After a competitive season filled to the brim with drag performers at the top of their game, RuPaul’s Drag Race season 16 finally crowned its winner on Friday (April 19) — and fans are going bananas.
After a series of solo lip syncs and one final Lip Sync for the Crown to Kylie Minogue’s “Padam Padam,” Nymphia Wind was officially crowned America’s Next Drag Superstar and the winner of season 16. The fashionable, yellow-loving queen triumphed over her sister Sapphira Cristál in the final lip sync, dressing herself up as a massive cup of bubble tea and delivering a series of iconic outfit reveals to earn the competition’s coveted prize.
In winning, Wind made history for the show — with her ascension, the queen became the first East Asian performer to win RuPaul’s Drag Race, and the first Asian queen to take home the crown since Raja was crowned on season three, 13 years ago.
Accepting her scepter from RuPaul, Nymphia addressed the audience during the finale. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and have the courage to live your truth,” she said, before declaring “Taiwan, this is for you!”
Below, Nymphia chats with Billboard following her victory, breaking down her excellent showing throughout the season, her love of bananas, her reaction to the President of Taiwan congratulating her, and how she created her memorable finale lip sync.
Congratulations to you, our current reigning! How are you feeling after a weekend of celebration?
Well, I have two answers. First, I feel very excited to have won this dream of mine, and it’s crazy to be able to live this out for my community and my country. It really means a lot to me to be able to live this. But second, in reality, I am dying. [Laughs.] I want to sleep! I have no feelings anymore! I am dead inside!
I can only imagine that the last 48 hours has been a lot for you.
Yes, it has been a lot, and the problem is it’s getting to be more and more of a lot. But there are worse problems to have. I am enjoying this torture, because I’m doing something I love.
You spoke before the finale about wanting to break the “Asian curse” on Drag Race, since no East Asian queen had ever won the show, and the last Asian winner was Raja in season three. What does it mean for you to be the one breaking that curse?
It’s truly amazing. That’s why that win means so much to me, because it’s a win for the entire community. Because I remember when I was younger and I would watch the show, I said “I want to be the first East Asian to win this show.” Fast forward to now, and here we are — thinking about it is really crazy. You can dream big, and it will work itself out!
Even the President of Taiwan Tsai Ing-wen congratulated you for your win and thanked you for “living fearlessly.” As someone who has been championing Taiwan throughout this competition, what was that like to see the president say that?
I fully gagged. I screamed so loud, that was truly so crazy. It was such a sweet message, and to be able to get that recognition was absolutely amazing. I mean, she’s the literal President of f–king Taiwan! It makes me feel like I was successful in actually making my country proud. Ugh, it’s so beautiful.
You recently explained your obsession with bananas, saying that you look good in the color yellow and you wanted to combine that with some campy, phallic imagery. How many bananas or banana-themed gifts have fans brought you so far?
Girl, too many! No, it’s really fun to see the fans bring banana things, I love it when I see it. I will say, when they bring me actual, real bananas, I have to tell them that I can’t take them. Like, I will sometimes eat them in front of them because that’s fun, but if you give me a bunch of bananas during a meet-and-greet, I’m sorry, I can’t take those. But I will sign it! Like, traveling with bananas is not happening, sorry. But it is really cute seeing fans bring all these bananas to the shows, because ultimately, Nymphia Wind is a cult! I’m going to make everyone yellow bananas!
This was a truly phenomenal season for you as a competitor, especially when it came to your runways. You have such a good eye, not only for creating haute couture, high-concept fashion, but for always giving it that little twist that made it so camp. The pussycat wig look comes to mind.
Yeah, usually, I got to read the brief on each runway theme and let my imagination run wild. The question always starts with, “What can I do to make this cool?” And then you build off of that. The inspiration really comes while I’m in the process of making the looks, so the full concept is always still in development while I am putting things together.
That pussycat outfit was originally made for Chinese New Year celebration for the Year of the Rabbit, and it was supposed to be finished in January. But I wasn’t able to finish it in time for the celebration, so I just kept working on it here and there, but didn’t end up wearing it anywhere. So then, when I got the brief for the pussycat wig look, I just knew I needed to fit something into that slot. So that’s where that look came from.
There was a running theory on the show amongst your competitors, where they were convinced that every time you complained about being stressed heading into a challenge, you were never actually concerned and were really just playing mind games with them. What’s the truth?
I, 100%, felt like I had no idea what I was doing during filming. The other girls were definitely a little annoyed at me and kept saying that I was crying wolf, but I had truly no idea where they were coming from at the time. That is my natural process — I complain, I whine, I stress out, I self-doubt, and then ultimately, I know what I need to do and manage to pull it together. Being on Drag Race is genuinely scary and daunting, because you’re living with this fear of going home or someone outshining you, and the challenge is about pulling yourself together and making it work. So, the work room really became the place for me to get all that panic out of my system.
It did give us some of the most iconic moments of the season, where you would just do and say truly unhinged things on a regular basis. Have you continued your Spanish lessons with Morphine?
Nope! “Dame más leche” is still the only thing I know how to say in Spanish!
This finale reminded me a lot of season 9, where we have a finalist who never lip synced on the show, and then absolutely demolished their first proper lip sync of the season. How did you come up with this bubble tea-inspired concept for your “Padam Padam” lip sync?
I knew that I was either going to be up against Plane or Sapphira, and with Sapphira, I knew that her looks are always these big, parade float-style looks. I knew I needed to come in with something big, too. I also knew I wanted to represent my country with this lip sync, but I didn’t just want to stick a flag onto my dress and call it a day. That, to me, is a bit too cheesy. So, I thought, “Maybe I should be a giant bubble tea,” because that’s the national drink of Taiwan. I talked with a designer, and they came up with the idea of the balloons floating up.
Then, I knew I wanted to have a second reveal, and I wanted to do it while doing a cartwheel at the same time, because I wanted to make each reveal a little more interesting. We literally built the look with the cartwheel and the stunts in mind, and the rest ended up working itself out.
Before we let you go, what can fans expect to see during Nymphia Wind’s reign as America’s Next Drag Superstar?
Honestly? Expect the unexpected. There’s nothing to expect — all you can do is sit back and watch.