Would Chai T Grande Join ‘Drag Race Philippines: Slaysian Royale’ Season 2? | Werk Room Weekly

Would Chai T Grande Join ‘Drag Race Philippines: Slaysian Royale’ Season 2? | Werk Room Weekly

Hi everyone, I’m Chaiti Grande and you can get your Drag Race fits on page six. She’s sweet, she’s spicy, she’s steaming hot. It’s Chai T Grande. Chai, thanks so much for being here today. Hi, my love. How’s it going? Okay, I got to know, how are you feeling now that your episodes aired and fans have seen your run on Drag Race UK? It’s it’s bittersweet, right? like I wouldn’t have wanted to have like left the competition at this point, but that’s just the nature of the game. So, on the one hand, of course, I’m really disappointed, but also looking back and reflecting on all the things I’ve done and I have achieved, I’m also super proud of myself. Um, I feel like I’ve got some really good strong runways the season. And even though my performance in the gold group maybe wasn’t objectively judged as being, you know, strong, I believe it was. I will die on the hill and say that I shouldn’t have been in the bottom three, but that’s just my opinion. Um, and yeah, the the the fan support, you know, off the back of that has been through the roof. So, I’m I’m like I’m humbled. I’m thankful and yeah, just it’s a whole roller coaster of emotions, right? Like it’s I don’t want it to come to an end in terms of the actual TV show, but that’s just how the cookie has crumbled for me. And um it’s time to make time to make lemonade out of lemons. I’m mixing all my idiom. And you are. You are. And I’m glad you brought up the girl group challenge because I do want to talk about that. I loved your verse and she ate that. You looked gorgeous. First off, bangs are your look, girl. We got to like keep going with the bangs. They were soar energy. It’s like um I love Lisa from Blackpink. So for me, it’s like I was literally um recreating her rockstar music video look with with like the fierce bang and the silver. So yeah, I that was like how I felt powerful um because I look up to her so much as a as a tie diva. No, I was and I was just going to say your your line specifically where you were saying like you know you’re double not half and you know you making history as the first tie queen on UK like what has that felt like and you know what did that lyric mean for you personally? So like being the first tide queen on Drag Race UK is it’s I mean it’s like I’m quite literally a part of her history in that sense which is so cool to think about you know I don’t wake up in the morning and think today I’m like my intent is to be a representative of PC’s and of Thai people. It’s not that. It’s just that I hope that the art and that the performance and the personality that I put out there is something that people are proud of, you know, and then want to sort of claim as being, oh, that’s a Thai representative or a mixed race representative. So, it’s not something that I wake up and think today I’m going to do this. It’s more just like I hope I can be myself and do it to a point that people are receptive of it. But yeah, in terms of the lyrics, um, so the double not half lyric, it’s it’s kind of a mantra I’ve had in the back of my mind for a a few years now because growing up mixed race in London, you know, my mom’s from from Darren, which is a kind of a mining town of England and my dad’s from Bangkok. So growing up here, I always felt less connected to to my Thai side because I can’t speak Thai and my dad used to work super long hours when we were growing up. So I really wasn’t kind of getting that side of the culture, you know, through osmosis and through learning. Growing up, I always felt less than. But, you know, now at the age of 32, um, I’m really reming it, especially through my drag because even though I might not be able to speak the language, you know, I’m still like my my paternal family are all there. The blood going through my veins is still Thai and English. I’m not less than. It’s just it’s both. So that’s how I kind of turned it on its head and made it double not half, which is also kind of like a nice nod to, you know, coffees and chai and beverages. So I I tried to kind of mix in those puns because, you know, we’re drag queens. We love a pun. Yes. Yes. And I mean, I it’s, you know, you really showed your culture off so beautifully throughout the season. I mean, like your premiere look was inspired by like the national flower of Thailand, you know, obviously your performance in the talent show, but I also love this like nod to pop culture you have in a lot of your looks. like you know you had your hometown look which drew inspiration from comic book characters. Your promo look you said had like Pokemon kind of inspiration. What’s kind