Y'all thought the World Cup was an international extravaganza? Just get ready for what the Drag Race franchise has in store for fans this summer! It all starts with the premiere of Drag Race France Season 4, which marks the franchise's return after taking 2025 off to let France's All Stars reign for a bit. Now 10 new queens from all across France — and even Belgium — are ready to storm the stage and show off for the series' iconique panel of judges.
Those judges are, of course, led by host Nicky Doll. The warm-hearted fashion queen returns for her fifth season as host after launching Drag Race France in 2022. Over her tenure as host, Nicky's fostered a kind of radical empathy with the queens, a rapport that makes the series a truly resonant watch. Also, the Nicky's looks are gaggy and the challenges are fierce. Truly, Drag Race France always gives you want you want.
Pop Heist had the chance to chat with Nicky Doll ahead of Drag Race France's grand return. We had a lot of ground to cover with Nicky, from shouting out French pop stars to (of course) talking about her own All Stars FOMO. But first, we had to ask about Drag Race's other big debut this week, one that stars one of Nicky Doll's Season 12 sisters ...
Brett White: Your Season 12 sister Jackie Cox is competing on Canada's Drag Race All Stars. Are you excited to see Jackie back at in the race?
Nicky Doll: I am super excited to see Jackie Cox back at it. We both competed on Season 12, and she became with Jan Sport two of my absolute closest friends. And I’m really, really excited. She’s such a smart, kooky — and I love her aesthetic and where she takes inspiration from her drag.
And now you’re coming back with Drag Race France Season 4. You took a year off, but you did All Stars last year. How does it feel coming back to do — not a normal season, but—a flagship season—
A regular —
A regular season.
I like “flagship” though. Actually, I love that we took a break in a way, because now I’m even more excited to discover new talent, you know? I was excited to see girls back in the competition. Now we’ve done that. Gaga introduced the final lip sync on All Stars, which was iconic. And now I was really excited to meet new girls, and boy, are they talented and exciting. And the new season really feels like a new chapter — a new era — of the franchise.
And you have a new — okay, I’m gonna butcher this — Ann Gun? Anjun? The new judge.
Oh, Anggun! [laughs]
I saw that she joined the judges panel, and I was like, “Who’s that?” And I went to her Wikipedia, and I was like, first of all, it has her signature on it, so therefore you know she’s a big deal.
Yeah.
And I was like, this is so much. I don’t have time to read this.
Oh, she’s an icon.
So like, for us Americans, who is she? What should we start with?
So Anggun is an Indonesian absolute superstar, and in the ’90s, when I was growing up, she became famous on the French scene, because she had a song called “La neige au Sahara,” which then she sang, in English, called “The Snow on the Sahara,” which is a desert, and it became an anthem in France. So she really became someone who was both famous in Indonesia, in her country, and in France. And one of, you know, one of the most beautiful pop stars that I can think of. Stunning, and still stunning. Anggun gave me a pretty good run for my money when it comes to being pretty on the mainstage. I was like, “I don’t think you read your contract really well. You’re not supposed to be prettier than me.” [laughs]
Also you gotta do the Werk Room looks. You gotta serve with those looks. And you always turn looks in the Werk Room. What thought goes into putting those together?
Well, you know, I’ve always been a fashion queen. I’ve always wanted to tell a story through my aesthetic, because I pull so many different references from like a nerdy side. I see your whole G.I. Joe collection in the back. I’m a big video game nerd, and the villains from Final Fantasy, old villains from Hollywood movies, like Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct — all of these things become Nicki Doll, and so, I guess that’s how and why people connect to the looks that I pull.
The other big change of this season is that you now have the Golden Baguette, which allows the week's Maxi Challenge winner to save one of the bottom three queens from lip syncing. That’s a Canadian invention that has now taken over the franchise.
Well, we’ve had our own — we had a telephone on Season 2 that was kind of like shaking things on their head. And this time, because we really wanted to go back to like a French aesthetic, we felt like, “Oh, maybe we could do this little stunt that would be really funny.” But as funny as the title is, the repercussion of it can be pretty dramatic or pretty uplifting, because that twist really allows the girls to create alliances. So it can show the sorority, but it can also show the result of it. Which means someone is in trouble.
If you’d had a Golden — I don’t know, a Golden Hot Dog or whatever on America, on Season 12, how would you have played it? Would you have given it to your friend? Or the person that deserved it?
If I go back to my mindset of Season 12, I would have probably done what’s fair. But if I go now as a host, I would have probably just, like, been a little more evil about it to secure my own ass.
There’s all these All Stars seasons going around. I interviewed Brooke Lynn Hytes about this: Do you ever have any All Stars FOMO? Because you went from being a contestant straight to being a judge, and now you’re a very successful host and judge. And you’re on your fifth season of doing it. Do you ever have that itch to compete again?
Oh, absolutely! And I think that my itch is even bigger than Brooke, because Brooke was Top 2; I was Bottom 3. And my English was so unpredictable and green at the time, that I never really felt like I was competing to the most of my abilities. So I definitely have a FOMO. But, at the same time, I think Brooke and I really agree on that we wouldn’t succeed on an All Stars if we keep that same dynamic, because the girls would literally see us with a target on our forehead. Being, “You don’t need this. You can leave, and we actually need that airtime." So, we will compete at another time if the format is different. More host friendly. An all hosts or Drag Race for charity. But I would love to compete, and I genuinely love all these girls.
What are you listening to? Are there any French pop singers that you’re super into right now?
Yeah! Bilal Hassani who is kind of like our Pablo Vittar of France. He’s really, really good, and he released a new album, Capitale, that was really good. Who else—there’s Kalika, who does hyper pop, and she’s really phenomenal. And then of course all the classics, like Lorie, Mylène Farmer, Vendredi sur mer, all of these people. And of course Daft Punk, because I still claim Daft Punk. They are French. They don’t sing in French, but they are French and I hope everybody remembers that.
How has Drag Race France impacted, shaped, or reframed the drag culture in France?
I think that it definitely gave drag queens a purpose in a way—a financial purpose. Because before, when I was starting in France, you would do drag out of passion. You wouldn’t really make money unless you were working in a cabaret field. So if you were a female impersonator and you were doing Liza Minelli five days a week, then you were having a job that was paid. But if you were just a drag queen doing gigs, bingos and stuff like this, it was not really part of the culture at the time. You were doing drag go-go dancing, and you were probably spending more money to put the look together than the pay you were getting. So now it really allowed viewing parties to happen. Bingos. It allowed straight people and allies to be more curious about what a drag night is. So I feel like the girls really now have more of a local scene that they can really survive in without having a side job.
Drag Race France Season 4 premieres in America on WOW Presents Plus on July 8
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