'Drag Race Philippines' season 3's John Fedellaga breaks out of her online box: 'There's more to me'
The queens of Drag Race Philippines season 3 were put to the test once again as they put on a Rusical inspired by the Broadway hit Wicked.
A quick recap: Zymba Ding and Myx Chanel shined in the "Aawicked Kita!" challenge as they played Elvie and Glenda, respectively—a spoof on the musical's Elphaba and Glinda. John Fedellaga and Popstar Bench landed in the bottom and lip synced for their life to Dadalhin by Regine Velasquez.
Eventually, it was John who sashayed away, leaving the queens visibly emotional. They were in tears as they came up to hug the departing contestant.
"We're really close," John told PhilSTAR L!fe in a Zoom interview attended by other members of the press.
"We're really trying to uplift each other's spirit every time," she said of her fellow season 3 queens. "That's [my] favorite part of Drag Race, our bond."
Breaking out of the box
ICYDK, John is a pretty established drag queen before Drag Race. Living in San Francisco, California, she has her own YouTube channel with over 1.26 million subscribers where she posts videos of her talking to random people on Omegle.
John shared that creating content online is "way different" from her stint on the reality drag competition.
"This creating content, it's just so easy for me, but [I thought,] how am I going to bring John Fedellaga's content to the Drag Race stage? [It's] very challenging. It's not that easy," she said.
"But I realized that I don't have to be comparing myself to anyone. And it actually worked. [I just stuck] with my brand, stick with John Fedellaga, because if I'm going to [keep on] looking at the girls (other competitors), [it] will be messy[.]"
The San Francisco-based queen added that she was able to show more of who she was on the show.
Speaking on how online queens are underestimated on different franchises of Drag Race, John said that fans shouldn't just stick to what they watch or see online.
"There [are] more things than what you guys are always seeing that we always put on our content," she shared.
"The reason, too, that I joined Drag Race is because I really want people to know that there's more [to] me, and I wish that they would do the same to [other online queens]."
John added that she joined the show as her followers didn't know about Drag Race. "I wanted them to see how good Filipino drag excellence is."
New episodes of Drag Race Philippines and Untucked stream on HBO Go and WOW Presents Plus on Wednesdays, 7 p.m.