Legends: Episode One Review of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 7

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Hello my Pop Clouds! I hope you’re all doing well. It’s another day and RuPaul has deigned to bless us with another season of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars (season 7). But things are little different this time. It’s an all winners season so you know that means we’re in for some shake-ups, some changes, and revving the engine to 10 with the level of difficulty with the maxi challenges. So buckle your seat belts and sit tight while I let you know what’s going on with this new, unique All Stars (AS) season and give you a rundown on episode one. 

SPOILER ALERT!!!!! As always, I’m instituting a spoiler alert from this point forward. If you have not watched episode one of AS yet, do not read any further unless you are fine with knowing what happens before watching. You have been warned!!

All Stars All Winners Rules

Before we go any further, it’s time to address the one major change to this AS season: we now have a new chapter in the rule book: All Winners Rules. And this is how it goes:

• The first gagger is that NO queens are going home this season. Yes, you read that right. NO queens are going home. This means we get to see what all eight contestants are going to bring to every single mini and maxi challenge all season long. This is a change I’m actually quite happy about. We all have seen some amazing queens go home too early and then wondered how they would have rocked some of the maxi challenges they missed. This AS season, we don’t have to wonder anymore.
• At the end of each episode RuPaul is going to select two top all stars of the week. And these top two queens will each receive a Legendary Legend Star (a pin/badge) for making it this far. But there is an exception that I will mention soon.
• After the top two are named, they will then compete in a lip synch for their legacy. The queen who wins the lip sync will get a cash tip of $10,000. AND a bonus ability. This top queen of the week will also be given the power to block one of the bottom 6 queens from receiving a Legendary Legend Star the following week. 
  • What this basically means is that in this first episode the top two queens will both receive a Legendary Legend Star since no one is blocked yet. But starting in episode two if a queen blocked and she makes it to the top two, she can still lip sync for her legacy and even win the $10,000 cash tip and also block another queen, but she will not receive a Legendary Legend Star.
• Now these Legendary Legend Stars are extremely important because at the end of the season, the four queens with the most Legendary Legend Stars will compete in a Lip Sync LalapaRUza Smackdown for the Crown.
• The winner of that lip sync battle of battles will be crowned The Queen of All Queens.
• These new All Winners rules are HUGE because this changes the strategy of how the queens will be playing. In past AS seasons since the lip sync winner got to choose who was sent home, they usually sent home who was the weakest that week. Now it will be the reverse. The lip sync winner will instead most likely choose to block someone who already has a Legendary Legend Star to stop them from winning more the following week. In other words, the strongest queens each week will have targets on their backs. 
• And lastly, since no one goes home, when a queen is blocked this is possibly going to create more drama. They get to confront the queen who blocked them. This is all going to result in a season that may be the best ever in Drag Race franchise herstory. 

Episode One Review: Legends Make Music

At this point I’m going to review the episode first. After that I will give a rundown of each queen with their entrance looks, their entrance phrase, and their runway looks, along with my personal review of their looks. If you are just interested in that part, feel free to jump ahead to the Looks portion of this article. 

As usual, each of eight queens make their entrance into the Werk Room one at a time. After they are all there and congregated around one of the orange tables talking, we get our first GAG of the season. A NINTH QUEEN WALKS IN!!! You heard me! Another queen we were NEVER told about walks in. And this surprises all the queens because this contestant is wearing a hat that almost entirely is covering her face. As a result no one, not us or the queens already there, can tell who this queen is. And to make things worse, that’s when the show cuts to a commercial (or if you’re on Paramount+, you have to wait a couple seconds longer to find out what the FRIG is going on). 

When the show comes back, this mysterious queen reveals herself: IT’S RAVEN FROM SEASON TWO!!!!! Now, I won’t lie: I was so gagged by this that first I was yelling at my TV screen and then I had to pause the show to allow myself a few minutes to get composed. That’s when the questions poured into my head: why is Raven there? She never won unfortunately. Or was she going to be named the season two winner due to the actual winner’s (she will NOT be named) history or strange and unusual activity. Going back to the show, Raven says “Losing is the new winning” when she revealed herself and then joins the queens at the table. I seriously thought she was competing. It’s not beyond RuPaul to throw surprises at us in the first episode like this. I really liked Raven’s entrance look. The black and white top and bottom with the red pumps and the hat were great. But it was her face that won it for me. Raven KNOWS makeup. She’s an Emmy Award winner for the work she’s done on RuPaul for the show. As a result, Raven’s face was perfection. I give her a Sunny Cloud. And by the way, I highly recommend watching Raven’s own face makeup competition show on WoW Presents Plus: Painted with Raven. 

