Direct from the first season of Drag Race France, La Kahena departed the City of Lights for a chillier atmosphere, joining the cast of Canada’s Drag Race: Canada vs The World Season 2! With queens from numerous corners of the world fully prepared to battle it out, La Kahena ended up departing the competition first, making her the first queen in Drag Race herstory to leave the competition first on two different franchises. I sat down with the newly minted Queen of the Porkcops” to chat about her Canada vs The World experience, the French drag scene, and what it was like joining a cast full of Drag Race powerhouses!
Michael Cook: What did it feel like to enter Canada vs. The World Season 2 post-Drag Race France and be exposed to so much larger of an audience?
La Kahena: It feels so good. It feels great having all of those new fans coming my way and leaving there with an iconic and legendary title.
MC: What is the actual title that we are actually going to go with?
La Kahena: Oh, “Queen of the Porkchops”!
MC: The cast of Canada vs. The World Season 2 is stacked with some dynamic names. What was it like walking onto that stage next to these Drag Race titans?
LK: This is an iconic cast with some legendary cast mates! I was very grateful and proud to have the ability to meet them and more so, be able to work with them and create a bond during the season with them. I consider all of them my sisters now and this is family; I am very grateful to have met them.
MC: What was it like coming into a brand new cast in a brand new country? In a way, it’s ike you graduated into a new school!
LK: It’s very that, it’s almost like I was done with high school and going into uni; I majored in Pork Chop drag (laughs)! I really loved it, it was great. I knew some of the girls, I had met them at DragCon and on Instagram, but I didn’t know everyone. It was definitely something new and something refreshing. Coming here, I was like “Where is the popcorn, where can I sit and enjoy the show”? Then I had to remember that I was part of the show (laughs)!
MC: You went home first on your season of Drag Race France and now you are the first cast member to depart Canada vs The World Season 2. You are however, truly managing to spin the experience into gold. What is it about you that is able to make this experience such a positive one?
LK: Honestly, it would be a lie to say that I wasn’t sad when it happened. Living it once already I think helped me get through it quicker and better than the first time around. I knew how I felt the first time and I knew how I dealt with it, which wasn’t the greatest decision that I made in my life. This time it was like, it happened, it made me iconic, it gave me a title that I didn’t wish for but now I have. At the end of day, I made it into the Drag Race Hall of Fame in some way.
MC: Your title is very unique, so maybe you should get the opportunity to hang your own photo in the Drag Race Hall of Fame!?
LK: That is what I told everybody. Where is my picture? Put in under Raja, put it somewhere (laughs).
MC: What do you think is the biggest departure from Drag Race France to being part of Canada vs The World?
LK: I think between the two franchises what is different is first, the drama. I think you can get into it, it’s very easy. For me, I had a lip sync to learn (laughs). Also the way drag is in France. I think in North America, drag is a very showgirl type of drag, a lot of dancing, jumping and splits. We do have drag performers that do that, but it’s not really what we do as much. We’re more like the Sasha Velour type of drag, very visual and very fashionable; we invented fashion (laughs)!
MC: I remember interviewing Nicky Doll several years ago, and she mentioned how patrons don’t tip the drag performers in France.
LK: We don’t do tips. Now it has started to change because of Drag Race, but we don’t get tipped with real money. When people go to a show, in Paris at least, you can buy fake money and you tip us with that. We are getting into it, but it’s still not the norm yet.
MC: What made you fall in love with drag when you started your journey?
LK: I think it’s the excitement of putting all sorts of art into the same pod, mixing it, and creating something with it. Drag is so liberating, I think drag is entertainment. Drag is everything that I wanted to do in life. Being on stage, doing fashion, painting, all of that; this is the art that was combined it all together to create the best piece of art that you could create-yourself.
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