Van Goth didn’t just win Canada’s Drag Race Season 6 — she was undeniably a dominant force it. With the most challenge wins in the franchise’s history and an unapologetically honest approach to the game, Van emerged as both a fan favorite and a polarizing figure. Some viewers labeled her a “villain.” Others saw a fiercely talented queen playing a smart, strategic game. Either way, Van left her mark on the Canadian franchise.
Looking back on her run, Van is clear about one thing: she never set out to play a character. “A priority of mine going into it was not to make good TV. I just knew I naturally would,” she said. “I feel like I have a lot of opinions, a lot of strong opinions. I’m a little bit of a hothead. And so I knew that in that room I was going to definitely give it, but I was never trying to force it. I feel you could feel when it’s forced.”
As for being labeled a villain, Van doesn’t reject it — but she doesn’t fully own it either. “I would say the word villain gets thrown around a lot. To me, I was very honest, I didn’t bite my tongue and I pushed back when I didn’t agree with something. And that’s what I did. I never attacked anyone, I never came at someone for no reason,” she said. “So I think a lot of Drag Race fans want to call that villainous, and if you want to call me the villain, then I’ll take that. But the truth is, I think more than anything, I was just honest and I wasn’t afraid to say my opinion.”
Track record and friendship/rivalry with Eboni LaBelle
One of the most iconic elements of Van’s season was her fierce friendship — and rivalry — with Eboni LaBelle, who was runner-up. The two queens quickly became known as the “Scissor Sisters,” pushing each other week after week to new heights.
“I feel Eboni and I pushed each other through the competition to do better. I think there came a point in the season where we were just going win for win. It was like, you won, then I won, then we won together, and then you won, then I won,” Van said. “Especially around the slay-off when she won that, I was like, damn. Okay, so she has two wins now, I have two wins, I need to step it up.”
Their rivalry never got messy — only more motivating. “Going into the semi-finals, the penultimate, we each were like, ‘We need this so badly.’ Having someone like that, a competitive rival, was so fun. It’s so cool to have so much of our Drag Race experience linked together… and then to end up being the final two, lip-syncing for the crown and having that lip-sync and sharing that moment together and our little kiss — it was the perfect cherry on top of the sundae.”
While Van made history with her track record, she never let it go to her head. “I never wanted to feel like I had it in the bag,” she said. “Especially with Eboni, I feel like looking at my heels, I feel like every time I got a win, she was right there… It did feel like a lot of points, a two-horse race between the two of us, but then it did and it didn’t.”
Part of the uncertainty came from the season’s new slay-off format. “PM would be in the bottom and send home these strong competitors,” Van explained. “And then I was like, if I end up in the bottom with PM, am I going to go home? Because I’m like, I can’t dance like that… So I guess in a little way I was scared because I was like, I cannot be in the bottom. I might go home to somebody who has no challenge wins.”
The new rules kept her on her toes. “Everything there felt so real… it felt like you were going in on an even playing field and then whoever won the lip sync stayed. It wasn’t about track record. It wasn’t about any of that. It was the lip sync for your life. And if you won it, you stayed… It never made me feel like I had it in the bag because it always felt like I could go home at any minute.”
The discourse of all the season’s design challenges
Online, some fans criticized the number of design challenges this season, especially with Van’s background in fashion. But she’s not here for the excuses. “They all say too many design challenges, but if you actually think about it, I was the only contestant to do all three. Most of them didn’t even do one,” she said. “The way our season was set up… there were also multiple performance challenges, multiple comedy challenges, multiple acting challenges, multiple personality challenges.”
“If you think about it, we had a performance challenge week one with the ‘Not Sorry Aboot It,’ we had the slay-offs, and then we also had the charisma part of the contest. So there are three performance challenges right there. I think what people are upset about was that it felt like there was no competition for me — but is that my fault? We don’t get mad at a trained dancer… Brooke Lynn Heights, for example, a trained ballerina. We weren’t saying, ‘Oh, it’s not fair to put her in a dance challenge against someone who’s never danced in their lives.’ Because that’s Drag Race. We all have our own skillsets and our own things.”
“There have been, what, 300 seasons of Drag Race around the world? All these girls walking into Season 6 — maybe you should have taken more sewing classes before they showed up.”
Though she may be polarizing, Van’s fine with that too. “I think I’m a polarizing character, and that’s totally fine. You could just say you don’t like me — I don’t really care.”
Looking ahead, Van sees Season 6 as a turning point for the Canadian franchise. “I feel like this season will definitely change the way the next one’s played. I think that we showed the girls, you can be strategic, you can play the game the way it needs to be played — and it’s okay. So I feel like I can’t wait to see what the girls on Season 7 are going to do after we shook up the game.”
The post Van Goth Gets Candid On Amount Of Design Challenges On ‘Canada’s Drag Race’ Season 6 And If She Thinks She’s Truly The Villain appeared first on Blavity.