of the inspiration for you also with like pop culture being injected into your drag? How I do drag? Like a lot of my lens is kind of the merging of things. So whether it’s culture or heritage or mixing kind of high fashion with anime, um, pop culture with history, like I I love pulling things together and seeing what comes from that gray space and turning that into a concept or a look or a performance. So I think part of chai is definitely that that merging, that blending. But in terms of pop culture, like I find huge huge amounts of inspiration, especially recently from from K-pop and J-pop and Tapo. Like I I love looking to all of those icons, you know, XG, Blackpink, Esper, Larapim. I I’m such a big fan of the music that they bring out and like the thought and consideration and high fashion that they all, you know, completely execute on a daily basis throughout all of their projects. So, I think that’s where I’m mainly kind of getting all my sort of inspiration from at the moment. But, um, yeah, like I said, it’s always like a merging of of so many different things. Comic books, video games, fantasy, historical novels, you know, it’s it’s all the above. No, 100%. And we see it like Yeah, I loved scrolling through your Instagram and seeing like, you know, the the performances you’ve done to like you said, Lisa to Blackpink. It’s just it’s so much fun. And I mean, even your drag name, you’ve said, you know, Grande is an homage to Ariana in a way. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I have to ask you, f era for Ariana. Favorite album for me would have to be Sweeten. It’s such a good It’s such a good one. If you had to if you got to perform an Ariana track like on the stage as a lip sync, what which one would it be? Into you 100%. Oh my gosh. you know, yes, one of the best pop songs to have ever been created, released, just chef’s kiss. The kind of music that I like to perform to and also listen to is very upbeat, high octane, like I want to be dancing in a club even if I’m walking to the library, you know? It’s like that’s where I come to life. So, for me, into you is just like such a good music video. It’s one of my favorite songs. Um, you talked about your runways. You had so many looks that I loved this season. Your cuddly wly look literally had me like frothing at the mouth. It was so good. This week’s runway, even this like deconstructed Parisian tailoring look. You had mentioned on Instagram that you had some like last minute mishaps getting it ready. Can you walk us through like what happened with that outfit and like how you adapted it once you realized you couldn’t do the full original concept? Yeah, so with the headpiece, I had just completely I was basically really overweight with the stuff that I brought to Jaguar. So, we’re all given an amount so that it’s like a fair fair playing field and I I I just kind of accidentally left it in the confiscated bag. So, that was why I didn’t have the headpiece. Um, and then with the bolo tie, so it was meant to be like a functioning mechanism where I would pull it and the dress where I when I was first meant to come out the runway was meant to be a gown and then the string would pull up the dress to what it was up on the runway as I wore it. So, basically, one of the um the strings I had just pulled a bit too forcefully and kind of practice and I just had to kind of commit then to it either being low or high. And I felt like the more interesting silhouette was the kind of the ruffle because it kind of gave Midwestern sort of almost like cowboy with the the sort of the pet silhouette with the bolo tie. So, so to me it felt it made sense to kind of commit to the shorter one versus the longer one. And thank god I did because I lip synced in it. So I needed to be able to move. She needed to have access. She needed um this episode I thought it was also really beautiful. You kind of talked about how you’d gone through a tough year. You had gone through a breakup. You know a feeling of like a loss of selfworth. How did your drag kind of help you to rebuild your confidence and you know going through this competition? Yeah. I mean there’s there’s two things there. I think my drag many people have described their drag as an armor. And for me, it quite literally is something that I can put on and even if I’m having a really really bad day or, you know, a not so sort of confident day as Jake, when I put it on and become chai, I no one can touch me. That’s kind of how I feel. But the thing about Drag Race is that you can’t just separate the two because you’re under such a microscope and you’re being pushed physically and mentally with all these challenges and you know they’re long grueling days of work. So you can’t just decompartmentalize and go to one