Thirteen new contestants enter the Werk Room. For the main challenge, the contestants face-off in a series of six Lip-Sync for Your Life contests.[1] Joining RuPaul and Michelle Visage on the judging panel are Carson Kressley and Ross Mathews. Following are the contests and results:
According to Gay Times, Denali "serv[ed] kicks, flips and splits" while wearing ice skates.[5] After the episode aired, Denali shared a video of her ice skating and lip-syncing to "When I Grow Up".[5] The video received approximately 1.2 million views by March 2021.[6]
The episode's airing resulted in "Rumors" becoming a "trending topic" on Twitter and seeing an increase of steams by 264.97 percent, according to Variety.[7]
Fashion
Joey Jay wore a red bodysuit or leotard with "voluminous" chicken feather sleeves,[8] garters, and red beaded high-heeled boots. The outfit shed during the lip-sync contest. Jennifer Goldberg of the Phoenix New Times said Joey Jay's outfit "wasn't exactly conducive, it turned out, to an impromptu performance".[9]
Kate Kulzick of The A.V. Club gave the episode a rating of 'A-'[10] and said it "was exciting and fun, subverting expectations and keeping the queens on their toes".[11] Kevin O'Keeffee of Xtra Magazine wrote, "It will come as no surprise that I love this premiere, the best in five years. It's my favourite regular-season premiere since Season 8, and my favourite including the spinoffs since All Stars 2. It's fast-paced, fun, genuinely surprising and gives us a lot of hope for what could come next."[12] Evan Hecht of The Diamondback said fans have referred to the episode's challenge as "RuPaul's Stanford prison experiment".[13]
Stephen Daw included the "When I Grow Up" contest in Billboard's 2022 list of ten lip-syncs on the show "that were highway robbery". He wrote, "Both queens absolutely killed this lip sync, no doubt. But let's make one thing clear — Denali did it while wearing literal blades on her feet. Lip syncing in ice skates on a stage (not made out of ice, mind you) without tripping or falling is a ridiculous accomplishment on Denali's part, and one that should have been acknowledged with a win."[14] Sam Damshenas of Gay Times said the episode was the season's best in 2023.[15] He also said Denali "killed" her lip-sync"[5] and Tina Burner's performance of "Lady Marmalade" was among moments that earned her "rave reviews".[16]
Paul McCallion of Vulture gave the episode a rating of three out of five stars.[17] The website's Justin Curto said the lip-sync to "The Pleasure Principle" was the season's "diva moment", with both contestants successfully "competing to embody the diva at hand".[18] Rodney Ho of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution said Tamisha Iman "pulled off very respectable Janet Jackson dance moves" during the performance.[19] Curto said "Rumors" was the season's "song we've been waiting to hear" and opined, "Just imagine the shrieks you would've heard if the gay bars had been open."[18]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