Soon afterwards Ru walks in and while she is talking to the queens and about to mention the changes to this season, she seems to be thrown off by Raven and asks what she is doing there. After a bit of back and forth we come to find out that this was all a big joke that RuPaul and Raven were playing on the queens. She is in fact not competing and is sent away. Thinking back, I’m actually sad about that because I feel that Raven would kick-ass if she were to compete again ever. Here’s hoping for a Runner’s Up AS season next. 

Anyways, after explaining the new rules to our eight competing queens, RuPaul tells them that like past AS seasons, the first mini-challenge is the Reading Challenge. “Because reading is what? FUN-DA-MEN-TAL!!” The queens were all pretty good for the most part but a few highlights for me were Raja saying “Let’s keep this short and simple” and spelling out the word Boogers and then handing the monocle back to Ru which was hilarious and The Vivienne saying it’s a little known fact that Monét is a great singer, because she’s not which was quite funny. 

But the clear winner (and RuPaul agreed) was Jinkx. From calling Raja Roger to comparing Monét to Bob saying that Bob was the talented one, had me laughing a lot. If the challenge has anything to do with comedy or acting and Jinkx is around, beware, she WILL win. Jinkx also won a cash prize of $2500. 

At this point RuPaul tells the queens that the maxi-challenge for the week is going to be a music challenge. The queens will be collaborating on her new song, Legends. They each have to write their own verses and also create choreography for a performance on the main stage. But before they can start working on this, RuPaul mentions to the queens that she has one last surprise for them on the runway. 

The queens all meet up at the front of the stage and RuPaul comes out and introduces them to another legendary queen: the queen of the runway herself NAOMI CAMPBELL!!! When she comes out and the queens realize who she is, the one who reacts first is Shea Couleé. Apparently Naomi is one of her idols. The rest of the queens join in as a massive freak out OMG reaction takes over.

Naomi was invited by RuPaul to come to the show to give each queen advice on how they walk the runway. My favorite part was after Shea did her walk, she got to have a moment with Naomi in which Shea told her just how important Naomi was to her life. It was very touching and I did start to tear up a little bit. 

After getting out of drag the queens started working on their lyrics. Then they all went out to the runway/main stage to work on the choreography. This part was a bit interesting because each queen was trying to give advice on how to dance. It was definitely too many cooks in the kitchen. And I laughed when The Vivienne kept egging Jinkx on to say “clump.” But I think it was a wise decision when the queens agreed to have Shea do the choreography since she has the most experience in that area. 

Then we go on to the next day. I did notice something interesting here. Normally day two each week is called “Elimination Day.” But since no one is going home this season, they are calling it “Runway Day.” The queens all start to get their drag put together when Jaida has a touching moment. She explains how she felt very left out because she won her season via Zoom in her living room and wasn’t able to do much because of the pandemic. And all the other queens gave her love and told her she was very much a member of the winner’s circle as they call it. I also enjoyed the conversation between Monét and Trinity (the AS4 twinners) where they decide to create an alliance to not block each other if they win and ensure that the odds are higher that they each make it to the top four at the end of the season. And then up comes Jinkx behind them asking if she heard right that they are forming an alliance in which they deny it right out. This is going to definitely be one of the most interesting seasons ever.

Now we go to the main stage where RuPaul comes out in this wonderful full bodysuit. I really liked all the geometrical designs on it and the colors and her hair and makeup were great. We find out at this point that the guest judge this week is the amazing Cameron Diaz. She’s most known for her Charlie’s Angels movies but I think my favorite from her is The Mask. We also find out that Cameron loves RuPaul’s music and then RuPaul invites Cameron to help her introduce RuPaul’s newest song “Give Them What They Want.” 

We get a nice little performance from RuPaul at this point. Like most of her performances lately, it’s all pretty much arm movements with some walking from side to side on the stage and some nice hairography. The song was pretty cool too. I really enjoyed this performance. 

