Canada's Drag Race is up there getting the girls. There's nothing "polite" about Drag Race's neighbor to the North — and that's what's so great about Season 5. We're only two episodes in and already we've seen twists and turns unlike any we've seen in the entire global franchise. The Golden Beaver was just the beginning of Canada's goops and gags. Seriously — writing, recording, and performing an original verse all by yourself on top of being judged on entrance looks?! Who could have prepared — ?! All these twists are making for great TV, but the way every queen in Canada Season 5 is already dominating has quickly made this one of the best of the 38 seasons of Drag Race from 2024.
It's telling how good this cast is because, well, look who went home first! With a cast this stacked, we were bound to lose someone essential to the vibe right out the gate. And with a truly out-of-this-world challenge in Episode 2, "Greetings Queenlings," Season 5 claimed its first queen: Tara Nova. The personality, the beat, the confessionals, the looks — yes, the looks! — were all correct, and still she got zapped.
Here to kick off Pop Heist's coverage of Canada's Drag Race Season 5 is our conversation with the Newfie queen herself, Tara Nova.
Brett White: I will start off with flattery: I liked all of your looks!
Tara Nova: Me too! I liked all my looks. I step on that runway and literally was like, "What are they saying to me? I do not agree." I am self-aware enough that I could look at myself in the mirror and be like, "Okay, girl, that's fucking ugly," but I think that there was definitely way worse looks beside me — so we'll keep it at that.
I thought your entrance look had a personality and that we saw that point of view in every single thing you did. Did the judges ever acknowledge that?
No. Everybody looked at me afterwards, like after filming and stuff, they're like, "How'd you deal with how harsh they were to you?" And I was like, "I don't know. I'm 23 and I don't know!" I just kind of stood there and was like, "I think you guys are wrong, but okay! You're hurting my feelings right now." [Laughs]
What I like about Canada's Drag Race is that you have Brooke Lynn Hytes there, who has done the show. She gives very specific feedback. Have any of Brooke's notes stuck in your head?
The issue is that they looked at me and they were like, "Your makeup: Perfect. You're the best looking queen on this stage. Your personality: Perfect. Can sit down and talk to you all day. You have the best personality." So I was like, "Okay, tick, tick, tick, tick — everything is good." But there's random reads coming out about my looks. There was nothing for me to really take away, because they were telling me I was perfect, just that my looks needed to be upped a notch. And I'm like, "Okay, that's great, but I'm here now. So what is some criticism you can give me that I can then show you I can take the critique and modify?"
You were very proud of being a Newfoundland queen and representing East Coast drag. I know what East Coast drag means in America, but what does that mean in Canada?
You would probably think East Coast drag is New York queens, queens of Maine, places like that. The East Coast of Canada, unfortunately, is very, very, very restricted in resources. A lot of people don't have a lot of money. It's not like the East Coast in the States. The East Coast in Canada is like, people don't come from much typically. I'm on an island specifically on the East Coast, as far east as you can go in Canada. We have crazy import fees and there's so many limitations. That's why when I was getting these critiques, I'm like, "Okay, well, there's nothing that I can do to make this better. I did my hardest. I worked the hardest I possibly could to get here."
What has the reaction been from the community back home. Are they proud to see their queen on the show?
Yes. Everybody's so proud. Everyone is so happy that I'm there. I've been known throughout Canada since I started drag, because I've been very passionate and I've always been a seamstress since I started. Everybody was anticipating me being there. Everybody was so excited that I was there. People are still excited, even though I was eliminated. Everybody's kind of stepping back and looking at it and being like, "Oh, that really doesn't make sense." It doesn't make sense to me either, babes!
Usually writing and recording your own verse is a thing that is reserved for finale queens. And I love that you have a verse on a Ru song. What pressure to do that, especially in week one!
We even did it without anybody around us, so we had nobody to bounce these things off of. It was strictly by ourselves, like completely, before we even met people. So you had to take this opportunity, you had to sit down, and if you never wrote a verse before, then that's it. That's all you can do. I will say that people hated my verse in the beginning, because it is bad. But if you don't have an iconically good verse, you want an iconically bad verse. And if you switch it up on everybody online, then they end up loving it. That's exactly what I did. All the girls on my cast are like, "You are a PR dream! You just completely turn everything up on his head and make people love you because of it." And I'm like, "Well, that's the Newfie charm."
Because you were in the bottom for week one, you got to be a captain in week two. What's the strategy for picking a team? Because that's always drama.
A lot of us on our cast knew who everybody was, so I was so happy when I got first pick, because, Uma Gahd was right beside me and she is so nutty and weird and does so many productions in Montreal. And if she's a Montreal queen, it means that she's very fruity tootie. And I was like, "Oh, pick! You are mine." And I was so happy to have her on my team.
That was a ridiculous challenge. Making a PSA for aliens coming to Earth?
And it's not even like we were given a script of any sort. We had to write and direct and we had to do all of the work for this. We weren't given any materials. It was like, "Okay, here you go queens. Make it work!"
Canada's Drag Race takes what you know Drag Race to be, the formula and the challenges, and they flip it on you — like with the Golden Beaver. It's like you no longer can prepare like you could have for previous seasons. Canada's Drag Race is getting y'all.
They are getting us! And the thing is, I'm a seamstress. I was like, "Girl, Episode 2 is gonna be a design challenge. I got this in the bag. I'm about to win." And I walk in, they're like, "PSA!" And I'm like, "Fuck! Why?"
I did really like your alien character, though. You were talking about turning a bad verse and making it good. You now can kinda do what Kahmora Hall did with her tree character and make it iconic.
Exactly! When I came home, I was like, "I just Kahmora Halled that so hard!" I'm kind of happy, because it makes you remain in that cultural zeitgeist. These are the things that you have to do with this platform. Even if it's bad, make it memorable. Because, if you can make a memorable moment, you're forever in the zeitgeist. People will reference you, people will use you as a meme. This is what this platform is for. If you come out of it and you don't have a meme and you made no impact, why'd you go to Drag Race?
So you're prepared to be the, I guess the Tinky Winky of Canada's Drag Race.
Yes! I will be the Tinky Winky — and the nipples behind me from the Pit Crew is the sun.
You had to lip sync against Tiffany Ann Co. to a Peaches song in front of Peaches. Tall order!
Having to do a lip sync in front of somebody who owns that song, who's sung that song? Who is the person of that song? Is just wild, so surreal. I was like, "I don't want to disappoint this lovely person!"
Peaches was great. She was very engaged and gave great feedback. You could feel that.
I'm gonna be completely honest: I was up the other end of the stage and I could not hear a word. I was just going, "Yeah, yes!" And then I watched the episode back last week, and I went, "Oh, she was actually really nice to me! That was really, really sweet." Thank you, Peaches! I just couldn't hear you, babes.
Did you always have an exit line in mind or does that come on the fly?
No, that was on the fly as I was literally walking back. I was like, "What do I say? What do I say? What do I say?" And I got to the end and — there is a song that is specific to Atlantic Canada called "Heave Away." And it's also on trash bins here, like the company is called Heave Away. So I was literally at the end of the runway, and I was like, "Let's do it! Heave Away!"
Follow Tara Nova on Instagram at @itstaranova. New episodes of Canada's Drag Race Season 5 premiere on Thursdays on WOW Presents Plus.
