What to know about Sapphira Cristál, Philly’s first true ‘Drag Race’ contestant

Start your engines: This drag queen from Philly could win.

Drag performer Sapphira Cristál — a mainstay at Fishtown cabaret Fabrika — will compete on season 16 of RuPaul’s Drag Race, which premieres Friday on MTV.

A classically trained opera singer with a six-octave vocal range, Cristál is the first queen from the Philly drag scene on the reality competition show since its premiere in 2009. (Prior contestants — such as season 10 winner Aquaria, season 11′s Honey Davenport, and season 3′s Mimi Imfurst — hail from the Philly area but listed New York City as their hometown, making Cristál the first to claim Philly outright.)

The show’s premise is simple: Drag icon RuPaul searches for America’s next drag superstar through a series of challenges that have contestants lip syncing, sewing, and doing celebrity impressions, among other things. Competing has launched the careers of mainstream queens Shangela and Bob the Drag Queen, podcast hosts Trixie Mattel and Katya Zamolodchikova, and Broadway star Jinx Monsoon, who completed a run in Chicago last year.

Representing Philly “means everything to me,” said Cristál, 35. “I have every bit of Philadelphia inside of me … I’m funny. I’m fierce and I’m fabulous.”

Originally from Houston, Cristal began performing while attending a music conservatory in Rochester, N.Y., under the tutelage of drag mom (a.k.a. mentor) Miss Delicious. She moved to Philadelphia in 2014 with an ex-partner and said the city’s drag scene has been nothing but welcoming.

“I always wanted to feel like a person who people had no choice but to look at — not because they had to, but because they were drawn to,” Cristál said. “Drag lets me be that.”

Here’s what you need to know about Sapphira Cristál before she competes for the crown.

Cristál’s theatrical style of drag comes from her background in opera — and church.

Cristál recalled being the only kid in her Methodist church’s choir in Houston, which coincidentally is also Beyoncé’s alma mater. (No, the two never met, Cristál said, though she does regularly work Bey into her repertoire).

The experience “transferred easily” to drag, Cristál said. She started sprinkling gospel songs into her shows, and, eventually, was performing drag at church services in the Boston area. Even now, Cristál warms up her voice before performances with two hours of gospel music.

Cristál, who started practicing arias in her teens while attending a performing arts high school, attended the Eastman School of Music and the Longy School of Music of Bard College, eventually going on to lead drag performance workshops at schools such as Emerson College.

“Opera is very draggy,” Cristál said, her baroque-esque ball gowns and whimsical trains often an ode to opera stars like Jessye Norman. She didn’t start working opera into performances until later, though, worried about how it would connect with the rest of her drag aesthetic.

A self-proclaimed “stunt queen,” Cristál said you can expect a little bit of everything from her performances, and not a whole lot of scripted material.

“I do splits, I do kicks, I do flips in some ways. I do bottle dances, and I probably have the best lip sync in Philadelphia,” Cristál said. “I’ll come with a planned show and then say, ‘Actually, I’ll do anything you want for $20.’”

» READ MORE: A day in the life of Philly drag queen Sapphira Cristál

That translates to Cristál belting out Ella Fitzgerald and Whitney Houston before seamlessly transitioning to a lip sync medley of Rihanna and Cardi B.

The one consistent part of her show? The introduction.

“I explain the rules of drag,” Cristál said. “Watch the show, make some noise, drink, choose to have a good time, and tip your queens.”

Though Cristál has yet to snatch the Drag Race crown (and scepter), she is already a decorated queen.

Cristál has won 16 pageants, including the coveted 2020 Miss’d America title in Atlantic City. She also won the campier, decidedly un-pageanty “Miss Everything” at Tabu in 2014, the year she moved to Philly.

“I would never have called myself a pageant queen, just a queen who does pageants,” Cristál told The Inquirer in 2021.

Still, it took Cristál 11 auditions to make it to the Drag Race stage.

While Cristál couldn’t comment on the specifics of the audition video that put her over the edge, it apparently needed to include a mix of personal narrative, jokes, a small dance routine, a unique talent, and Cristál doing all of this with a perfectly beat face, according a pair of Drag Race casting directors.

If anything, it was knowing that this would be her final try that made the vibe different, Cristál said.

“My attitude for this year was more of a ‘take me or leave me’ attitude,” said Cristál. “I knew I had it in the bag, so my audition signaled that it was my time.”

Cristál’s life hasn’t changed much since she was announced as a cast member — other than a VIP seating at a restaurant and a jump in Instagram followers. She said she doesn’t feel much pressure to overperform.

“Girl, when you take your place where you’re supposed to be, you’re prepared for it,” said Cristál. “I just had to do all the things I know how to do, that I’ve been building for the 35 years I’ve been on this planet.”