The queen of the north, Gisèle Lullaby, winner of Canada’s Drag Race season 3, is someone who you hear before you see. Her personality is nothing but sheer joy, and of course, who doesn’t love a charming French accent? Having just come off the Murray & Peters Christmas Queens tour back in December, Gisèle was in great spirits as she was finally back in the U.K. for her third DragCon since her win back in 2022.
Talking of the tour, she revealed her newfound love for K-pop after watching The Academy on Netflix. Of course, as someone who is fully immersed in the K-pop realm, it was interesting to talk about the creativity and discipline that she felt inspired from and now wants to apply to her own drag career; she’s always looking to evolve and push forward while constantly on the go.
We talked (a lot) about her K-pop discovery, her lack of sleep, the excitement for 2025 thanks to lots of secret projects on the way, and life post Drag Race Canada.
Kirsty Bright: So you’ve just finished the Christmas tour. How was that?
Gisèle Lullaby: Ooh, good job, research queen! (laughs) It was honestly one of the best tours of my life. Literally. Not only was the experience amazing, but the cast was so fun—not a single ego at all.
KB: Oh really?
Gisèle Lullaby: And I’m not throwing shade at the girls I’ve toured with before (laughs). But it was just such a refreshing feeling. It was a funny thing as everyone just came together as a community by being professional and arriving on time. Everyone was on time. Everyone was perfect. No one had any tantrums. I’m not saying queens have had tantrums before, but it was just so cool, and we all hung out a lot together. We actually started watching a super interesting program on Netflix; it was the making of a K-pop girl group, so we sat and watched all the episodes.
KB: Oh, The Academy, who created the girl group Katseye?
Gisèle Lullaby: Yes! Now we’re all kind of obsessed with K-pop because of them (laughs).
KB: Well, you’re in a safe space. We both love K-pop. (laughs)
Gisèle Lullaby: OMG, you do? Well, Lemon actually fed us with K-pop. It was amazing and so refreshing to learn about.
KB: It’s an interesting art form, right?
Gisèle Lullaby: Omg, yes, I learnt so much. If you check my Instagram, I think I posted with Shea and Lemon, and we are all trying to learn Korean. (laughs) We were so excited, and we even tried to learn the dance on TikTok. I felt old doing it (laughs).
KB: It’s a hard language to learn (laughs).
Gisèle Lullaby: Right? And every move in their choreography was like a painting. But that’s how you realise how hard it is to keep up with. But it did make me realise that if you are about to start to drag, you should watch that show because it’s so good, not only about how to move your body but what your face looks like too, and it’s important to align your expressions with your body movements.
KB: Their schedules are intense, but when you see the results, like you mentioned, they make it look like a walk in the park.
Gisèle Lullaby: Right? And not more important, just as important. So when you dance, you need to have the face that goes with it; otherwise, what’s the point of using your body when you have an expressionless face? You can’t just go stale. Watching that documentary made me think about how I perform (laughs).
KB: And when you see these groups perform live, it’s so electrically charged and great to watch!
Gisèle Lullaby: Oh my god, they train for hours, but I think it would be perfect for everyone in drag to be like that; everyone improves it by watching The Academy, and let’s become machines (laughing).
KB: Just watch that show as work experience (laughs).
Gisèle Lullaby: Become machine-like (laughs). You’ll see me becoming like a cool old lady, like doing TikTok like the kids, showing them my thing.
*proceeds to do the Touch dance moves*
KB: So with those sorts of tools, would you like to do more tours in the future?
Gisèle Lullaby: Absolutely, I would love to go and travel on the Snatch Game tour; that would be exciting. I would love to work alongside Hanna Conda and her characters. I would love to do my Celine onstage, and I would love to bring that to life.
KB: Who else would you perform as?
Gisèle Lullaby: Oh, I would 100% do my Marie Curie.
KB: Would you consider touring the UK?
Gisèle Lullaby: Yes, please invite me (laughs). I did a tour in France and moved around Switzerland. But never a full UK tour; that would be amazing.
KB: Speaking of the UK, since your last DragCon UK, which feels like forever ago. What’s been your most memorable moment in the last 12 months?
Gisèle Lullaby: Oh my goodness (laughs)
KB: You’ve done quite a bit (laughs).
Gisèle Lullaby: Yes, where to begin. Since last year, oh well, he (points to fiancé) asked me to marry him in front of 25,000 people at Pride!
KB: Oh wow, congratulations! That must have been both romantic and a tiny bit intimidating.
Gisèle Lullaby: Um, Yes so intimidating (laughs)
KB: Do you plan to get married soon?
Gisèle Lullaby: We don’t know when. It’s so hard; you can’t stop working to plan that, as it has been such a crazy year. Like, honestly, it never ends, but it’s great. I’m very lucky and grateful.
KB: How do you balance both normal day-to-day life with the drag?
