America’s next drag superstar had two jaw-dropping reveals during her final lip sync for the crown set to Kylie Minogue’s “Padam Padam”
RuPaul’s Drag Race season 16 winner Nymphia Wind is basking in her victory, but a lot of work went into her final lip sync look, which included two jaw-dropping reveals.
During the finale, which aired last Friday, April 19, Nymphia stepped onto the stage in a bubble tea-inspired look. Bubble tea, or boba, is the national drink of Taiwan — the country the 27-year-old hails from.
Nymphia’s look consisted of a white and brown cape that resembled milk tea, dotted with circular paillettes emulating tapioca pearls (or the “bubbles” in bubble tea). As Kylie Minogue’s “Padam Padam” began to play, Nymphia opened her arms, revealing black balloons that floated up to the ceiling. Watch her reveal below:
The drag queen enlisted the help of designer and Project Runway alum Mondo Guerra to execute the look.
“I wanted to represent my country but didn’t want to make a flag so I used bubble tea,” Nymphia tells PEOPLE. “I had this idea of a big cape that I sent to Mondo, and we then worked out what we could reveal from all that. We came up with the idea of using balloons as bubble tea to fly out of the cape.”
In order to not spoil the reveal as she took her lip sync spot against fellow finalist Sapphira Cristal, the outfit required some careful maneuvering.
“There was helium [in the balloons] so they were always going upwards,” Nymphia explains. “And the cape was pretty heavy. So I just had to waddle and make sure that the cape was shut tight.”
“But there were stairs!” she adds. “That was the hardest part. I had help from PAs [production assistants] to get up the stairs. It was a sight to behold.”
As the balloon reveal wasn’t enough, there was a second reveal in the performance when Nymphia somersaulted out of her qipao [traditional Asian dress] into a sexy bodysuit — one of her own creations in her signature color yellow that she describes as “hot bitch realness.”
The drag artist posted Instagram Stories of her practicing flipping out of the qipao during fittings, which was also designed by Guerra. She executed the second reveal flawlessly on the main stage.
In fact, the only issue she had came beforehand, when she was packing the look up for the performance!
“It was a pain in the ass,” Nymphia jokes. “That bubble tea outfit was very hard to bring [to set]. I had to buy different boxes and pack the bubble tea.”
It certainly paid off. Not only did the reveals and her acrobatic performance land Nymphia the crown, but she also got kudos from famous fans, including Minogue herself, who tweeted, “Just AMAZING,” followed by six exclamation marks.
Well, well, WELL!!!! Just AMAZING!!!!!! https://t.co/MXeaXSfFPu
— Kylie Minogue (@kylieminogue) April 21, 2024
However, it was the shout-out from Tsai Ing-wen, the President of Taiwan, that she’s still in disbelief over.
“Congratulations to you, Nymphia Wind, for being so accomplished in the difficult art form of drag, and for being the first Taiwanese to take the stage and win on RuPaul’s Drag Race,” Tsai wrote in English on Instagram. “Right after being crowned queen, you said ‘Taiwan, this is for you.’ Taiwan thanks you for living fearlessly.”
As for what’s next, Nymphia has big plans.
“I want to do a lot of collaborations with different kinds of artists that really expand the idea of drag,” she explains. “And I want to be the cultural tourist ambassador of Taiwan. I want to produce these shows and incorporate Taiwanese culture like night markets, Peking opera, and temple fairs with drag performances.”
But for now, she’s still in disbelief at being crowned America’s Next Drag Superstar.
“I’m still in that haze,” she explains. “‘I don’t know if I’ll ever be out of that haze. We’ll see. Maybe at 70 years old when I’ve on my deathbed, I’ll be like, ‘Holy f—. I won Drag Race season 16.'”
Source People.com