Next we get the AS queens performing RuPaul’s song “Legends.” The standouts to me with a combination of lyrics, performance, and looks were Jinkx, Monét and Shea. And I liked Trinity performance when she got lifted by the backup dancers. 

Then we get to the runway. The category this week is “I’m Crowning.” Feel free to jump further down to read my reviews on each queen’s runway looks. After the judges critiques we find out the first top two queens are Shea Couleé and Monét X Change. Since it’s the first episode and no one is blocked yet, they both received a Legendary Legend Star which puts them one step closer to making it to the top four. Another interesting change this season is that the bottom queens are allowed to sit off to the side of the main stage while the top two queens perform their lip sync. And as usual, the queens who think they are the top are allowed to change into different outfits for the performance. 

The lip sync song this week is “Old MacDonald” by Ella Fitzgerald. This shocked me at first because I thought we maybe hit a new low where the queens had to lip sync a children’s song. But when I heard how fast these words were coming out in the song, I knew that this was definitely a lip sync song, and a challenging one at that. The queens had to match word for word to Ella’s song and it was going at machine gun fire speed. Monét and Shea both did a great job but I think Shea’s dance moves give her a slight edge for a win. She really embodied the feel of the song as well as the old Hollywood era in which it was recorded. Her outfit helped as well. And RuPaul ended up selecting Shea as the winner. She also receives a $10,000 cash tip. Monét ends up being told she is safe and is asked to wait at the back of the stage. 

We are now brought to the point where Shea gets to choose who gets the first block for next week. And this is done in a very interesting way. The bottom 6 queens are asked to come to the stage and we see that Shea is holding what we learn is called the “platinum plunger” (even though it is covered all over in gold glitter). She then walks up and down the stage behind each queen until she decides who she has chosen to block. This is pretty funny because it gives all seven queens a chance for a bit of witty repartee. My favorites were Trinity saying “I was rooting for you in season 9!”, The Vivienne saying “Don’t touch me!”, Yvie saying “I give really good head” and Raja and Shea feigning a tongue kiss. Eventually Shea stops next to Trinity and whispers “You’re blocked” while handing her the platinum plunger.

Just to reiterate, this means that Trinity can still win next week’s challenge and even the lip sync but she will not be eligible to receive a Legendary Legend Star until the week after. Now that we have the episode out of the way, let’s go on to the looks. 

The Looks: Sunny Cloud or Rainy Cloud

Before we start a rundown of the looks, here’s a brief description of how I rate them: if I don’t like a look I give it a Rainy Cloud; if I like a look I will give it a Sunny Cloud; and if I think a look is exceptional, rises above and beyond, and just something so amazing, I will give it a Bright Sunny Cloud. The theme for this first week’s runway is “I’m Crowning.” Basically the queens had to incorporate a crown in their look in some way. I also want to apologize for any problems with the image quality for the runway looks. I tried to find images online but they were basically not anywhere to be found. I ended up having to take screen shots from a video I found on Twitter. All runway screen shot images are courtesy of the RuPaul’s Drag Race Twitter account. Now let’s go on with the looks. 

Jaida Essence Hall:

Entrance Look: I really liked her entrance look with the red theme. Her red body suit and matching biker jacket are all stoned to death. And she ties it all in with a matching red swooped wig and lipstick. It gives me a little bit of an Elvis feel to it almost. I will give this entrance look a Sunny Cloud.

Runway Look: Jaida’s runway look felt a bit half-done for me. The neck up was amazing. Her makeup was amazing and I really love the beehive wig made out of white dreadlocks with purple flowers sporadically placed. And the tiny crown on the top right corner was cute. From the neck down it needed more work. I just saw a mesh corset with a sky blue skirt and a large piece of tule draped over her chest and a few more draped on the sides of the skirt. I think it was the corset being bare that left me underwhelmed here. If she had maybe added something sky blue to match the skirt, it would have looked better. I’m going to give Jaida a Rainy Cloud here. 

