Kandy Muse reveals mama's advice Xunami Muse didn't take for “RuPaul's Drag Race” talent show
Kandy jokingly tells EW she would "whoop Xunami's ass" for her performance: "Mother knows best."
Kandy Muse knows drag daughter Xunami Muse has star quality strong enough to carry the family legacy — but, the season 13 and All Stars 8 alum exclusively tells EW's Quick Drag podcast (below) that she's ready to (lovingly) "whoop Xunami's ass" for not following her motherly advice heading into the RuPaul's Drag Race season 16 talent show.
After Xunami's musical number during Friday's premiere episode underwhelmed the judges and her fellow cast members — most of whom ranked her low on their peer reviews as part of the Rate-a-Queen voting twist — Kandy reveals a lesson she tried to give Xunami before her beloved daughter and close friend entered the Werk Room.
"You have three weeks, you have to get X amount of looks together. It's hard. I always say that mother knows best. When Xunami was getting ready for Drag Race, I helped her to the best of my ability without getting in the way of allowing her creativity and freedom to flow," she says. "I don't want to cloud your ideas with what Kandy Muse wants."
She recalls Xunami selecting an original song to use during her number, and says vocals for the track were recorded in about 20 minutes.
Next, Kandy remembers recommending that Xunami visit one of her mama's choreographer friends in New York City to prep some moves for the performance.
"She's so stubborn sometimes. It was the day of [leaving for the show] and I was like, 'Okay, the talent show clearly will be the first episode, did you do choreo for the song?' And she was like, 'No girl, it's okay. I'm going to give it,'" Kandy says. "I was like, oh girl. She got back home when she wrapped filming, she was like, 'The talent show, I should've had choreography!' This is why you listen to your mother, someone who's done it previously! As Twitter said, she lived up to the Muse legacy, because season 13, episode 1 was rough for me."
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Kandy Muse and Xunami Muse on 'RuPaul's Drag Race'Kandy — who also admits that she cried tears of happiness while watching the first episode — says Xunami wanted her to widely communicate the news about not listening to her mother, primarily because the variety show performance wasn't up to the queen's usual standards. Like the rest of the season 16 cast confirmed in EW's group interview, Kandy teases that Xunami will make Untucked interesting this year, "whether it's drama" or "having a kiki with the girls."
Xunami made Kandy proud in other areas of the competition, though. Particularly on a future runway that sees her using Kandy's iconic season 13 boom box, as teased in the first season 16 trailer that dropped in December.
While the return of the boom box on season 16 is no secret, Kandy reveals a hilarious story about how the bulky prop made it to the season 13 set with help from a fellow RuGirl.
"It was during COVID, I flew to L.A. three days before going to go film season 13," she says, adding that the designer gave her the prop — which doesn't break down for easy transport — during a final fitting for her entrance look. "I had to fly back to New York to pack for Drag Race to fly back to L.A. in three days to go film, so I couldn't bring it back to New York," Kandy explains. " Production was a bit late to pick me up [at the airport], so we had a small window where Mo Heart drove to the Burbank airport and snuck the boom box into baggage claim on the floor and snuck out. That's the only way I was able to bring that boom box to the set of season 13."
Listen to Kandy discuss Xunami's performance — plus her own Rate-a-Queen rankings, status update on her relationship with Tamisha Iman and her All Stars 8 sisters, and tea on recent seasons of the Drag Race franchise she says she politely declined to join — in the podcast episode above, and catch up with all of EW's Drag Race in the Quick Drag feed below.
RuPaul's Drag Race season 16 continues Friday at 8 p.m. ET/PT on MTV.
Subscribe to EW's Quick Drag podcast for recaps of RuPaul's Drag Race, including reactions from the cast, special guests, and more.
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Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.
