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 by crowning the first-ever drag queen winner of the franchise… and let’s just say that RuPaul’s Drag Race fans are feeling absolutely “UK, hun!” about this result.
On Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024, RuPaul’s Drag Race UK season 2 star Tayce became 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.
Tayce competed in the 2024 edition of the Strictly Come Dancing Christmas special against Josh Widdicombe (comedian and author), Vogue Williams (TV host and podcaster), Harry Aikines-Aryeetey a.k.a. Nitro (Olympic athlete), Tamzin Outhwaite (actress), and Billy Monger (car racing driver and TV host), as reported by the BBC.
In the end, Tayce was the only competitor to receive a score of 10 from all four judges — literally 10s across the board! — with her performance of Kylie Minogue and Dannii Minogue’s “100 Degrees (Still Disco to Me)” off the 2015 album Kylie Christmas.
Tayce and her professional dancing partner, Kai Widdrington, performed a cha-cha-cha number to “100 Degrees (Still Disco to Me)” that earned them an overall score of 40 points. The highest-scoring duos behind the champions were Outhwaite and Nitro, who each received scores of 37 points.
Drag artists who previously competed in the overall Dancing With the Stars and Strictly Come Dancing franchises include Drag Race finalist Courtney Act, a two-time runner-up in seasons 16 (2019) and 19 (2022) on the Australian version of Dancing With the Stars; Drag Race and All Stars 3 star Shangela, who finished in fourth place on Dancing With the Stars season 31 in the U.S.; and Drag Race France winner Keiona Revlon, who also placed fourth on Danse avec les stars season 13 in France.
Congratulations are in order to Tayce!