RuPaul Selects Her New Queens

A much anticipated announcement yesterday from Logo, and its flagship series,RuPaul's Drag Race.  Ru has selected her season 9 queens/contestants, and you can meet them here:

Below, the press release with more info about what Ru has in store for us in the coming season:

LOGO’S EMMY® AWARD-WINNING COMPETITION SERIES

“RUPAUL’S DRAG RACE” RU-VEALS CAST

OF GAG-WORTHY NEW SEASON

 

 

Link to All-New Promo:  logotv.com/video-clips/o1pvd9

 

NEW YORK, NY – February 2, 2017 – Emmy® Award-winning host RuPaul is taking the new season of Logo’s "RuPaul's Drag Race" to the nines with the highly anticipated return of the groundbreaking competition series and revealing the next royal court of Queens set to compete for the crown. 

 

"‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ Season 9,” said executive producer RuPaul Charles. “Now more than ever!”

 

Coming this spring, the season nine premiere extravaganza features a shocking opening that will go down as one of the most jaw-dropping moments in “Drag Race” history.  Additionally, it will unveil a court of cut-throat Queens each competing to snatch the crown and strut away with a $100,000 cash prize and the coveted title of “America’s Next Drag Superstar.” Along the way, they’ll face an unpredictable competition and deliverwatercooler moments as these talented ladies of drag join the fabulous 100 Queens who fought for the crown before them.

 

Logo kicked off the season nine cast announcement with a three-day story on the “RuPaul’s Drag Race” Instagram account featuring a behind-the-scenes look at the season nine promo shoot, dropping hints to the day, date and time for the official cast announcement.  The story culminated in a Facebook Live, hosted by “Drag Race” judge Michelle Visage where fans got a first, exclusive interview with season nine Queen, Valentina, before the cast was officially announced.   

 

The 13 Queens who will compete in the pop culture phenomenon that has taken the world by its weave include:

 

• Aja

Brooklyn, New York

TW: @ajathekween, IG: @ajathekween

 

• Alexis Michelle

New York, New York

TW: @AlexisLives, IG: @AlexisLives

 

• Charlie Hides

London, UK

TW: @charliehidestv, IG: @charliehidestv

 

• Eureka O’Hara

Johnson City, TN

TW: @eurekaohara, IG: @eurekaohara

 

• Farrah Moan

Las Vegas, Nevada

TW: @farrahrized, IG: @farrahrized

 

• Jaymes Mansfield

Madison, Wisconsin

TW: @JaymesMansfield, IG: @jaymesmansfield

 

• Kimora Blac

Las Vegas, Nevada

TW: @kimorablac, IG: @kimorablac

 

• Nina Bo'nina Brown

Atlanta, Georgia

TW: @atlsexyslim, IG: @nina_bonina_brown

 

• Peppermint

New York, New York

TW: @Peppermint247, IG: @peppermint247

 

• Sasha Velour

Brooklyn, New York

TW: @sasha_velour, IG: @sashavelour

 

• Shea Coulee

Chicago, IL

TW: @SheaCoulee, IG: @sheacoulee

 

• Trinity Taylor

Orlando, FL

TW: @TrinityTheTuck, IG: @trinitythetuck

 

• Valentina

Los Angeles, CA

TW: @AllofValentina, IG: @allaboutvalentina

 

"RuPaul's Drag Race" season nine is produced by World of Wonder Productions with Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato, Tom Campbell, Steven Corfe, Kate Fisher and RuPaul Charles serving as Executive Producers. Chris McCarthy, Pamela Post and Tim Palazzola are Executive Producers for Logo.

 

For up-to-date “RuPaul’s Drag Race” news and exclusives, join the “RuPaul’s Drag Race” Facebook page or follow #DragRace conversation on Twitter at @RuPaulsDragRace. Follow along with live gifs from the show on Tumblr and additional content on the show’s Instagram page. 

Before the Race with... Ty and Aja

Ty White & Aja Benton
5th Team eliminated,

CBS's The Amazing Race 13

This past April, as The Amazing Race's eleven teams prepared for their upcoming adventure, I had the opportunity to sit with each one. As I met team after team, I was often impressed by their skills and determination. Yet only one team would ultimately bring home the $1 million prize.

This past Sunday, we saw the fifth elimination of this season (following Arthur & Anita, Anthony & Stephanie, Bill & Mark and Marisa & Brooke.) Ty White and Aja Benton are college sweethearts from the University of Michigan, who have had to go it as a long-distance couple ever since Aja moved out to LA to pursue her dreams as an actress and makeup artist while banker Ty remained in Detroit. As I sat with them this past spring -- on the day the teams got their first glimpses of each other -- I observed them snuggled close, holding hands, just happy to be in the same room again together. I asked about their relationship, and just why they thought they would win The Amazing Race.


Must Hear TV: You guys have been dating for nine months but never lived together during that time. So this will be your first chance in a while to spend a good chunk of time together. Is that a good thing?

Aja Benton: It’s a good thing.
Ty White: We’re looking forward to it. We’re very positive.



MHTV: What if you find out you’re not compatible?

TW: We’re hoping that that’s not the case, but if it is, friendship is always a possibility.



MHTV: What are your strengths as a couple and as a team?

TW: We’re determined.