Gisèle Lullaby: Fine, it’s fine. (laughs) We don’t have as much time with loved ones as I would like. So every time I travel, it takes a little piece of my heart.
KB: It’s all about perspective, isn’t it? Like you’re living the dream and working hard while managing life too.
Gisèle Lullaby: No one will tell you that when you finally reach your dream it means you end up working harder but you go on to appreciate your free time more and try to not overwork or avoid burnout.
KB: Yes, we’ve both realised that lately about creative burnout, because you’re juggling everything.
Gisèle Lullaby: Right? When you realise, like, oh, success comes with more success, but then it also brings stress. In that case I must work harder, but just remember that we have to manage the stress or we bring up the old stress (laughs). OK, just manage it well while working at a good pace.
KB: Plus, you don’t want to turn down opportunities. So you keep saying yes to things; do you find yourself that since you won?
Gisèle Lullaby: Yeah, I get you 100%, and we get there eventually. It’s a hard thing to do, but we’re all living out our dreams right here, aren’t we? Let’s keep going. So for me at the moment, just being around good friends that come with this dream, like Venus, just won last year. This is one of my good friends here today, and I’ve loved her forever, so it’s just nice to have another sister that knows exactly this feeling and, of course, Lemon too! Even Jimbo too, so it’s really great to be surrounded by good friends that have won, and understanding really helps.
KB: Everyone seems to be saying that this weekend, everyone’s happy to see each other and hang out. It’s a very big sense of community.
Gisèle Lullaby: That’s what we want, and we love it. Other places can feel like a ghost town sometimes. Because LA is too fast-paced, it just feels like business and not as relaxed or enjoyable. But when we all come to the UK, we just enjoy ourselves so much more.
KB: More people tend to attend UK DragCon this year. I think it has the most queens in attendance, so is that your favourite part of the weekend?
Gisèle Lullaby: For sure, it’s meeting the queens, as we need to be around people. It’s so much fun. Honestly, it’s like Christmas; it’s like seeing your family. The long-distance cousins you can only visit during the holidays… Only if you want to (laughs).
Kb: So what’s your favourite thing about the UK? What do you like to see when you come here?
Gisèle Lullaby: Well, I love coming here, but this time I went to church. There’s this beautiful big one in Winchester!
KB: Oh, Winchester Cathedral? That’s so close to our home; what did you think?
Gisèle Lullaby: Really? Yes! The cathedral I went to visit. It was good, but I’m sorry it was also weird. Just wow, it smelt like death. (laughs) Why do you put so many dead bodies in your church?
KB: I think it’s because of all the old tombs in the walls, but visiting during Christmas is gorgeous.
Gisèle Lullaby: But at least there are no big ghosts like in France (laughs).
KB: So 2025. Any big plans?
Gisèle Lullaby: Of course, I would like to tell you, but I can’t tell you, wink wink. (laughs)
KB: Will it surprise us?
Gisèle Lullaby: I can’t say much, but it is to do with filming, so I’m really excited because the actress in me loves it. So it’s coming, and yes, I can be an actress. What can’t I do? I don’t really say I’m funny.
KB: You are funny. Don’t doubt yourself!
Gisèle Lullaby: Thank you. I don’t think I’m that funny, but yes, I do doubt myself sometimes (laughs).
KB: Really? I’m surprised how many people over the weekend have said they don’t believe in themselves or they have little confidence. Which seems crazy to me (laughs).
Gisèle Lullaby: (laughs) That’s what I do; I would be dumb to not know that. Now I’m like, well, of course I’m good. I don’t have that imposter syndrome as much, but if you get the imposter syndrome, just know that you’re good; it means you’re humble (laughs).
KB: Especially as you won Drag Race!
Gisèle Lullaby: I know! I was literally sitting at home like, Wow, I’m a nice person who now has to be the best and live up to this title (laughing).
KB: I guess that must have been quite a weight on your shoulder. Did you feel the pressure after you won the crown?
Gisèle Lullaby: Oh my god, of course, of course. That’s exactly why I didn’t push myself again. I had big imposter syndrome—I was like, where even am I? I mean, I’m literally the best one! (laughs)
KB: Isn’t it crazy? You finally achieve your dreams, and then somehow the impostor syndrome is stronger (laughs).
Gisèle Lullaby: Yeah, it’s so funny how we work so hard to achieve our big dream, and then once we do, we can’t believe it and start questioning ourselves. Life’s fun, isn’t it? (laughs)
KB: We’ve gotten very deep all of a sudden, haven’t we?
Gisèle Lullaby: Because we’re good people, aren’t we? We care about these things and ourselves. (Laughs)
Season 17 of RUPAUL’S DRAG RACE exclusively drops weekly in the UK on the streamer of all things drag, WOW Presents Plus. Subscribe now at https://uk.wowpresentsplus.com/