‘RuPaul’s Drag Race Global All Stars’ series premiere recap: The true Olympics of drag

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We’ve got a new series, folks! RuPaul’s Drag Race has evolved once again, taking what has worked about the vs. The World spin-offs and turning it up to 11. Two years after Drag Race finally committed to going global, here we are with Global All Stars. A dozen queens, each from a different franchise, will battle it out for the first truly international All Stars title. And they’ll do it all while being judged by Ru and Michelle Visage.

For years, Ru called Drag Race “the Olympics of drag,” which always felt like a bit of a mischaracterization to me. Drag Race is more akin to football (either the American or European kind), with fans gathering in bars to watch, everyone picking a “team” to root for and most (though not all) hailing from the USA. Global All Stars, however? This is a true Olympics of drag, arriving just as everyone is still cooling off from their Olympic fever after the Paris games.

Still, one must admit—as USA rep Alyssa Edwards does in this episode—that keeping up with all the international series is quite a task. Our newly crowned All Stars 9 champ Angeria Paris VanMicheals does it, but she’s one of the few. That makes Global All Stars a thrilling opportunity, since we’ll be able to meet representatives from so many different shows. But it’s also a daunting task for production, as they must introduce 12 queens (nine of them having never been judged by RuPaul) to the audience effectively.

Global All Stars opts to do this with a split premiere format: six queens will compete in each talent show, while all the queens will be present in the werk room and on the runway. No one will be eliminated in either episode, giving us a full slate of performances and three runways each to get a sense of the queens’ drag. This is like an extended Meet the Queens showcase, and it feels like the show is making every effort to do right by this cast.

This structure is part of why I’m a big fan of this premiere. The cast is another: filled with finalists, lip sync assassins and fan favourites, this has to be considered one of the best casts the show has ever put together. The pacing is the last point in the episode’s favour, as it clips along at a tight 50 minutes. Obviously there was much consternation when Season 15 reduced its runtimes to 42 minutes from 60—but I’ve never felt like that should be a binary choice. In fact, when it comes to the streaming series (All Stars and the internationals), I’ve said in the past that episode lengths should vary based on how much content there is to include.

In this case, 50 minutes is exactly right for what this episode needs to accomplish. Six queens’ introductions are spread out well throughout the episode, and the introductory runway and pageant questioning portion is like an appetizer course to get us acquainted with each of them. (Though I do miss getting to see all the queens react to each other in the werk room.) When “Cover Girl” starts playing and we head to the main stage for Ru’s walk, it feels like it comes at exactly the right time.

Of the queens we won’t be seeing in this episode, I’m delighted to see Pythia from Canada’s Drag Race here. Though I was rooting for Icesis Couture in her original season, Pythia was the most significant threat to Icesis’ eventual victory. With Rusical and makeover challenges under her belt, she demonstrated real range on her season, and by the looks of her two runway garments in this episode, she has only continued to step it up in the fashion department.

Other queens not competing this week include Germany’s Tessa Testicle (she and Alyssa are the only  non-finalists competing this season), Italia’s Nehellenia, Mexico’s Gala Varo, Philippines’ Eva Le Queen and Sverige’s Vanity Vain. The latter gets my first laugh-out-loud of the premiere, as after describing a particularly decadent last meal to the judges, they ask if she wants fries with that. Her disgusted “no” is hilarious.

The judging panel this season, as it does on all Ru-hosted franchises, features Michelle by her side. This produces an interesting dynamic in the werk room, as the queens not from Ru-hosted series are excited to be in front of them. (Miranda Lebrão from Brazil exclaims “You know my name!” when Ru calls for her at the start of the episode.) But they’re also nervous that the queens who have established relationships with RuPaul and Michelle will have an advantage.

Judging by the results of this episode, you could argue they have a point. But I want to hold up the two UK vs. The World seasons as mild counter-examples to this, particularly the first. In that first season, a RuGirl did not win an episode for the first half of the season. Instead, it was Canada’s Drag Race’s Jimbo, Holland’s Janey Jacké and Thailand co-host Pangina Heals who snatched all the wins. Had Pangina not taken the chance to snipe Jimbo out of the competition, prompting a cascade of events that led her and Janey to be sent home as well, I bet all three would’ve been in the finale—and one of them likely would’ve won.

Season 2 is a less firm example, since the final two was ultimately two RuGirls over two non-RuGirls (with Drag Race UK’s Tia Kofi winning it all). But again, Ru really seemed to fall for a couple of the new-to-him girls, specifically Philippines’ Marina Summers and France’s La Grande Dame. Point being, there’s lots of room for the other queens this season to win Ru over, and I’m excited to see who breaks out from the pack.

Competing in this episode alongside Alyssa and Miranda are Down Under’s Kween Kong, Belgique’s Athena Likis, France’s Soa de Muse and UK’s Kitty Scott-Claus. They all do well in the talent show, though it’s once again the queens who do lip sync-focused variety numbers who perform the best. Kitty chooses to sing live, but I don’t think her number maintains the energy throughout. Athena’s burlesque number is kind of odd and fun, while Soa actually gets my vote for best number of the night. Her cabaret routine is all in French, and is intense, emotional and gorgeous. Sadly, while I appreciate her choice to do the whole thing in her native tongue, it basically guarantees that Ru won’t put her in the top two.