MHTV: Yeah, they all say they’re all determined. Come on. What else?

TW: I’m competitive. I don’t like to lose. I’m going to stick it to the other teams in order to win.



MHTV: What does that mean? Will you go as far as sabotage?

AB: Yeah!
TW: Absolutely. I’m not going to do it outright, because I don’t want to, by sabotaging one team, make nine other teams say, “Look out for them!” It will be underhandedly, and there’ll be a time and place where one team will unfortunately discover my wrath. And hopefully they won’t take it too personally. It’s all in the spirit of the game.



MHTV: What are your other strengths? You’re younger than a lot of the people on this race. And you seem physically fit.

TW: I’ve noticed that. I think that some of the older teams, they’re going to be more methodical, more calculating and maybe not have the instinct that we might have, where the impulses just kick in.



MHTV: Or the strength. This game requires a lot of running around.

TW: Yes. And I’m hoping that pays off for us. I don’t know what they have in store for us, so maybe all of that won’t really matter. Or maybe if it does, it’ll come into effect and help us out a lot, because we’ll be able to use that to our advantage.
AB: And we’re extremely intelligent too. And we work really well together. Because we’re in a long-distance relationship, we communicate in a way that isn’t as easy. Other people see each other every day, so for us, it might be easier for us to work together, because we haven’t gotten tired of each other. Or we haven’t argued as much as the other people have.



MHTV: And you’ve probably had to do a little bit more soul-searching about the relationship to keep it going.

TW: Absolutely. We have to come up with creative ways of being together and staying together. It’s easy when you see someone every day to take them for granted. And us being far apart, we have to come up with all different kinds of ways. Sleeping on the phone together, trying to get closer. Talking. She calls me all the time at work, and text messages. You wouldn’t want to see the amount of text messages we send.



MHTV: Have you traveled abroad together?

AB: We haven’t done much of that. We went to Vegas together once.



MHTV: That doesn’t count, drunken revelry. I mean hard stuff.

TW: Nothing difficult.



MHTV: Have you traveled individually a lot? What did you learn in other countries to apply here?

TW: She has, but I wouldn’t count where I’ve been – Canada and Puerto Rico.
AB: I studied abroad in Ghana for 5 months. And I know how to adapt and assimilate to a certain extent, and submerge yourself in a culture. Especially when you’re trying to accomplish tasks, you have to be careful not to offend people and not to insult their culture.
TW: I’m sure that’s going to play a role.



MHTV: Of the teams I’ve met so far, you’re the only African-Americans. Will that be an advantage or disadvantage?

AB: We’re the only people of color. I was surprised.
TW: I would say I was very surprised, but I like to put a positive spin on it. I’m a glass half full guy. I look at things and I try to figure out how that might play to our advantage, as opposed to disadvantage. And I see us being in other countries where they won’t automatically just assume that we’re American. I’m sure there is some country where we, just the way we carry ourselves, will be obvious.



MHTV: Well, you’ll be carrying around giant backpacks, and followed by a cameraman, so I think they’ll figure it out…

TW: Exactly. But I like to think that it’ll help us out. Especially I like to think somewhere in the African countries. That’ll definitely help us out and play to our advantage. It might be a disadvantage in other countries. I’m looking forward to being everywhere and I think that I’m looking at it and thinking our race may help us.



MHTV: How do your families back in Michigan feel about this?

AB: They’re excited.
TW: Mom is thrilled, my sister is thrilled, and Dad isn’t so excited.
AB: He’s a real skeptic.



MHTV: Well you’re leaving a good job to go do this, in banking.

TW: Yes, and he’s conventional. He does everything by the book, and he’s always been like, “This is my life, this is what I’m going to do.” They’ve always known me to be the one who’s eventually going to take some risk and do something crazy. This just happened to come up, and he’s like, “Rather than working, you’d like to chase this?” But I say, work will be there. I’m coming back. Maybe, hopefully, in a more advanced role. You’ve got to chase some dreams, and you’ve got to do some things to try to leave a mark somewhere.



MHTV: How did you get time out of your lives to do this?

TW: By coming up with a crazy story for work for why I had to leave. I had to tell them – it was the most ridiculous story. I was like, Mom’s sick, and I have to go help.



MHTV: What a horrible, superstitious lie to have to tell!

TW: I just had to come up with the most ridiculous thing I could tell them. And luckily my boss’ boss likes me, and so he was like take care of what you have to take care of, and just come back when you’re ready.



MHTV: So when he tunes in, will he be pissed?

TW: He’ll probably be a little peeved, but I’m going to tell him in a fashion, probably a couple of weeks before we’re on the air. When they tell us we can tell, I’m going to tell him.



MHTV: What was your audition video like?

AB: I was on the beach. It was really silly. I was talking about how I was going to swim to him if they didn’t put us on the show. How I was just going to get over there to him. And how we really needed to do [the show] so that we could spend time together.
TW: I think that’s what actually gave us a leg up on everyone else. I don’t know the dynamics of anyone else’s relationship, but I believe that us being in a long-distance relationship, I think them wanting to see us together and how we interact. I’m sure they want to see if we argue. But I’m excited about it. This whole experience has already been great and wonderful, and I wouldn’t want to spend it with anyone else.

The Amazing Race

Season 13

Sundays at 8 PM Eastern

CBS