s Drag Race, but the queen has never gotten the full hosting treatment. No drag performer has in fact! Well on February 8, that changes.
For the first-time ever RuPaul will perform as host on the late night show, with the special musical guest Justin Bieber. Yes, I’m sorry ladies, there will be no performance of “Kitty Girl” or “Call Me Mother” at the end of the show. Instead, there will be the Biebs doing a performance of … I don’t know, maybe that new song “Yummy.” Please contain your excitement!
The news comes at what is really looking to be the height of Ru’s long career. She’s been presiding over the ever-expanding Drag Race for over a decade, has recently been bagging the cover of magazines like Interview and Vanity Fair, while being profiled in Vogue. While her second attempt at a daytime talk show didn’t go well, she just released a brand new series with Netflix’s AJ and the Queen. She’s a busy lady!
The Saturday Night Live gig is in promotion of AJ and the Queen in fact. Sadly, whether we will see Ru in drag has not been confirmed yet.
As we all know by now, if Ru isn’t getting paid, or it doesn’t serve her directly, she’s not getting into drag. That said, this serves her and her show directly! It is for AJ and the Queen. And for the marquee surrounding the show, she’s gotten into Ruby Red drag — Ruby is the drag persona Ru plays on AJ and the Queen as opposed to Monster, the drag persona that hosts Drag Race— and pulled out all the stops.
That said, Ru seems too much of a perfectionist about her drag to be doing a quick change between skits for anyone. What Raven does to her mug and Curtis William does to her wigs is art, and art takes time! So we aren’t betting any money on it!