one or the other because the show really is about the combined product of you as a person and also you as a performer. So, I think that’s probably what was starting to come through um in the recent episodes where my inner sort of dialogue or demons, if you will, that I kind of battle as Jake out of drag, I think they were starting to seep through and impact my confidence and my performance as Chai because, you know, it’s like I said, it’s a really it’s a pressure cooker in there. So you’ve got to have your wits about you and it will put you know the most strongest most strong sort of mentally strong person it will push them because that is just the nature of filming what we film. So um yeah I think there is no separating it and um I I want to do the work that I need to do to be able to properly heal from from you know that past situation that I that I talked about on the show. Um, I’m obviously it’s a shame that it had an impact because that’s my past impacting my present and my future, but you know, I need to heal properly from it. It was, you know, a seven-year relationship and it didn’t end very nicely either. So, you know, it was it was only a few months before I got the call, so I still very much was dealing with that. Um, but I’m proud enough that I was able to at least put it aside for for a few weeks, right? so I could, you know, get through, have fun, and when times got tough, that’s when it came to the surface. And, you know, we’re all human, and you can’t help that. And everyone’s got their demons. So, yeah, we work, we move, we we pro, we progress. Yes. Yes. Okay. I have a little bit of time left with you. I just want to ask you a quick question. So, you have mentioned that you worked in PR before or still do in a little bit. Um, I if you if we had to open the library just real quick on your season seven sisters, which sister do you think could use a PR manager the most? And which do you think is her own best publicist? Oh, Paige is definitely her own best publicist. She is so switched on and she knows exactly what to do. She makes the most of every situation whether it’s a shoot, even if she and I are out for drinks and we bump into Tiara Sky and I tell she her phone is out and we’re recording a Tik Tok. She is so switched on and I completely respect and admire her so much. So that would be my answer to the second question. Who needs PR? I mean my absolute best friend in the world. I’m going to say pasti because I would hope that their PR manager would advise to give her some heel straps so the shoes stay on because once she’s got shoe straps on, she’s going to be unstoppable. I’m dead. I’m dead. And and did did you watch Drag Race Philippines Slian Royale this season or No, I um I think I have two episodes left just because it’s been so busy. I just want to let you know that we are rooting if they ever do a season two. It was iconic. We need you on that season. You your sister Wong held it down in season one. We need you there season two. So would you ever do it if there was a season two? Yeah, of course. I mean, first of all, I’m like so humbled that you would even kind of consider me for that. And, you know, other people have said it as well because those girls do not play. So, to even be considered as being part of that realm is is is really really cool and really touching. But yeah, of course, I mean, I would love to do it. The challenges are so good and it’s just like what a way to celebrate being Asian other than, you know, than Slian Royale. I love Mama Pal as well. Um, and yeah, just it was such a good season. I can’t wait to finish it. Actually, I need to get back on that minute. I have some time. You’re in for a treat. Well, Chai, thank you so much for joining us and spilling all the chai tea. We appreciate you as always. Thanks so much. Thank you so much. Thank you. We fit you soon in

Get ready to sip the tea… and maybe a little chai! “Werk Room Weekly” host Jason Cerin sat down with “RuPaul’s Drag Race UK” Season 7 queen Chai T Grande to talk about her spicy run on the show. From honoring Ariana Grande with her name to repping Thailand on the Drag Race stage, Chai opens up about her creative inspirations, a few runway mishaps, and how drag helped her rebuild her confidence. Watch the full video for Chai’s thoughts on her “She Ate That” verse, if she would ever do “Drag Race Philippines: Slaysian Royale,” and what’s next for this sweet and steamy queen.

Watch our recap of episode 5 of “RuPaul’s Drag Race UK” Season 7 here: https://youtu.be/-gFkiI7-ga4

Read more at https://pagesix.com/video/chai-t-grande-on-rupauls-drag-race-uk-s7-ep-5-runway-mishap-slaysian-royale-and-ariana-grande/

#werkroomweekly #dragraceuk #chaitgrande

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