Drag Race Down Under Queens Confirm Bizarre Fake Production Lip Syncs

Drag Race Down Under star Gabriella Labucci has ignited an international conversation about a bizarre lip sync practice used by the Drag Race production team.

The season three finalist shared the production story on a recent podcast episode this week.

And the news has got fans worldwide in a spin.

Drag Race Down Under production secrets

On the Pressed Conference podcast with Nirupam, Bombae, & Amanda, Gabriella Labucci revealed that production staff were actually re-enacting their lip sync for the judges after they performed.

“When we lip sync we have to go off stage to get de-mic’d” she revealed.

“And while we’re getting de-mic’d the production staff are lip syncing on the stage and the judges reactions are being filmed to that” she went on.

She explained the purpose is to get extra reaction shots for editing purposes, meaning that the reaction shots we see are not always the judges live reacting to the queens performing.

“So when you see the judges reactions it’s not to what we’re actually performing” she stated.

Co-host Bombae reacted with shock and disbelief .

“You’re making a fool of us, that’s not true” they said.

“I’m dead set this happens” Labucci said.

“Because our stage is so small you can’t get the same shot of the judges watching us.”

“So, you lip sync and they splice the two together?” Bombae clarified?

“I thought this was common knowledge” Gabriella stated.

The clip quickly went viral racking up over 2.5 million views in two days with many fans completely gagged at the process with several queens from Drag Race Down Under jumping in to verify the claims.

Season three queen Amyl clarified Labucci’s statement saying “It’s half true! They have the cameras rolling during the lipsync BUT the crew does lipsync while we get de-microphoned.”

Season four queen Lucina Innocence also verified this “The PAs doing it it also a sound/lighting test, they capture the judges fake reactions as backups but they definitely do actually react and film the judges during the real lip sync too” she said.

Season three queen Flor agreed saying “True” while Drag Race UK Vs The World winner Blu Hydrangea chimed in saying “Same for UK.”

The story also picked up the attention of fans of Sasha Velour who have read her book, with them pointing out she had made this revelation already.

“Have u ever read Sasha velours book? She says that the reaction of Rupaul and people on the audience was recorded after the lipsync” wrote one user online.

Sasha Velour wrote about this in her book and how to this day she doesn’t know if RuPaul’s reaction to her rose petal reveal is an actual reaction to her or a reaction to a PA in a shake and go wig https://t.co/khXTLQSl01

— Mikelle Street (@MikelleStreet) May 21, 2025

Users were quick to share the extract of Sasha Velour’s book that specifically mentioned this happening after her final lip sync against Shea Coulee at the season nine finale.

“They brought some “stand-ins” onto the stage–two guys in cheap blond wigs, smeared with a bit of lipstick. They started playing Whitney’s “So Emotional” again” she wrote in her book The Big Reveal: An Illustrated Manifesto of Drag.

“The stand-ins attempted to reenact our lip-sync while the cameras captured reaction shots of the audience and of Ru” she wrote.

“A producer prompted the audience on a loudspeaker: “Now let’s react to Sasha’s big reveal…”

“The crowd went wild and stood up again. I could only see the back of her head, but I wondered if Ru was reacting more than she had to the real thing” she mused.

“This was another fabulous reveal: Your heroes are just people, and TV is all smoke and mirrors. If I were hosting a show, would I want to film fake reactions to get different camera angles? Absolutely!” she wrote.