All hail queen Shea Coulee! The Chicago-based stunner stormed through the RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 5 competition and was crowned its winner over Jujubee and Miz Cracker in the final episode that aired Friday, July 24. It was a triumphant victory for her after her devastating loss in season 9 to eventual winner Sasha Velour during a season where she was widely considered to be the front runner.
It’s a sky’s the limit kind of thing for her now that she has that coveted crown that only a handful of other queens have won. She spoke with HL about a lot of things that happened on the show including who she thought her biggest competition was, her favorite runway lewk, how the super sexy Ricky Martin smelled and more!
Congrats on the win! The past couple of days must have be amazing for you.
Yes they’ve been wild to say the least!
I want to take this back all the way to the first episode. Who did you think was your biggest competition was when you saw all the other queens?
Jujubee. It’s hard to put into words how much I love her. Even prior to All Stars 5 and then like now after its all said and done Jujubee has been a good sister of mine. So when I saw her walk into the werk room I was like, “OK. I know what she is capable of and she is absolutely fierce. She has the charisma, uniqueness nerve and talent and could definitely be here in the end.”
You did very, very well on AS5 to the point where you were only in jeopardy of going home once early on. Was there a moment during the season that you were like, “I got this”, or were you a ball of nerves from beginning to end?
Minus that hiccup on episode 3, besides that, I was like “I got this”, because you have to believe in yourself. I gave it my one hundred and ten percent every day on set and when we got to the final 3 with the group number and the lip sync I was like, “I’m in my element. I can’t slip up. I just have to give it my all.”
It seemed like there were some very obvious lip sync assassins that weren’t there this season. Who were you surprised to not see?
Yeah. I would say Trinity K. Bonet, Dida Ritz, Brooke Lynn Hytes and Kameron Michaels were all girls I was expecting to see.
Did you have a favorite lip sync yourself that you were either in or witnessed?
Oooh that is so tough! I would have to say my favorite, personally, would be my Snatch Game lip sync to Madonna’s “Open Your Heart” against Vanessa “Vanjie” Mateo. In my house growing up we were more Janet Jackson vs. Madonna. Although I was familiar with “Open My Heart”, I never performed it before. Never been in my repertoire. So when it came time to do it, I don’t know, I just felt that song. I felt like for me it showed the audience like how much I love to connect the lyrics to tell the story.
What was it like meeting Ricky Martin during the premiere? Were you gagging?
He smelled amazing! He was standing next to RuPaul during the reading challenge and what people didn’t get to see was that we all gave him a big hug before reading each other to filth. We all took advantage of that!
Your runway outfits were absolutely incredible this season, shocking no one. Did you have a favorite lewk that you stunned in?
I love them all in so many different ways. I had so much fun in every single challenge bringing myself into them. I would probably have to say that the one I loved the one the most was the outfit I wore during the Love The Skin You’re In challenge. The Swarovski stoned bodysuit that was airbrushed onto my body. It was so heavy though!
Let’s also talk about your amazing Snatch Game of Love performance as Flavor Flav. Was he your first choice?
He was my first choice. He definitely was. I just fell into it while it was happening and gave into the character of Flav. When I saw it back months later I was like, “Holy crap. That was insane!”
So now that you’ve won what does the future hold and what can fans expect from you?
The goal for the future is to diversify my resume and portfolio. I just finished filming a pilot which was so much fun. I haven’t acted in anything scripted in over 10 years so getting back into it was great and really pushed me in so many ways. So I’m really hoping that that it will be picked up and I can be back in people’s living rooms in a different context.
I’m also working on some makeup collabs and I was talking about how I had actually come across a collection that I designed in my 20’s that I still feel is actually quite classic and timeless. Now that I have some coins I kind of want to produce it!
I’m in the process of doing the music video for my single “Collide” that you saw in the talent show on episode one as well as writing and producing my one-woman comedy show that will be touring through the U.K. in May 2021.