Drag Race U.K. is enjoying a lovely moment in the spotlight thanks to “UK Hun,” a nonsensical, Eurovision-inspired pop song that is currently sitting at No. 27 on the official U.K. Singles Chart. Its popularity is a testament to drag queens’ ability to turn a silly song into an earworm hit. But what about the queens who have genuine vocal chops? We’re about to find out — Drag Race production company World of Wonder is currently hard at work on a new international drag queen singing competition.
The upcoming series, Queen of the Universe, will premiere on Paramount Plus, the new streaming platform from ViacomCBS launching March 4. During an investor presentation yesterday, President of MTV Entertainment Group Chris McCarthy announced the new series among a slew of other reality shows in development for the platform. Addorcing to Variety, Queen of the Universe “promises to be a singing competition like no other, wherein drag queens from all around the world compete to see who really rules the drag universe.” A release date for the series has not yet been announced.
A vocal competition feels like a natural progression for the ever-expanding Drag Race franchise, which has included some form of singing challenge every season. In recent years, winning the “Rusical” challenge has been a must for whichever queen considers herself the musical theater aficionado of the bunch. And any Drag Race herstorian would quickly point out that the final challenge for any season will always find the top queens writing and recording their own original verses for one of RuPaul’s songs.
Drag Race has also kicked off the singing careers of more than a few talented queens, from season 6 runner-ups Courtney Act and Adore Delano to All Stars 3 winner Trixie Mattel, whose three studio albums have each charted in the U.S.
On the current season, New York-based queen Rosé just secured her first win for a knockout parody rendition of Barbra Streisand’s famous Funny Girl hit “Don’t Rain on My Parade.” (Rosé performs alongside season 12 fan favorite Jan in the three-queen girl group Stephanie’s Child.) Oliva Lux also impressed competitors this season with some perfectly executed runs while recording her own verse for this season’s Rusical, which hilariously spoofed the history of social media.
While it may be a while before Queen of the Universe hits our screens, Drag Race fans still have much to get excited for, including an upcoming sixth iteration of All Stars (also set to premiere on the Paramount Plus platform), a third season of Drag Race U.K., second seasons for Canada’s Drag Race and Drag Race Holland, as well as debut seasons for Drag Race España and Drag Race Down Under, the latest international edition that RuPaul herself will host. Looks like the steady expansion of World of Wonder’s Drag Race empire won’t be slowing down anytime soon.
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