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RuPaul’s Drag Race winner Sasha Velour says the top four were all ‘expert’ queens

By Ross Semple

Sasha Velour has spoken to Attitude about winning the latest season of RuPaul’s Drag Race.

The star, who was crowned the winner of season nine last month, polarised audiences with her unique take on drag, but managed to win over viewers during the finale with her powerful lip-sync performances.

In an exclusive interview in the new issue of Attitude Magazine, Sasha has suggested that this year’s finale was so close because all four of her fellow finalists, Trinity, Peppermint and Shea, are “expert” queens.

“Because the Top Four was made up of expert drag queens, we were able to deliver an expert drag show that hasn’t been possible for a number of seasons,” she explained.

“We’re people who know how to give shows and how to perform for a live audience.”

Sasha went on to reveal her thoughts on Miss Congeniality winner Valentina, explaining that her lack of experience may have contributed to her downfall.

“She definitely has star power, but she maybe doesn’t have a lot of experience in being a drag professional. I think we’ve seen the results of that since the show has aired,” she added.

It’s been an amazing few weeks for the newly-crowned queen.

Sasha’s lip-sync performance of Whitney’s ‘So Emotional’ was so well received that it jumped an incredible 650% in Spotify streams in the week following her victory, with a 510% spike across all video and audio streaming services.

Read the rest of Sasha’s interview, in which she discusses All Stars 3, how tough she found filming Drag Race and what Pride means to her, in the August issue of Attitude – out now. Buy in printsubscribe or download.