Both Lindsay Lohan’s “Rumors” and Crystal Waters’ “100% Pure Love” saw huge surges in streaming numbers after being featured on “RuPaul’s Drag Race.”
Waters rose to No. 9 on the Billboard dance/electronic charts after being featured in a lip sync battle between Denali and Kahmora Hall. A week after the Jan. 22 episode aired, the song saw an increase of 613.59% in streams, rising from 71,897 to 513,050 plays across YouTube, Spotify, Pandora and Apple Music. The numbers were provided to PvNew by VH-1 and obtained from Alpha Data.
Similarly, Lohan’s “Rumors,” which was released in 2004, became a trending topic on Twitter and saw streams increase by 264.97% after Utica Queen lost to Gottmik during another epic lip sync. Utica Queen got sent to the Porkchop Loading Dock.
Producer Randy Barbato said, “Drag queens deliver the heart and soul of a song like nobody’s business. When a queen steps to the front of the stage and loses herself in a ‘lip-sync for your life,’ audiences are invited to experience songs like never before. Performances are often revelatory, emotional and unforgettable.”
From death drops to cartwheels to jump kicks and splits, the “lip sync for your life” is what ends every episode of “Drag Race” and seals the fate of the two queens standing before Ru and the judges. And the series continues to grow in popularity; the Season 13 premiere on Jan. 1 attracted 1.3 million total viewers, the most-watched episode in the history of the franchise — so it’s fitting that songs featured during the lip sync saw their numbers rise.
Other songs that have featured on the season have also seen increases in streams. Janet Jackson’s “The Pleasure Principle” saw streams surpass 137,595 (growth of 56.22%), as did the Britney Spears track “If U Seek Amy,” which gained a 64.23% rise in plays.
It’s not just renditions of popular songs that benefit from being featured on the show. It’s also helped some original tunes take off.
Original track “UK, Hun?” rose to the top of the U.K. iTunes charts after being performed on the British version of the show. To date, the song has had over 1.7 million streams on Spotify alone.
The episode required the queens to enter the Ruruvision, a “Drag Race” take on the Eurovision Song Contest. While the queens sang their verses, the catchy chorus with lyrics like “Bing bang bong / Sing sang song / Ding dang dong/ UK, hun?” became a sensation and beat Dua Lipa and Taylor Swift to claim the number one spot.
