Drag Race UK winner Lawrence Chaney: 'I thought Bimini was going to win!'

We spoke to Lawrence Chaney about winning RuPaul’s Drag Race UK Season 2.

The first Scottish winner of Drag Race UK has had a whirlwind 24 hours.

Lawrence Chaney found out she had won the coveted crown at more or less the same time as the rest of the world did.

Immediately, Twitter blew up with some fans expressing their disappointment that fellow finalist Bimini Bon Boulash did not win.

Lawrence Chaney, winner of RuPaul's Drag Race UK Season 2, joins us on Zoom

As she joins our Zoom interview – full glam in a pink glittery shirt, with pin-up hair and ‘snatched’ make-up – she is asked how she’s doing.

"I’m alive,” the 24-year-old says, echoing her final lip sync song: I’m Still Standing, "It’s been really weird. I still don’t know how to process it.

"I’m really mind-blown by it all. It will probably settle in – it will never settle in. It’s very bizarre.”

The grand finale of the biggest drag competition in the world filmed three different endings, with each of the top three – Lawrence, Bimini, and Tayce – winning the crown.

Lawrence Chaney in the finale performance of Can You Feel The Love?

It aired on BBC Three at 7pm last night. So how did Lawrence Chaney watch the final episode and how did she react?

She said: "I think we all found out after everyone else found out. We put our phones away and because they recorded multiple endings.

"I didn’t think I was going to win, I thought Bimini was going to win.

"But then I thought I was getting eliminated every episode. So maybe that’s a self confidence issue there!

Lawrence Chaney winning the Drag Race crown for Scotland

"When I won I just broke down and cried. It was a really full circle, amazing moment.”

Lawrence has previously spoken about deleting her Twitter account after receiving ‘vitriolic’ messages after her fallout with fellow Scot Ellie Diamond (they are now friends again).

It can’t have been easy when social media exploded with comments like ‘Bimini was robbed’ and calling the result an ‘injustice’.

She says: "A lot of people describe my journey and say ‘you started really high, then you won three in a row, and then you floundered in the last few weeks’.

"The way I perceived it was that, when I went into the bottom for Snatch Game, that’s the worst thing that can happen in the show.

"Because I’d been there, all insecurities I had, all that panic, went away. For me it has been a steady increase of confidence throughout the whole competition.”

The prize for winning the show is starring in their own Hollywood television series. So what are her plans?

"I’ve had ideas, and I definitely want to move into the whole hosting side of things.” Lawrence says.

One concept she is interested in is interviewing queer people from all different background about their experiences.

She’s also open to presenting and said she’s intrigued by reality television – but feels Dancing on Ice might be a step too far.

"If Gemma Collins fell face first on an ice rink, imagine what would happen to me,” Lawrence says, “That would be rough.”

This is a pivotal moment for the Scottish drag scene which she is proudly a part of. Based in Glasgow, Lawrence maintained she wouldn’t leave the city for the big lights of London.

"It’s quite an underground scene still. We’re talking a scene that pays queens right now £15 a gig.

"And one of the people that got £15 a gig has won Drag Race UK.

"We are overlooked. But that doesn’t stop us. We’ll keep glue-gunning, we’ll keep performing, we’ll keep making you laugh.”

BBC Three’s RuPaul’s Drag Race UK is available to watch now on BBC iPlayer.

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