‘Welsh Queen’ is ‘bringing new meaning to the word fierce’, says Vogue magazine

A “big-hearted Welsh Queen” is “bringing new meaning to the word fierce” according to Vogue magazine.

Tayce, from Newport, is one of the final four queens gearing up to lip sync for the crown in the grand finale today (18 March), of series two of BBC Three’s the official RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, which is streaming on iPlayer.

The 26-year-old Welsh contestant, who introduced herself to the show by saying “bore da bitches!” and describing herself as a “sexy owl”, said she loves to “to bring a bit of colour to the world” and vowed to show people “what Wales has to offer”.

At the very beginning she said that she was on the show to win, and that she expected to “make it right to the very bitter end.”

Bore da, bitches.

Meet @its_tayce, she's like a sexy, Welsh, owl. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 pic.twitter.com/07DCzJx0eN

— RuPaul's Drag Race UK (@dragraceukbbc) December 16, 2020

Tayce, who now lives in London, told British Vogue: “Welsh people? We can hold our own. It’s such a special honour to be on the show representing Wales. Being able to represent my POCs and Welsh people… I am just living.

“Growing up in Newport, there weren’t a lot of other Black kids at school, and I’ve had my fair share of racial discrimination.

“We’ve all had it at some point. To be on the show and for young kids to be able to have someone to look up to… I just love it. I’m very headstrong, but there are some people out there who might need that extra nudge, or might not be as positive or confident.

“So, for them to see me – the epitome of the little Newport hound – being on the show and not changing a thing speaks volumes. Some people are saying I’m a new age icon. I’ll take it.”

She added: “I think some people think I practice this stuff and write it down, but it’s just the stuff that comes out of my mouth. I don’t even know where it comes from, I don’t know when or why or what the rhyme or reason is, but I’m glad that people love [it],”

‘Personalised tin of Heinz baked beans’

British Vogue also revealed that Tayce was excited because a personalised tin of Heinz baked beans has just been delivered to her home in south London

She said that doesn’t really remember the first time she did drag, but after getting fired from a series of jobs, from waiting tables at Nandos to cleaning to filing, she made it her full-time profession in 2017.

Tayce said: “Everyone would fire me because of my timekeeping, and they’d be like, ‘Tayce, I want to keep you, you’re lush, but you’re late. So, I need to let you go.’ And I’d be like, ‘You know what girl? I get it, love ya, no hard feelings.’”

Tayce told the magazine that a weekly trip to McDonald’s was enough of an excuse to pull together a look. “I would wear a braided headband wig with a pink feather boa around my nipples.

“Then, I’d take a scarf and tie it around my waist and then pull all these other scarves over it so it was a hula skirt. I didn’t care, and my parents never cared.

“A lot of my confidence, it has to be said, has come from my parents giving me creative freedom from a young age. I was never told you can’t wear this, you can’t wear that. I was never treated like I was something to be gasped at, or that I was something different. It felt completely normal.”

She also revealed how she previously went as Tayce Szura-Radix, but decided to drop the double-barrelled surname and now goes by her first name only.

Tayce said: “I thought, Beyoncé is Beyoncé. And my name isn’t Ben, Percy or Harry — it’s pretty out there. I’ve got a good name, so I’ll keep it.”

She said that the drag isn’t and that instead it is more of an extension of personality: “I might visually look different, but it’s not a character. So that’s why it had to be my name, it can’t be anyone else. If I start calling myself Priscilla I already take myself away from [drag]. My drag is me.

“For me, personally, what you see is what you get and that’s it. So, I’m not going to come off the jump by giving you a fake name.”