Strictly Come Dancing — the original U.K. series that's aired for 20 years on the BBC and was adapted into Dancing With the Stars in the U.S. — just made history on Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024, by crowning RuPaul's Drag Race UK season 2 star Tayce as the first-ever drag queen to win any season of Strictly Come Dancing around the world.
Tayce's casting alone had already been herstoric as the first-ever drag competitor of the U.K. series. However, winning the Glitterball Trophy made her appearance on the show even more legendary.
via: Pink News
The performer has perfectly shut down claims that her success could take the show in “a very different direction”.
Tayce and her dance partner Kai Widdrington were crowned the winners of this year’s Christmas special after being praised by judge Craig Revel Horwood for their cha-cha, which they performed to “100 Degrees” by Kylie and Dannii Minogue.
They won tens across the entire judging panel for the routine, with Tayce – who is gay and uses she/her pronouns whilst in drag – beating the likes of podcaster Vogue Williams (who danced with Gorka Márquez), Gladiator and Olympian Harry Aikines-Aryeetey (with Nancy Xu), actress Tamzin Outhwaite (with Nikita Kuzmin) and racing driver and TV presenter Billy Monger (with Nadiya Bychkova).
However, after a clip was shared to Strictly’s official Instagram account of their winning number, one commenter expressed “confusion” about Tayce’s “character/persona”.
The commenter seemed to believe that her inclusion is akin to including characters from soap operas and TV shows on the dance competition series, appearing to disregard Tayce’s identity.
“Personally, I really enjoyed Tayce, but think her appearance could open the door for the show taking a very different direction,” the commenter wrote.
To this, Tayce had the perfect response, and simply replied: “I am me.”
Unfortunately, the drag artist is no stranger to navigating online hate – especially in the run-up to her appearance and win on Strictly Come Dancing. “I’ve seen hate, I’ve seen it’s controversial, it’s provocative but that’s all the things that I am I wouldn’t change that for the world,” she offered in a recent interview with MailOnline.
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