Start your engines: ‘Sensational’ Rhondda drag queen to appear on RuPaul’s Drag Race

RuPaul’s Drag Race returns to TV screens this Autumn for its seventh season  – and this year is sure to be a standout, as it is is set to star one of Wales’ brightest drag talents and comedians, Catrin Feelings.

Catrin joins eleven other fierce and fabulous drag queens are raring to go in their bid to snatch the crown and become The UK’s Next Drag Race Superstar on the BBC Three and BBC iPlayer series.

Over ten weeks, the award-winning cult series sees twelve hopeful queens compete in a variety of spicy challenges and iconic games designed to test their drag skills, with the winner of the week being awarded a much-coveted RuPeter badge, and the bottoms of the week facing a Lip Sync For Their Life and the risk of elimination.

RuPaul, affectionately revered as Mama Ru, leads an esteemed judging panel that includes regular judges Michelle Visage, Alan Carr and Graham Norton, as well as a host of special celebrity guest judges. Together they deliberate the fate of the queens, but it is Mama Ru, queen of queens, who has the final word on who stays or sashays away from the competition.

 

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Meet the Queens

RuPaul will ru-veal the 12 brand-new hopefuls in Meet the Queens: Series 7 (1×20’), which is available now on BBC iPlayer and will air on BBC Three at 9pm on Sunday 24 August. The series premiere date will be revealed in due course.

RuPaul’s Drag Race UK is a World of Wonder production for BBC Three and BBC iPlayer commissioned by Fiona Campbell, Controller, BBC iPlayer and Youth Audiences and Kalpna Patel-Knight, Head of Entertainment at the BBC. The Executive Producers for World of Wonder are Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato, Tom Campbell, RuPaul Charles, Bruce McCoy, Matt Green, and Johnni Javier and the BBC Commissioning Editor is Ruby Kuraishe.

Catrin, 26, from the Rhondda Valleys was asked to introduce herself, saying: “My name is Catrin Feelings, I’m 26, and I am the blonde bilingual bombshell from the Rhondda Valley all the way from south Wales!” before the BBC did a deep-dive into all things Catrin.

How long have you been doing drag?

So, I have been doing drag for about four years now. It started off in my bedroom, but I love the attention, and then after lockdown I just thought life’s too short. I thought, ‘Chuck yourself out there Cat, what’s the worst that can happen? Probably end up on Drag Race’. Look at me now!

What can we expect to see from a Catrin Feelings show?

You’re going to get all the camp classics, and you’re going to get a bit of nana humour. Expect a lot of sparkles. There’s one thing you all need to know about Catrin Feelings, she’s not going nowhere near a stage without a feather or a sparkly gown.

Where did your drag name come from?

I wanted a pun and something Welsh. It came to me after listening to a Little Mix song. It was ‘Motivate’, and the lyrics go, ‘O na, na, I’m catching feelings’, I was just like, ‘oh it sounds like they’re singing Catrin Feelings, and so that’s why I’m called Catrin Feelings!

Tell us more about Wales?

I absolutely love Wales. I think it’s about time to have a bit more Welsh campness in the show! I am from the Rhondda Valley. Growing up in the Rhondda, it was a bit black and white, there was no grey area. If you were different, people would make sure to know that you were different. Mind you, can you imagine me trotting down the street dressed like this?

Which challenges are you most excited for?

Do you mean which challenges am I going to win?! One hundred percent it’s Snatch Game. Girls, she is coming for it! Best believe you should all be scared because Catty Feels is going to win that badge.

I think comedy is where my strongest skills lie. Maybe my looks too, but, you know, I got to let the other girls win a badge for something, haven’t I?

Why do you deserve to be crowned the UK’s Next Drag Race Superstar?

It feels right girls! I want to show how far hard work can get you. I left my job to become a full-time drag queen, that’s how serious I am. Drag is just everything to me. I absolutely love every single bit of this.