‘Drag Race All Stars 10’: Every Lip Sync Ranked

As someone who has watched a lot of drag queens lip sync to Gaga’s “Disease” over the last nine months, I have to say that Ginger & Kerry’s performance to this track felt deeply underwhelming. Instead of embracing the dark, macabre chaos of the production or the sheer intensity of Gaga’s vocal, these two mostly just gave “spooky Gaga face” for about two minutes, before RuPaul decided that he wasn’t going to send the season’s frontrunner home in favor of a last-minute Wild Card addition to the finale.

Watch the lip sync here.

I normally love it when the Drag Race producers take a risk — it’s how we get moments like Monét X Change & Jinkx Monsoon’s iconic spoken word lip sync from All Stars 7. But some risks just don’t pay off, as was the case with this a cappella rendition of Aretha Franklin’s “Who’s Zoomin’ Who.” Yes, it allowed Cynthia and Mistress to focus on their high-camp performances of the song’s lyrics, but it also created a lack of urgency or drive throughout this number that made the whole thing fall flat. I don’t want to see the music team at Drag Race give up on innovating — I just don’t think that a cappella renditions of beloved tracks are necessarily the way to go in the future. 

We finally got a Chappell Roan song on Drag Race, and the results were … fine! I guess! Jorgeous and Mistress both gave solid performances to Roan’s crowd-pleaser “Hot to Go,” but neither of them ever managed to outshine the other. Honestly, the girls at the back of the stage doing the iconic “H-O-T-T-O-G-O” choreography in front of Roan herself managed to pull focus more than either of the girls on the main stage did, making Ru’s double win declaration even more odd.

Watch the lip sync here.

Sometimes you watch a result come through on Drag Race and wonder to yourself, “Are they doing this just to piss the audience off?” Because I watched the “See You Again” lip sync again and still came away with the conclusion that Denali was the clear winner — she brought the energy of Cyrus’ break out song to life and delivered an excellent, technically proficient lip sync from tip to toe. Ginger did well, too, sticking to her performance style and still entertaining the audience throughout the number — but when RuPaul declared that she was the winner, I was shocked. That doesn’t take away from Denali’s excellent performance, but it certainly puts an air of confusion over this extremely puzzling lip sync.

Reasonable people can disagree about who won the Lip Sync for the Crown on All Stars 10 — considering that both of these queens did exactly what they’re known for throughout this standard, who won mostly comes down to a matter of taste. Are you into stunts and dance moves? Jorgeous is probably your winner here. Are you more interested in seeing camp aesthetics and pure acting in your lip syncs? If so, Ginger probably took it for you in the end. What feels more important here was the fact that the “It’s Raining Men” lip sync felt like an anti-climax on a season of truly wild competition. Maybe it’s time to start rethinking the finale format when it comes to future Drag Race seasons.

Watch the lip sync here.

Fans were a little upset that production chose a mid-tempo country track for the showdown between Jorgeous and Lydia, especially when Cowboy Carter has more obvious lip sync songs like “Riiverdance,” “Bodyguard” and “Tyrant” available. But I for one appreciated the song choice, giving these two performers a new challenge that they rose to. Lydia traded in her boogie antics for a more lyrical performance, while Jorgeous commanded the attention of the crowd with her dance moves without giving too much. Sure, it’s not the best lip sync of the season by a long shot, but the “Texas Hold ‘Em” performance deserves more credit for how both queens handled a curveball. 

Here we have an example of why the Lip Sync LaLaPaRuza format doesn’t always work. While Ginger Minj had time to rest in between her performances, Bosco had to go right from her star-making turn against Daya Betty (more on that later) to another high-energy number, and it showed. Ginger brought P!nk’s rebel anthem to life with her animated performance, and the Demon Queen of Seattle was clearly running on fumes as she faced off against the self-proclaimed Glamour Toad. That’s not to say that Ginger didn’t earn her win — even if Bosco had been at full-energy, there’s still a better-than-average chance that Ginger would have beat her with this funny, endearing performance. 

By the time we reached the end of the first bracket of queens, Irene the Alien had performed a lip sync in every episode of Drag Race she’d been on. And after watching her “Pocketbook” performance, it’s easy to see why she finally got her first win. Leaning into absurdity and comedy, Irene worked in everything the judges were looking for — crisp lyrics, good dance moves and a hefty amount of humor, even while going up against a favorite like Bosco.

See this is the energy we were expecting from the “Disease” lip sync! Both Lydia and Irene brought appropriate levels of derangement to their “Joyride” lip sync, and it showed — for the first minute-and-change of the performance, I had whiplash from choosing which queen I needed to keep my eyes on. Even when Irene took an unfortunate spill on the stage, it didn’t feel disqualifying — but in the end, Lydia just couldn’t quite be overshadowed as she shimmied her way across the stage to this unhinged anthem.

