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"Drag Race U.K." Winner Danny Beard Dishes on That Emotional Finale Lip Sync

"I've never experienced anything like it. It was out-of-body."

From the moment Danny Beard stomped into the workroom RuPaul's Drag Race U.K. viewers knew she was a star — but if you have seen Danny's live shows in Liverpool or seen her perform on Drag Idol, then you already knew that.

Danny sashayed into Season 4 with charisma, uniqueness, nerve, talent, and confidence, which had her sailing through the competition with four RuPeter badges and never being in the bottom two.

By the time the finale arrived, RuPaul announced that the battle for the crown was between Cheddar Gorgeous and Danny. The two queens delivered an emotional lip sync to Shirley Bassey's "This Is My Life" which left the queens, including some of the judges and crew members, in tears.

In a new interview with Logo, Danny reveals what was going through her mind while lip-syncing for the crown, what it was like to hear RuPaul name her the winner of Season 4, and what advice past winners had for her.

Maybe I'm a little psychic, but from the moment you walked into the workroom I thought you would win the season. So, were you surprised to see yourself in the finale?

You know what? I don't want to sound big-headed, but it felt right, but you just don't know. You don't ever know how it's going to go. You don't know what challenges you're going to get. I did also firmly believe that if they gave me a dance challenge followed by a sewing challenge, I'd be out. I think I even said that on the show. So, when I made it through those challenges very early on and then I started getting the improv and the things that I know I'm good at, that's when I started thinking, shit, I could go all the way. After that musical week, that's when I was like, I can do this. I feel like the fire was lit under my poonany to get me there.

You told Tia Kofi that this was your third time applying for the show. Would you have applied again or was this the last time?

I'd also told myself that this is the last time that I was going to apply because I thought any drag queen that's reading this now, they'll know how much effort and time and stress, and emotional energy you put into applying for this because you see how it changes people's lives and it takes them onto this next level. I'm hoping that's what it can do for me. But it got to the point where I was previously, I think the first two times I'd put everything into just applying for the show. Then the letdown and then you rev yourself up and apply again.

This was the first time where I just put everything back into my own drag and was really focusing on me. I think that's probably why I got it because it was like I wasn't trying to do a tape thinking what's Ru looking for? I just answered the questions as me. I was very similar to where I am in the confessionals. I was just me. And because of that, that's the mentality I went into the show with, just be you and you can't do right or wrong. If you're only me, that's me. That's it.

It wasn't until the finale that I realized that we never saw you lip sync before then. I know no one ever wants to be in the bottom, but was there ever a time when you wish you were up there showing off your lip-sync skills?

Would've loved to have done that "Another One Bites the Dust." I'm a massive Freddie Mercury fan. I love Queen and I quite often finish my own shows, — I'm a live vocalist, ladies and gentlemen — and I often finished that with "Boh Rap," so I would've loved to have done that. But I was never in the bottom, so I was quite happy not having lip sync until it was for the win. I think that was my second ever lip sync performance in my life. The first one being the "Queens of the Bone Age." I'm not a lip-syncer, it's not what I do. So I was making sure I was doing it every night in that hotel and trying to get as good as I could if it happened.

That Shirley Bassey lip sync in the finale, I was gagged. And it seemed like everyone on set was crying. What was going through your mind when you were performing that?

It's a blur. It's like you're possessed by the performance devil. I say it all the time when I come offstage of my own shows, my partner will say, "This was a really funny line, you need to use that again." I'm like, "Did I say that?" He's like, "Yeah, everyone was crying laughing, are you joking?" It was the same with this. It felt like Shirley Bassey's voice was coming out of my lungs, I've never experienced anything like it. It was out-of-body. Ru looked like she had tears in her eyes and all the crew come out and watched from behind the cameras and they were all screaming. I can't even describe what the moment was like, because you know this is the final moment now. You've done everything you need to do in the competition. So there's a lot of pressure and emotion and everything that just went into it. I think you can see it when we do it.

Then I'm curious about the finale watch party, what was that night like? I watched the video of your reaction when you were crowned the winner, what was that moment like?

The watch party was nice. This has been a year nearly of our lives, from the minute we got the call to filming and wrapping and then all this. Then you relive it again over the last 10 weeks, you see the end product. Now that's all finished. So it was a nice way of the whole cast getting back together, watching it together. The top four, it was a private screening, but we watched it in a separate private screening half an hour before everyone else so that we could come into the room and do the Q&A, and it wasn't all completely overwhelming.

