A Lip Sync Performance, most commonly referred to as a Lip Sync for Your Life, is a
crucial aspect of RuPaul's Drag Race. At the end of each episode, the two (or sometimes more)
contestants who performed the worst in that week's challenge are placed up for elimination,
indicating that they must lip sync to stay in the competition.
Following the lip sync, the queen who (in Ru's opinion) performed best will be told
"Shantay, you stay," while the eliminated queen will be asked to "Sashay away."
In certain cases, both contestants may end up being saved by Ru, or alternatively,
more than one queen may be eliminated.
Trying to explain this moment of television — two people dressed up as old ladies pretending to sing “New Attitude” while going buck wild with their choreography — to someone who has never watched Drag Race feels like a fever dream. And that is precisely what makes this lip sync so iconic. Kameron and Eureka both brought out all of their tricks and a healthy dose of over-the-top acting to make us buy into this ridiculously fun performance.
Double Shantay - both of them
For just over two minutes, both Anetra and Marcia presented a masterclass in how you handle a Lip Sync for Your Life on RuPaul's Drag Race. Both queens came at Doja's song with the burning intensity that her voice conveys, attempting at every opportunity to outdo the other with various tricks — when Marcia decided to spider-crawl down the stage, Anetra took her opportunity to leap Free Willy style over her arched body. Neither queen relinquished control of the song until they had finished, demanding viewers' attention with every split, dip and kick they could muster.
Anetra
All-Stars season 2 switched things up a bit, where the top two queens lip synced for their legacy, with the winner getting to choose which of the bottom two (who did not lip sync) was sent home. Mid-season, the eliminated queens were brought back for a chance to return to the race. Alyssa Edwards and Tatianna were the top two returning queens and had to lip sync to both stay in the competition and to choose the queen who was to go home. What followed was one of the strongest lip syncs Drag Race has ever seen.
Double Shantay - both of them
"All Stars Supergroup" is the eighth episode of the second season of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars. The episode has the final four contestants—Alaska, Detox, Katya, and Roxxxy Andrews—write, record, and perform original verses to RuPaul's song "Read U Wrote U" for the main challenge. This was probably the best finale performance in All Stars history.
Alaska
To call what Brooke Lynn and Yvie did in this lip sync “acrobatics” feels wholly inadequate. The feats of human contortion that both of these queens committed to during this wild performance still boggle fans' minds to this day — between headstands, bouncing splits, walkovers that also serve as wig reveals and everything else these two served, “Sorry Not Sorry” immediately stands out as one of the most iconic lip syncs to ever grace the main stage of Drag Race.
Double Shantay - both of them
It's fitting that, after making it through an entire season without lip syncing, Sasha Velour would show off like this. Everything about her performance here is magnetic — even when she's not shaking rose petals out of her wig and gloves, Sasha is communicating every iota of emotion her body can hold through her face. There's no denying that Shea performed the hell out of “So Emotional,” but she was dancing on Sasha's stage; after all, Ms. Velour owned that number.
Sasha Velour