After a season filled with villainous elves, the resurrection of Kandy Muse’s iconically hideous pockets look, and budding relationships in the Werk Room (and the bedroom), RuPaul’s Drag Race season 17 crowned a winner.
RuPaul was faced with one of the toughest tasks in Drag Race her-story across Friday night’s grand finale, with four of Mama Ru’s season 17 finalists representing one of the strongest collective casts the show has seen since its 2009 debut.
At the top of the episode, Ru welcomed back Jewels Sparkles (two maxi challenge wins), Lexi Love (two maxi challenge wins), Onya Nurve (four maxi challenge wins), and Sam Star (three maxi challenge wins) to compete to become the season 17 winner across a series of solo performances and a final lip-sync duel.
The queens each mounted solo numbers on the Main Stage, with Jewels singing about a “ding-a-ling,” Lexi busting out chrome-plated roller skates for some aerial acrobatics, Onya serving a song about the kind of nerve that fully matches her talent, and Sam donning a dress that doubled as a red carpet.
Nymphia Wind at the ‘Drag Race’ season 17 finale. MTV
Before the winner was crowned, though, RuPaul presented legendary Hollywood icon (and special finale guest) Liza Minnelli with Drag Race‘s third annual Giving Us Lifetime Achievement Award for a career of LGBTQ community allyship and excellence in entertainment.
“I don’t know what else to say except for, if it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t be me. You made me,” said Minnelli, whose been impersonated by four queens on Snatch Game across the global franchise, including Alexis Michelle.
Minnelli’s brother, Joe, also joined the show and watched from the audience, while RuPaul turned the audience toward him for a round of applause.
Following Minnelli’s appearance, RuPaul eliminated Lexi and Sam from the competition before the final lip-sync round, though she revealed that both would receive a $10,000 tip for their participation in the season.
Also ahead of the crowning, RuPaul invited season 16 Miss Congeniality winners Sapphira Cristál and Xunami Muse back to the stage to help her name season 17’s Miss Congeniality, which eventually went to Crystal Envy after a vote from her fellow cast members.
“Remember to always sparkle like a crystal and be kind!” Crystal said upon accepting her prize, while Xunami added that all of the other queens would receive $2,000 for “slaying all season” long.
Onya and Jewels, the final two queens, then made their way back to the stage for a final lip-sync performance to Lady Gaga’s “Abracadabra,” with season 16 winner Nymphia Wind also returning to the stage to pass the crown on to her successor (complete with a gag that saw the studio audience look under their seats to find bananas Nymphia stashed beneath them).
Jewels Sparkles and Onya Nurve. MTV
Though Jewels laced her leather-clad lip-sync with numerous reveals and stunts, RuPaul crowned Cleveland-based actress, icon, and all-around diva Onya Nurve as the RuPaul’s Drag Race season 17 winner.
“Hell yeah! It do take Nurve!” the newly crowned queen said after being announced as season 17 winner.
Onya entered the competition with honed acting chops from years of working in the theater, as she exclusively told Entertainment Weekly prior to the season premiere.
“I’ve been doing theater for about 14 years, half of my life,” the Cleveland queen previously told EW. “My first play was To Kill a Mockingbird. The director added me as an extra role. I played Tom Robinson’s son, and I had very dramatic lookbacks. I had no lines, but I did what I needed to do.”
She also explained that her drag is a love letter to Black excellence.
Sign up for Entertainment Weekly’s free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.
“I don’t know how to describe my style of drag, because it is not the traditional style of drag. I think I focus a lot on my facial expression and the lip-sync of it all. I try to really embody what the song gives. I’m not really a pop-y girl,” she said at the time. “I like to do old stuff, like Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Nina Simone. I like to do stuff you wouldn’t expect an entertainer like me to do and turn it on its head. I love to do Eartha Kitt and Barbra Streisand, and do it in a different way that’s just Black and glamorous.”
Though the season 17 winner has been crowned, another new season is on the way, as RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 10 will welcome 18 queens back into the competition for its premiere May 9 on Paramount+.
