Who Will Win Season 15 of RuPaul’s Drag Race?
By Duncan Kilburn on April 14, 2023
Season 15 of RuPaul’s Drag Race is nearing the finish line with one of the show’s strongest top four in recent memory. It’s become a neck-and-neck race between Anetra, Luxx London Noir, Mistress Isabelle Brooks, and Sasha Colby. Looking at how each of them has done over the season may tell us how the final moments of the season will shake down.
Mistress embodies classic southern pageant drag down to a tea, with her huge eyeliner, hair and over-the-top campy outfits. Mistress was the perfect choice to be the first to represent the Brooks drag dynasty on Drag Race. Mistress made a name for herself on the season by not being afraid to say exactly how she felt. Coming to butt heads with the twins, Sugar and Spice, thinking that they were just Tik Tok stars who knew how to do make-up and not “real” drag performers. This changed, and all three started to get along to the point that Mistress adopted Sugar and Spice as her drag daughters, Showing Mistress has a softer side. Mistress had her biggest feud with Loosey LaDuca feeling that Loosey was not showing her authentic self and causing the two to bicker until Loosey’s elimination. This divided the fan base as some felt Mistress was acting like a bully while others said Mistress had a point and she made great TV. With only one win and being the weakest lipsyncer out of the top four, it becomes hard to see Mistress winning, But her attitude would lend perfectly to an All-Stars season.
Luxx is a quintessential “look queen.” Every week Luxx stomped the runway in some of the season’s best looks and even won the design challenge. There was no doubt in what Luxx was bringing to the runway, but Luxx also proved herself in other performance challenges where many other “look queens” have fallen flat. Luxx earned her second win during the stand-up comedy challenge showing the judges and audience how versatile she truly was. Like Mistress, however, her attitude has proven divisive amongst the fans. It was clear from the beginning that Luxx was confident in herself and wasn’t afraid to talk about it. She’d compare the other queens to herself to show why she was a better competitor. This caused her to butt heads with Loosey LaDuca as well after Luxx said Loosey should go home. With two wins, Luxx is narrowly edged out by Anertra and Sasha, who both have three.
Coming in hot in the first episode by winning the talent show with her iconic duck walk move. Anerta made a splash immediately. But she slowly started to take a backseat as the episodes continued. Anetra was eaten up by the other strong personalities on the cast and paid no attention to the drama unfolding around her. This was because Anetra was dedicated and focused on the competition. As more and more queens began to go home, Anetra began to shine brighter and brighter, having many of the season’s stand-out moments. These include her lipsync against Marcia, Marcia, Marcia, and Her winning performance in the Rusical. But it was during the makeover challenge that Anetra’s personality came out more. Now having three wins and being a certified lipsync assassin, Anetra is a strong contender for the crown. But someone else has three wins and already beat Anetra in a lipsync.
Sasha Colby was considered a legend before she got on Drag Race. She had already won many titles in drag pageants, including Ms. Contenential in 2012. Because of this, Sasha had so much hype and build-up around her that it almost seemed impossible to live up to expectations. Sasha only faltered once during the entire competition during the stand-up challenge. Other than that one challenge, Sasha was almost exclusively in the top or winning the challenges week to week. Her winning the acting, ball, and improv challenges showed her to be an incredibly versatile queen. During the LaLaPaRuza, where everyone has to lipsync against one another, Sasha and Anetra were left as the last two queens unpicked as everyone knew lipsyncing against them was unwinnable. This is where Sasha beat Anetra. Sasha has three wins and has never landed in the bottom two, and as the strongest lipsyncer, it seems inevitable that Sasha Colby will be the winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race season 15.