Watch the lip sync here.

It’s not easy to beat Ginger Minj in a lip sync, but Daya Betty made it look natural with her “Mama Used to Say” number. Trading in her eclectic style for a silky-smooth, charismatic characterization, Daya was feeling every beat of this song in her bones as she stormed across the mainstage, handily earning her first lip sync win of the season against a larger-than-life competitor like Ginger. 

It’s hard to judge a showdown like this one when the two performers involved are so remarkably different. Lydia spent “Whenever, Wherever” being just as weird and wild as we’ve come to expect from her, swinging a mace over her head and wiggling her body in and out of frame. Jorgeous, meanwhile, delivered a stunning array of Shakira-inspired moves for a fiery rendition of her hit song, managing to be utterly captivating from start to finish. Jorgeous took home the win (rightfully so, I think), but it’s hard to call Lydia a loser with a performance like this.

Even a bad wig cannot stop Lydia B Kollins from absolutely tearing up a lip sync. Facing off against her drag mother MIB, Lydia left it all on the stage with this “Guess” lip sync, even if she didn’t quite strip down to her underwear like Aja wanted. Spinning, dipping and strutting around the stage like a possessed ragdoll made for the exact brand of frenzied energy that a song like “Guess” requires, and it was no wonder that Lydia knocked Mistress Isabelle “I’ve Never Lost a Lip Sync on Drag Race” Brooks off her well-earned pedestal. 

It’s clear from watching All Stars 10 that Bosco knows perhaps better than any other contestant how a reveal should (and should not) work. Throughout her “Murder on the Dancefloor” performance, the Seattle queen came with her best serpentine dance dress and served full-blown, old-school burlesque throughout this high-energy number. But just when it felt like her twirling around the stage was about to get old, she dropped the gown to the floor and revealed her barely-there harness outfit underneath, easily securing her win. 

Watch the lip sync here.

For everything people have to say about Ginger Minj after the finale (and they clearly have a lot to say), watch the “Defying Gravity” lip sync again and tell me you weren’t moved by our new reigning All Star’s performance. Much like Latrice Royale’s famous “Natural Woman” performance from season four, Ginger knew she didn’t need to dance or even move around the stage very much to deliver a compelling, stunning performance. Daya did fine, but she was fully outmatched by Ginger’s tender, poignant rendition of this theater staple, proving yet again that Drag Race needs to use more ballads for lip syncs in the future. 

In what I am now referring to as “The ‘Boogie Wonderland‘ Sequel Lip Sync,” Lydia Butthole Kollins chewed, swallowed, munched and devoured Loleatta Holloway’s disco anthem “Love Sensation.” Whenever she finds herself in a lip sync like this one, Lydia manages to find a groove and ride it out until the end. Here, that groove involved a lot of spinning, hair-flipping and feral facial acting that just felt correct for both the performer and the song. It was a performance so enrapturing that we low-key forgot that Tina Burner was there, too. 

Watch the lip sync here.

All due respect to Irene the Alien, but there was simply no way that Aja was about to lose this Ice Spice lip sync. From the cocky attitude down to her viral dance break, Aja practically was Ice Spice during her “Think U the S–t” performance — which is saying something, considering the real rapper was literally watching from the judges’ panel. Irene did her best and even held her own in a few moments, but there was simply no stopping the fireball that is Aja. She accomplished her goal in the show’s first episode, by coming back and showing the world just how much she deserves the title of “All Star” placed before her name. 

This lip sync is a perfect encapsulation of the brilliance of Drag Race — bringing two titans of live performance together to deliver a number to an underappreciated classic like Natalie Cole’s “Party Lights.” Every single move Jorgeous made in this lip sync was precise, clean and perfectly executed, while Aja’s latex nun-to-circuit party transformation is one for the Drag Race history books. This is about as close to a photo finish lip sync as I’ve seen on the show, and while I do think Jorgeous deserved her win, it bears repeating just how well both queens performed here. 

Watch the lip sync here.

How Daya Betty still managed to even walk onto the stage, knowing that she was about to face off against Bosco to a burlesque song (the burlesque song, some would say) is beyond me. From the moment “Show Me How You Burlesque” started, Bosco simply owned the stage that she was standing on — this was now Bosco’s Drag Race, and even RuPaul seemed to be aware of that fact. The use of her headpiece as a pair of feather fans in the latter half of the performance, her playful game of peekaboo with the judges and her flawless execution of the clamshell-inspired floorwork are just a few of the reasons why Bosco absolutely demolished this number and created one of the most memorable lip syncs in recent Drag Race history.