Jinkx Monsoon:

Entrance Look: Jinkx’s entrance look was very on brand for her yet a bit simple. She was pretty much wearing a black bustier with panty hose and a big black robe that had a flower pattern all over it and really big sleeves. And she added to that her trademark red bouffant wig and a black necklace. This was a very 1950s Old Hollywood look. Something you would see an award winning actress wearing when she’s relaxing in her mansion. I feel that Jinkx could have taken this look and amped it up a bit more to make it shine even brighter. Due to the simplicity of it, I’m going to give it a Rainy Cloud.

Runway Look: Now this runway look is a total polar opposite to her entrance look. Jinkx just floored me here. She described this look as “a mash-up between Queen Elizabeth I, the Virgin Mary, and Angelina Jolie” and I could definitely see all these references. I loved the colors of red and gold that blended so well together. And the whole dress with the big poofy skirt did give me Queen Elizabeth I realness. Her face makeup was so nicely done and I was enthralled by the wig. It was a statement from Queen Elizabeth’s era with a gold crown encrusted with red stones. And on top she had a gold halo with rays of gold pointing out in all directions. But my favorite part is that there was actually hip-high slit in the skirt and during her walk Jinkx would stop every so often and PLOP out her leg. It brought some great humor to this look. I’m giving this one a Bright Sunny Cloud because I was just wowed by it. 

Monét X Change:

Entrance Look: Monét tends to stick to her brand when it comes to her entrance looks on the past two seasons she’s been on and this season was the same. But each season she amps it up more and more and she definitely raised the volume here. I loved that she is pretty much sticking to her red and black plaid pattern brand. But she gave it a bit of a banjee-girl twist with the jean short-shorts, the huge gold hoop earrings, and the big wig. But honestly my favorite part is the thigh-high boots that were made of the same black and red plaid pattern as her top. And I really like how she came out with two money guns. Very funny. I’m going to give Monét a Sunny Cloud for still being great. 

Runway Look: The runway look was good. I could see what Monét was trying to bring with this track suit look. I really appreciated the trans blue and pink colors mixed in with the white of the track suit. I think what I didn’t like so much was the cage that was sticking out the sides of the pants portion at the hips area. I think the look would have been a bit better without that. This is also another look that was so nice from the neck up. Monét always does a great job with her face. The makeup is fantastic. And I really like how she incorporated a crown into her wig at the bottom and designed the rest of the wig to look like a crown on top of it with stones placed throughout. I’m going to give Monét a Sunny Cloud because I liked it all-in-all. 

Raja:

Entrance Look: This is only the second time Raja has been on RuPaul’s Drag Race and on top of that, it’s been about 11 years since she has competed. As a result, we did not know what to expect from her with looks upon her return. But this entrance look showed me that she was not resting on her laurels this whole time. One of Raja’s most popular looks from season 3 was her entrance look with the purple over-sized hat with a giant eye on it. Raja took that eye idea and decided to make it her trademark and incorporated it into her entrance look this season. This is very apparent in this gold mesh eye that is surrounding her head and it makes her face the iris. And on top is gold feathers that could be seen as eyelashes. And I love her black and gold skirt with two giant organza flowers on the front and on the upper right arm. And she’s showing that she’s still a leg queen with those amazing stems. This is a true Sunny Cloud look.

Runway Look: Now this runway look was just amazing. It looks like Raja amped up yet another one her classic season 3 looks here. I could see hints of her Marie Antoinette look but mixed in with a royal flare. Raja got inspiration for this look from her name which means King so she says she “wanted to go with the ultimate gay king idea of Louis XIV.” And I could definitely see that. I mean it literally looks like she took a time machine from that era and just stepped out into 2022. I love the big robe with the poof coming out of the chest. She kept her trademark gray color in the poofy curly wig. The makeup was amazing and very reminiscent of that era. My favorite part is the huge gold crown on top. It reminds me of something you would see the pope wear. This is a Sunny Cloud because Raja is proving she is indeed THE fashion icon queen of this franchise.

Shea Couleé:

Entrance Look: Shea’s entrance look was simple but really worked well for her. She was basically an orange neck to toe body suit that had yellow trimming throughout and a very short orange jacket. It went well with her slicked-back black wig. And her face is also so nicely painted. The orange and yellow just blend in so well with her skin tone. I’m giving this a Sunny Cloud.

