The winner of The Breakthrough Award at the Virgin Atlantic Attitude Awards, powered by Jaguar, talks her chart-topping music career and becoming the first person of colour to win Drag Race in the UK
“You don’t go from seventh place to Queen of the Mothertucking World without going ‘I’ll do that!’ quite a lot,” Tia Kofi responds when I point out what a savvy move it was volunteering to pen and perform the theme tune for Heartstopper: The Official Podcast, which accompanies the new series of the juggernaut Netflix teen romance and is hosted by Tia.
The show’s first two series were almost as beloved for their carefully selected soundtracks as they were for their cast of dreamy ingenues, with many featured artists publicly thanking the show for using their music after seeing a huge spike in their streaming figures as a result. It therefore makes perfect sense why Tia would jump at the opportunity to get her music on such a global platform.
It is, of course, not the only world stage this queen has conquered in 2024, the first being the second series of RuPaul’s Drag Race: UK vs the World, which saw her return to the Drag Race franchise and ultimately emerge victorious. It was a chance to set the record straight for Tia, who, in 2021, emerged from Drag Race’s canonical second series as a firm fan favourite thanks to her wickedly British sense of humour, but faced consistently harsh criticism from judges and viewers alike for her underwhelming aesthetics. Now, she’s the winner of the Breakthrough Award at this year’s Virgin Atlantic Attitude Awards, powered by Jaguar.
Despite leveraging her 15 minutes of fame post Drag Race more successfully than many of her series two counterparts, the queen understandably still felt she had something to prove — to herself, if nobody else — which made her UK vs the World victory all the sweeter.
When we catch up, she is far from the punishingly bright lights of the Werk Room. Instead, she is complaining about the overhead lighting in her living room, which is a little unforgiving on a video call. The queen’s schedule has been nonstop throughout this monumental year, but thankfully, today has been “gentle”, involving little more than tidying her boyfriend’s bedroom, catching up with friend and fellow Drag Race alum Kitty Scott-Claus, and enjoying a jacket potato lunch (with beans and vegan cheese, FYI).
The occasion of our chat? Tia has been informed that she is the winner of The Breakthrough Award at this year’s Virgin Atlantic Attitude Awards, powered by Jaguar. The prize not only recognises her achievements in winning that Drag Race crown, but also in making a lasting impression on pop culture, not just through her work in TV and podcasting, but also music after the release of debut album Read My Lips. The record followed a series of successful EPs: her debut EP ‘Part 1: The Damage’ hit number one on the iTunes pop chart and number three on the iTunes main chart.
Such success once felt like a pipe dream for the queen, who still remembers crying at the thought of even returning to finish her first series of Drag Race UK after the show’s filming was forced to take a seven-month break due to Covid restrictions. “I was in floods of tears because I just didn’t want to go back and finish it. I had such a difficult time with the interpersonal relationships and people not really understanding me because a lot of the queens came from a fashion perspective,” she reveals. A potent feeling of inadequacy marred her first run on the show, she explains, and it struck her from the very first day.
“Having watched season one, preparing for season two, I was like, ‘I’ve got these custom outfits; I’m going to make the final; they’re not ready for what I’m bringing to the table… Then I walk in, and everyone’s like, ‘You’re garbage and you’ll never amount to anything.’” The competition was undeniably stiff in a series that produced some of the franchise’s biggest stars, including Bimini and Tayce, queens known for their elaborate looks. And, as is well documented, competing at the highest level as a drag queen doesn’t come cheap, which is especially challenging when your income depends on the often-fickle world of nightlife.
“Every penny I had went on trying to get things together for that show. Prior to Drag Race UK, I earned maybe £70 on a Wednesday co-hosting the Two Brewers quiz with Sum Ting Wong, then £60 on a Saturday during the Vixens show, and if I was very lucky, there would be another gig in between. So that’s about £120 a week to live in London, pay rent and bills,” she says. “What I will say is I was a lot skinnier because I couldn’t afford to eat!”