RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs The World series 2 winner crowned

March 29 – In an epic win for the UK, RuPaul crowned Tia Kofi, as the winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs The World series 2.

BBC Three’s successful international spin off concluded tonight as the four remaining queens entered the Lip sync arena in their final bid for the title of Queen of the Mothertucking World and a cash prize of £50k.

For the past eight weeks, RuPaul’s Drag Race UK Vs the World, has wowed viewers around the Globe as eleven iconic queens from Drag Race franchises around the world competed for Mama Ru’s final seal of approval. In tonight’s finale, the whole cast returned along with the reigning queen of the Mothertucking Queen of the World, Blu Hydrangea to witness the final lip sync smackdown.

The four finalists were:

• Hannah Conda representing Australia
• La Grande Dame representing France
• Marina Summers representing the Philippines
• Tia Kofi representing the UK

Arantxa, as the newly anointed Miss Congeniality, took charge of the Lip sync smackdown wheel to determine the order of play.

With the first spin of the wheel landing on Marina, Aranxta’s first spin of the wheel gave Marina the choice with whom she would lip sync against, and she chose Hannah Conda .They lip synced to I’m Outta Love by Anastasia, with RuPaul declaring Hannah Conda as the winner.

And so as it was written, the Filipina lip sync assassin, Marina Summers sashayed away from the finale.

Marina Summers said: “Ru, thank you so much for inviting this little Filipina on your big show. I am forever grateful and my lines are open for another call., but honestly, I know I made every Filipino across the globe proud and thank you for giving me this opportunity. I’ll always and forever be your Filipino winner”.

Next to face off, was La Grande Dame and Tia Kofi who lip synced to Boogie 2night by Booty Luv. RuPaul declared Tia Kofi as the winner, sending her through to the final smackdown against Hannah Conda.

And so for La Grande Dame it was not her time.

As she sashayed away, La Grande Dame she thanked RuPaul: “Thank you to all of you. It’s such an honour to be here before you. Well, you were there before us, but that’s another story. I think I’m gonna make a lot of people proud and I’m really happy about what I’ve done here. I feel full of love and full of hope for what’s to come.”

In the final lip sync of the evening, and heir last chance to impress Ru and take the title, Hannah and Tia lip synced to dance floor filler Your Disco Needs You by Kylie Minogue.

RuPaul made his final and most crucial decision of the evening:

“Ladies, I’ve made my decision. The time has come to crown our queen. The winner, RuPaul’s Drag Race UK versus the world, the Queen of the Mothertucking world is… Tia Kofi!

On winning the series Tia said: “It means the world to me to win, it’s perfect culmination of years of dedicating myself to drag and working hard at myself inside and outside. Being the first winner of colour in the UK is game-changing. To give people who look like me that representation, it’s really special, and something that I take extremely seriously. I want to be that beacon that shows we can all, no matter where we come or what we look like, achieve our dreams.”

South Londoner Tia Kofi made her debut on series 2 of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK in 2021, where her humour, and unique laboratory rat performance for Rats the Rusical established her as a firm fan favourite. However, with her fellow sisters voting her the Baroness Basic of the cast, and Tia herself, critiquing her looks as “adequate” she struggled to stay the course, eventually exiting the competition in seventh place after three lip syncs and zero wins.

Three years later, Tia’s drag journey is a story of Ru-demption. In spite of her personal challenges, a wiser more confident Tia entered the Versus workroom, picking up two RuPeter badges, and impressing head judge RuPaul, with her glamourous runway looks, her hilarious wedding roast, and her winning Anne Boleyn for The Snatch Game. And so it was that Tia Kofi proved she had what it takes to be Queen of the MotherTucking World.

Find out more about the queens who took part in RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs The World series 2 here.