Saphira Crystal entered the RuPaul's Drag Race season 16 finale as the clear front-runner for the top prize. As she says, she walked away a winner — even if she wasn't named America's Next Drag Superstar.
In the high-octane finale (airing Friday, April 19), Cristál nearly won the $200,000 prize money, advancing to a final showdown with Nymphia Wind to Kylie Minogue's 'Padam Padam'. But Wind swept away with the title in the end, despite Cristál's hilarious, vampiric performance.
But all was not lost – before her showdown with Wind, Cristál did Drag Race story when she and Xunami Muse both won Miss Congeniality, a title awarded to the queen and considered the most gracious of her competitors. It's also the first time a finalist has won the award since season one, when Nina Flowers was crowned the show's inaugural Miss Congeniality.
Below, Cristál chats with Advertising sign about her performance on the show, her love of character shoes, her weird connection with Beyoncé, and how she hopes to use her platform to promote overwhelming self-love.
Congratulations on making it to the final lip sync and winning Miss Congeniality! How do you feel after watching this weekend?
I feel great. There were two possible outcomes, and the one I didn't want was the one we got. But… as Xunami said [during the finale], “I might not have won the crown, but I won the crowd.” I won the hearts of America and I really like that.
I am so proud of Nymphia, I am constantly in awe of her talent. She is really very beautiful, quite the queen and I can't wait to see what she does with this platform. And I know that, as part of the top two, I have a platform and we will do it Many great stuff with it.
If I'm honest, it felt like a no-brainer that you'd be taking home Miss Congeniality. With this title being voted on by your fellow competitors, what does being chosen mean to you?
I feel very conspicuous! Not only to be Miss Congeniality, but to still be in the top two with this award is huge — that hasn't happened since the first season of American! It's amazing to know that people knew that everything I did was genuine and that they didn't think I had an ulterior motive. Honestly, it was just me, and they could see that. Some people had some things to say about how nice I was at certain times in the competition, but at the end of the day, if someone comes to me for help, I'm going to give it to them. If they don't ask me for help but I see they need help, I will give it!
There really was an issue of you being the “mother” of the season. Is this a role you're used to playing outside of the show or did it come up while you were filming?
Oh, I'm a mother enough few children crawl. But I'm also the only Libra in this cast, and I seek balance at all times. If I see that things are out of balance, or if people are having moments where they just aren't in it to win it, I have to get them out of there. Because I wasn't there to compete against people who were stuck in their ways, I wanted to compete against people who were in the game.
Of the four challenges you won, which one stands out as your favorite?
Definitely the 'Power' show. Not only was this song about inspiring people to vote, but I also enjoyed singing, dancing and living my full imagination! And now I'm getting to do it in real life — I just teased my new single “Enough” and a six-song EP, and y'all ain't ready for this music! When I think about the kinds of things I want to do as a performer, it always comes back to inspiring people with my music and my performances and helping people know that they are enough — and that's what we did with the 'Power' number.
One really important question I have for you — did your character's shoes survive the filming of the show?
Yes, they survived, they are alive and well… and I already had two more pairs! Look, the thing about character shoes is, yeah, I'll wear them all the time. I'm not 150 pounds — I need to wear something that will properly support my weight. I BROKE Many a shoe, because I'm a stunt queen and I do a lot of things that make it so I'm constantly popping my shoes. I also need to make sure I can do all the same things I do now when I'm 40… and I'm 35! [laughs]
You got so creative with all the ways you managed to hide your shoes throughout the competition, it almost became a fun game for the spectators!
Exactly! I mean, if you think about it, there are so many girls who wear the same shoe over and over again on the show. They'll paint it one week, add some glitter another week, do whatever needs to be done. I had several shoe covers, because I knew I would wear these shoes many times. These are $300-$400 shoes. I'm not trying to get 50 different pairs of these!
Your solo performance of the finale, “Dance!”, was so much fun — tell me a little bit about how you approached putting the whole number together.
Yes, I loved this number. What happened was we gave them a lot of references from our time on the show, citing what we wanted to talk about in our numbers. And I wanted to talk about self-love, coming into yourself and accepting who you are, because that's very much my platform. Especially in this world of social media, it's really hard to compare yourself to others and not feel inferior. So I wanted to make sure the song was a big self-love anthem and I was so happy with how it turned out.
It was so good, as was your performance in the final lip sync. When you started thinking about this final battle, how did you come up with this delicious vampire idea?
Well, we knew the last song was 'Padam' — and let me be very clear, I didn't know the song that well, because we had wrapped up the shoot when the song blew up! So when they gave us the song, we were like, “Wait, what's that?” Everything is different when you are part of the feeling as it happens, and we were not part of that feeling. So when you go into it not knowing what's going on, it gives you a new perspective.
The more I thought about the line “I can hear your heart beating,” I thought, “Who really listens and listens to hearts?” Because of that, and because it's such a catchy song, I started thinking about it Bladeof From dusk till dawnof interview with a vampire all those sexy vampire movies! I was laughing the other day because I saw a meme on my face that said, “The new Nosferatu looks sickening.”
I know you mentioned some of your upcoming projects, but what else do you have for your fans to look forward to?
I've been so focused on my new music and my upcoming tour. The Cristál Ball tour will be a magical, musical comedy touring in July and August — it's really everything to me right now and I can't wait for the fans to see it.
Any music in particular you've been listening to a lot lately?
cowboy carter, obviously. So much of my career and my own music has been inspired by Beyoncé — and fun fact, Beyoncé and I went to the same high school! What's interesting is the song 'Caro Mio Ben', which he sings in the background of 'Daughter', it's a song that every freshman in our high school had to sing. For the first recital, each freshman would sing “Caro Mio Ben” back to back. So I had this very special connection when I heard her sing it, because I know that when she was a freshman in my high school, she had to sing that song.
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/culture/pride/drag-race-sapphira-cristal-miss-congeniality-beyonce-interview-1235664931/