After the Garden of Eden runway, we’re down to a clear three in contention for the top two slots: Alyssa, Kween and Miranda. The latter does a different kind of talent than we’ve seen on a Ru-hosted series before: trapeze! Her act is genuinely impressive, and if we were in the old days of the talent show, I could see her taking the win. Unfortunately, this kind of pure talent without self-branding is a hard sell for Ru these days. Plus, while Ru really likes her snake look, I’m not sure it totally comes together.

Alyssa and Kween both go for lip sync numbers, but I gotta say, even in the realm of this kind of performance, these are both top-tier. Alyssa doing a high-energy, ’80s-inspired aerobics number is super fun, and ending it on a Flashdance water drop is a perfect final gag. Kween’s biggest gag is also quite surprising, as she literally lifts a dancer onto her shoulders without a moment’s hesitation. It’s one of the most impressive physical acts we’ve seen on the show—Mimi Imfurst lifting India Ferrah is shaking—and the last bit with the leaf blowers is also very cute. I understand why they both win, even though I’d probably swap one of them out for Soa.

After a Mini-Untucked, the queens come back out on the stage for Alyssa and Kween’s lip sync. The song is Rihanna’s “Only Girl (In the World),” a repeat from Season 5’s Monica Beverly Hillz and Serena ChaCha battle. (Funny, since that’s Alyssa’s original season, and Alyssa’s most iconic lip sync was to a Rihanna song!) This is a real battle, with Alyssa turning it out in a way we haven’t seen since All Stars 2. The whole episode feels like a real homecoming for Alyssa, who has actually spent more time away from the show since her last appearance than she did between Season 5 and AS2. Ru actually gets emotional during her critiques! It would be fitting if she were our first challenge champion.

But Kween will not barrel roll off into that good night quietly! The acrobatic queen turns it out, pulling out the same kinds of stunts that made her a veritable Lip Sync Assassin in Down Under Season 2. It’s a close match, and although I ultimately would’ve picked Kween to win, Ru decides to split the difference and call it a tie. Both win $5,000, and we’ll see everyone again next week. But first: it’s time to meet the other six queens in Episode 2!

Untucking our final thoughts

✨ I’d pay more money than I’m willing to publicly admit for a full set of those international RuPeter Badges that flash on screen during the intro.

✨ In addition to the $200,000 USD grand prize (“life-changing” money for some of the queens owing to exchange rates, as Eva notes), and the obligatory year’s supply of Anastasia Beverly Hills cosmetics, the queens are fighting for a place in the new “International Pavilion” of the Drag Race Hall of Fame. “In Daytona Beach, Florida,” Ru quips.

✨ This season features a new regular judge on the panel, although he’s a very familiar face: it’s Jamal Sims! Considering how integrated he is into the Drag Race brand at this point (including his work on RuPaul’s Drag Race Live!), this feels right. The queens spend much of the episode thirsting over him—understandable—and Ru reveals his introductory moniker for him: “He puts the D in dance!”

✨ Really smart choice on production’s part to put all the RuGirls in one group. While it did produce an all-RuGirl top two this week, it guarantees that the second premiere will feature two queens new to Ru in the top. Just smart planning all-around.

✨ This set has been used for the international Drag Race productions produced by Paramount, including Germany, Brazil and Mexico. It’s been redesigned for this season, and looks appropriately lavish for a Global All Stars season.

✨ The Alyssaisms are in full force this episode, including saying that the USA series is “the flagship for this whole charade.” My personal favourite moment of hers is reacting to Tessa’s name: “Her genitalia is her drag name …” (This is only made better in Mini-Untucked, when Tessa tells Alyssa she wants to be “Tessa Edwards.”)

✨ The larger introduction packages for each of this premiere’s six queens, rolled out across the episode, is an editing style more commonly seen in international reality TV—particularly Australian. There, intros can take place across almost an entire season (watch The Traitors Australia or Survivor Australia for a real taste of this); this is obviously on a quicker timeframe than that, but it still contributes to the much better pace of the episode to not have the intros stuffed at the top of the episode.

✨ Model Adriana Lima is our guest judge this week, and I’m very glad she’s there for her home country queen Miranda’s performance. Though the non-elimination premiere makes her role pretty minimal, she nonetheless seems to have a delightful time.

✨ For Global All Stars, the show is partnering with All Out, an LGBTQ2S+ refugee support organization, and putting its money where its mouth is with a $100,000 donation. Glad to see the show is continuing to be charitable even after All Stars 9 ended.

✨ “Star Baby” is our runway song. Good choice, I’d say. Kinda surprised it wasn’t Season 15’s, but the show was still very much feeling “Catwalk” at that point.

✨ Really love the choice to have all the queens walk the runway despite only half of them doing the talent show. This premiere just seems completely designed to properly show off this cast, and I’m very impressed.

✨ Gala is the trade of the season, and judging by her confessional, she’s delighted to call herself such!

The second episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race Global All Stars is currently available to stream on Paramount+ in the U.S. and on Crave in Canada! Check it out, and come back later this week to Xtra for our recap. We’ll be publishing recaps all season long, and if you want to be the first to read them be sure to subscribe to our drag newsletter Wig! to get them before anyone else.