I'd got into my head that this was a Cheddar Gorgeous win. We both had four badges. I think I had a slightly better track record. So in my mind that's like, Ella Vaday had the best track record and Krystal [Versace] took the win [on Drag Race U.K. Season 3]. So I never thought the track record really meant much. It's Cheddar Gorgeous, she's an absolute icon. So I had genuinely prepped myself for a Cheddar Gorgeous win. So when Ru said my name, I was like... You can see the reaction. I don't think I'll ever live it down. But thankfully, Jonbers [Blonde] also had a dramatic reaction because she was so happy for me as my friend.

I saw that!

Jonbers has gone viral, not me. It looked like someone had just kicked me in the dick.

Did you get any advice from the past winners?

I think the main advice is pay your taxes. The other advice is just enjoy it. But I am enjoying it and I've literally gone straight from the crowning onto a U.K. tour, and I don't know if anyone's ever done that. But I'm obsessed with work and I love meeting people. I'm most comfortable when I'm on stage, so it just felt like the right thing to do.

During the critiques, Graham Norton said that he would stand in a queue in the rain to watch you perform. How's it feel to hear that?

I've watched Graham since I was a small child and always dreamed of being on his chat show as a guest and actually being there because I've got a talent and people wanting to talk and find out about me. To hear him say that was so surreal. Some of the comments that you got from the judges, things that you saw, things you didn't see, were so lovely. That was the kickstart of this outpouring of love from people. I'm still seeing it now, people that maybe stop me on the street or stop me at a meet and greet or talk to me in a show. It's all just so loving. I think that's the show that we've got to thank for that. It's a breeding ground for love, which could have minging connotations, but we'll go with the nice ones.

You were telling Tia how the week that Dakota Schiffer went home was the worst week. Why?

How on earth? It was weird because Ru wasn't there, so it felt weird anyway. Ru has a motherly head teacher [vibe], and everyone behaves when Ru's there. When Ru's not there, everyone's a little bit more relaxed.

Substitute teacher vibes.

Yeah. Michelle's so lovely, she's nice but she wasn't Ru. I just envisioned Dakota in the final. In my fantasy, in my head, Dakota was there, standing next to me. It just didn't feel real. It was so heartbreaking because I felt like we'd spent so long helping Dakota realize you're a star, you're infectious, you've got this thing that you don't know you've got. She never quite believed it and I felt like she just started to believe it. Then it was like a kick in the tits.

Yeah.

Yeah. She actually said to me the other night as well, because we really don't see people when they get taken off. She said she could hear me from where she was going back into the workroom, still crying. These are big TV studios, so God knows how loud I was crying.

WOW/BBC Three

I loved your last look. Was that an homage to Liverpool?

Yeah, it was like a phoenix rising from the ashes. The Liver Bird. The shoes were horrendous. Can I just tell you the shoes were not supposed to be the shoes I had on. My shoe broke and it was like, "Okay ladies, you've got two minutes." I was like, where are my black shoes? I was ripping all my things out and obviously, I had these feathers on that I didn't want to break. The only shoes that were on my workstation, they were the Lairy Poppins character shoes that I got from the show [the Rusical] and I had to throw them on my feet. I just knew in the moment that I'd watch it back and I hate them and they just didn't go at all. They looked horrendous, but no one's clocked it on the internet. No one said, "What were those shoes?" In my mind them shoes ruined the whole thing.

But thank you, I liked the look. It was a nice look. Also, there was a lot more detailing on that I didn't realize might not read on camera. You learn a lot about this when you do it, but there's quite a lot of mesh and it just looked a lot of black on the screen, but I'm being overcritical.

No, it was beautiful.

Thank you.

Then the finale aired on Thanksgiving here in America. So I'm just curious, what are you thankful for this year?

Fucking winning it, babe! I've just won my own TV show in Hollywood. I'm so thankful for being given the opportunity. I've said it on the show so many times. I never saw myself as a Ru girl. I never thought my style of drag would be on there. After the second time applying, I really started to believe that. So not only to do the show, do well in the show, have people love me from the show, have people love the person behind the drag from the show, the winning is the cherry on the top. So I'm thankful for the whole experience. It's not even been a week and my life has completely changed. So, it's nuts.

Can you tease anything about your upcoming digital series with World of Wonder? What can fans expect?

We've got to talk about it a little bit more. I think my ideas are going to be bigger than the budget. But listen, I've got a few different ideas and we've got to agree on it, but it's always been a dream of mine to have my own TV show. So to make my first one with World of Wonder just feels so right because they gave me such an amazing opportunity.

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