South Auckland-raised Kween Kong is already firmly on the podium in RuPaul’s Drag Race Global All Stars, aka the Olympics of drag. 

If you are missing the patriotic highs of Lisa Carrington gliding across the finish line, Hamish Kerr sailing over the high jump bar, or Finn Butcher conquering the rapids, look no further than the first episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race Global All Stars. In the thrilling conclusion to the season’s first global talent extravaganza, South Auckland-raised Kween Kong took the stage with Drag Race royalty Alyssa Edwards in a lip sync battle to Rihanna’s ‘Only Girl the World’. 

Edwards is a formidable opponent with a decorated history in this specific arena. She’s known for spinning jump splits, writhing for her life in the face of wig reveals, and this entire performance of ‘Shut Up and Drive’ in All Stars 2, often referred to as the best lip sync in Drag Race history. But that title might be contested after Kween Kong went totally airborne mid-song to execute a jaw-dropping barrel roll. She was, as Vanity Vain simply put it, “rolling in the sky”.

When asked about her now-signature move from London, where she jokes she is “turning barrel rolls into bankrolls”, Kong reveals the manoeuvre hasn’t always elicited the warm response it received on the Drag Race mainstage. “Before, people would be like ‘what a crunchy move, this is gross’,” she chuckles. “I’m like, ‘you try it first and see if it’s hard or not – you land on the ground gracefully, without breaking your knees, while also being a stacked 110kg man’.” 

These feats of physicality are nothing new for Kong, who joined contemporary dance company Black Grace at age 16 – just as an offer also arrived from the All Blacks. The Sāmoan-Tongan powerhouse was also a young track and field star, inspired by Beatrice Famuina and Valerie Adams. “These Pacific Island women who competed at the Olympics were my icons,” she explains. “So when I heard that about the theme being the Olympics of drag, it felt so good.”

Having warmed up in Drag Race Down Under, where she made history as the first Pacific Island queen in the Drag Race multiverse, Kong says Global All Stars was a significant step up. “Firstly, me and Spankie [Jackzon] had to walk sideways to get onto the main stage in Down Under, because we’re such big bitches, and the stage was so small,” she cackles. “So when we walked onto that Global main stage, it was just overwhelming… I almost passed out.” 

Competing against queens from all around the world, Kong describes a fascinating mix of cultures in the workroom. “Everyone had such different cultural references. Some of the fashion and ideas that those European girls brought-” she pauses. “I mean, Down Under we are just such cheap queens.” For example, a quick drag challenge saw Kong purposefully “look a mess” in one of Spankie Jackzon’s old wigs, where the other competitors arrived perfectly coiffed. 

“When we were standing up in the lineup, I was like ‘I think I misheard the brief’,” she laughs. “Our humour is very different, we’re a lot more like the UK in that we are very good at taking the piss out of ourselves and each other.” 

That said, Kong’s artistry could not be further from any suggestion of cultural cringe. “I was always so lucky to work under Neil [Ieremia, Black Grace founder] and learn how to honour your Pacific heritage, but meet it in a more contemporary way,” she explains. “Any opportunity that I have to be on a platform like this, I take it so seriously. I like to use this time to make an impact, start a dialogue, or push versions of Down Under drag that haven’t really been seen before.”

Those versions of drag look less like blonde-haired, blue-eyed waifs and more like Big Bertha, Buckwheat, and all the other local queens who raised Kong back home in Aotearoa. “I’m always thinking about my aunties on K Rd that were seven foot stacked drag queens, that had size 15 feet and big shoulders,” she says. “They are these big Pacific Islanders with such maternal and loving natures, and that ancestry was always at the forefront of everything that they did.” 

Kong has already brought much of her heritage to the mainstage, dressing in a handwoven corset inspired by Samoan tapa and custom jewellery which also drew from traditional designs. Performing her own song ‘Global Savage’, which weaves in Samoan and Tongan language and was written with the help of Samoan-Māori artist Jamaica Moana, Kong cried the first time she watched the episode back. “I just knew that I wanted to bring the village to the main stage.”

The performance ended with Kong yelling “stay down, coloniser”, which soon became a catch cry on set. “For the whole rest of the production, Ru [Paul] would scream that out,” Kong laughs. While drag is inherently political, Kong’s performance felt like the most overt activism on the mainstage. “Yeah, there are queens that are the life of the party, which are amazing, but then there are the queens who stand at the front of the protest and throw the bricks. And that’s me.”

Which brings us to the current moment of backlash towards the LGBTQIA+ community, most recently manifesting in protests against drag storytime events. “It’s ridiculous and it’s all a distraction tactic,” says Kong. “Until a drag queen walks into a school and beats a child to death with a copy of To Kill a Mockingbird, I feel like the real predators are not the ones dressed in glamorous wigs and costumes – they are hiding in plain sight.”

To the Brian Tamakis of the world, Kong has a clear message: “all we want is to be seen as equal, and all we’re doing is trying to make sure people know that they have a community that they can connect to if and when they’re ready.” While the battle for queer rights rages on, Kong is buoyed by the next generation. “I look at the kids now and I see how open and beautiful and free of shame and guilt they are, which is such a departure to what I experienced growing up.”

And when she’s not on the frontline of activism, or plotting “global domination” on the Drag Race stage, Kong can be found in Melbourne, where she was able to buy a big house for her whole family and move them over from South Auckland. “It’s totally grounding,” she laughs. “Because no matter how big and successful I get, or how much money I make, as soon as I walk through the door, my mum does not care – ‘do the dishes, do the washing, babysit the kids…’” 

Even the best of the best can’t barrel roll their way out of that one. 

Watch Kween Kong in RuPaul’s Drag Race Global All Stars on WOW Presents Plus.