Shea Couleé surprised Canada’s Drag Race winner Priyanka after her historic victory with a formal welcome to the ‘melanin dynasty’
Shea Couleé and Priyanka are Drag Race’s current reigning winners, along with Jaida Essence Hall. (VH1/Crave)
Canada’s Drag Race winner Priyanka revealed that Shea Couleé surprised with with a late-night phone call to welcome her into the “melanin dynasty”.
Last week saw Priyanka crowned Canada’s First Ever Drag Superstar, making her the sixth consecutive queen of colour to take home a Drag Race title.
She joins All Stars 4 winner Monét X Change, season 11 victor Yvie Oddly, season 12’s winner and Miss Congeniality Jaida Essence Hall and Heidi N Closet, and All Stars 5 champion Shea Couleé in what the latter has dubbed “the melanin dynasty” of Drag Race.
Now, Priyanka has revealed that Shea FaceTimed her in order to extend her personal congratulations, and to welcome her into the fold.
I feel like years from now, people will refer to this period of Drag Race as the Melanin Dynasty.
— Shea Couleé (@SheaCoulee) September 4, 2020
“Gurl. Shea Couleé FaceTimed me last night! How’d she get my number?” Priyanka told Now Toronto.
“I was dead. I picked up the phone like, ‘Hello?’ because it was a random number and she was like, ‘You did it, bitch!’
“I just shared this moment with her. It’s so cool to have somebody you look up to just believe in you so much. What’s crazy is the confidence they have in me. They’re like, ‘You got it girl. Bye.’ I’m like, ‘Oh, I do?”
Priyanka also addressed guest judge Traci Melchor’s comment that her incredible work ethic comes from her West Indian background.
“I love that she said that,” Priyanka said.
“That is such a thing – that POCs have to work a little bit harder, and even if they don’t have to they still do. Because they want to get ahead in life, they want to make ends meet.
“My mom, when she was 11, came to Canada to sponsor her family to get them to come to Canada. Eleven years old. By herself. Ain’t no white person gotta do that.”
Priyanka learned that she had won Canada’s Drag Race while on stag in Phoenix, Toronto (the show films multiple winners, with the finalists learning the result among with the rest of us), with a clip of her emotional reaction going viral.
Priyanka ha compartido un video que muestra cuál fue su reacción al convertirse en la vencedora de Canada's Drag Race ? pic.twitter.com/wJTT7eVU5h— Rumors and Ruviews (@Rumors_Ruviews) September 5, 2020
“The room was so full of people that love me so much,” she recalled. “You truly can’t be as successful as I am if you don’t have that kind of support.
“All of a sudden I win the most coveted title in all of gay culture and they’re all just like, ‘That’s our girl! We knew it!’ Everyone was just so excited. So many tears last night. I feel honoured to be me.”