Runway Look: This runway look was definitely something that looks like it came out of the Black Panther movie. I could just picture Queen Ramonda wearing this outfit. I love how Shea made a regal African crown out of hair. The gold neck piece and flared out bracelets add a nice touch. And I really enjoyed the flowy caftan she wore on her body. It looked like a painting with the green and blues on top and orange flowers towards the bottom. This is also a Sunny Cloud look.

The Vivienne:

Entrance Look: I actually really enjoyed The Vivienne’s entrance look. It was very modern but with a nice humorous twist. The modern part was the classic black flared pants. The gray bustier and matching sleeves with black stones were a nice touch. My favorite part is her blonde wig that was shaped like two horns on top of her head. That’s when she said she was a bit horny. Made me laugh. I’m giving this a Sunny Cloud for being simple yet very fashionable.

Runway Look: The Vivienne describes this look as being inspired by Vivienne Westwood and Iris van Herpen. She used a lot of burlap in this look. I can see the Westwood inspiration with the fabrics seeming torn around the edges. And I think she’s even wearing a piece of fabric as a long thin beard. I like her blonde wig that has hints of a crown incorporated into it. It’s the shoes that throw me off big time. It looks like she put two orange colored bags over a pair of heel-less shoes. It just doesn’t really appeal to me much. I’m going to have to give this a Rainy Cloud.

Trinity the Tuck:

Entrance Look: This is a look that confused me to be honest. I can see a couple of different ideas here that were combined into something that didn’t really work so well. I can see that Trinity was trying to go for a Phantom of the Opera feeling with the mask over one side of her face, a kinky look with the neon yellow harness around her breasts, a rocker look with the leather jacket and then something tropical with the skirt made of black feathers. It was just a mish-mash that left me feeling lost. Due to the incoherent nature of this look, I’m going to give Trinity a Rainy Cloud.

Runway Look: This runway look on the other hand had me in awe. This was a purple velvet dream. I love how the top is almost a rib cage that has crystals underneath it and dripping down the sides of her legs. And the 3 flared out bracelets on each arm are truly unique and different along with the purple stoned crown on her head. And I feel the orange wig is a great pop of color to make her beautiful face stand out. But my most favorite part is the bottom of this gown that has a purple royal train that seems like it goes back about 20 or 30 feet. This was just screaming queen of all queens for me. I’m giving this one a Bright Sunny Cloud because I felt royal just looking at it.

Yvie Oddly:

Entrance Look: Yvie’s entrance look was something I would definitely picture her wearing if I had to choose it out of a wardrobe. The yellow body suit that with silver glitter pattern around it was nice. And I really liked her purple robe with the yellow designs all over it. And matching the purple boots was a great touch. I felt the only problem that Yvie had with this look was the wig. It had a whole troll doll look to it with how it was designed. I like that she incorporated some yellow fabric from the body suit into her hair. The problem was that it made the hair heavy. So while she was talking to her fellow queens in the werk room, the hair kept going up and down. It was funny to see. And strangely enough, because of this hair issue, I’m still going to give this look a Sunny Cloud. And that’s also because the rest of the look was definitely an Oddly creation.

Runway Look: This again was something only Yvie Oddly could wear. The entire thing was crayon inspired which is brilliant. The top appears to be a football harness that was covered in melted crayons. This theme kept going to her gloves, her mini-hoop skirt and platform heel-less shoes. My favorite part is the crown. In her description, Yvie says that it’s a combination crayon and crown that she calls a “cray-own.” I love how at the top it’s made of fully formed crayons and then they are melted towards her scalp and it becomes almost a wig. This is truly inspired and definitely original. This is also a Sunny Cloud from me this week. 

Final Thoughts:

For a new season first episode, I thought this ranked amongst one of the best. We got to see some of our favorite winners come back to the show. And this includes some winners from when the show was just getting its bearings such as Raja from season 3 and Jinkx from season 5. The looks did not disappoint in the least. They were all good or amazing. And I can see that all these queens had definite glow ups from the moment they won their respective season until now. And lastly, I really am happy with the new All Stars All Winners Rules. The fact that no one is going home this season is amazing. That means that we get to see every queen show their talents with every challenge on every episode. And the drama could get even more intense due to one queen blocking another queen from getting a Legendary Legend Star at the end of each episode. Only time will tell how this will go. 

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