‘Drag Race’ Fans Notice Pretty Obvious Similarities Between RuPaul’s ‘Fascination’ and Charli XCX’s ‘Visions’
RuPaul is the musician behind songs like “Sissy That Walk” and “Supermodel (You Better Work).” The RuPaul’s Drag Race host premiered the album Mamaru in January 2022, complete with new hyper-pop-esque tracks like “Smile” and “Fascination.” Here’s what fans are saying about this release.
RuPaul released the album ‘Mamaru’ ahead of ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ season 14
It’s finally time for more contestants to sashay into the Werk Room. Hot off the heels of RuPaul’s Drag Race: All-Stars 6, RuPaul debuted season 14 of the VH1 series. These episodes feature a new set of queens and songs playing in the background thanks to RuPaul’s January 2022 release, Mamaru.
Mamaru is the 14th studio album by the American singer/drag performer. It includes already released songs like “Just What They Want” and “Blame It On the Edit,” as well as several new tracks.
‘Drag Race’ fans noticed some similarities between RuPaul’s ‘Fascination’ and some Charli XCX songs
RuPaul embarked on a different creative direction for Mamaru, with fans noting references to the hyper-pop movement and artists like Charli XCX. Some listeners noticed “Fascination” sounds eerily similar to Charli XCX’s “Visions” from How I’m Feeling Now. Others pointed out that “Smile” sounds similar to Charli XCX’s “Anthems” of the same album.
“RuPaul already had that controversy of plagiarizing ‘Call Me Mother’ from Azealia Banks’ ‘The Big Big Beat.’ Do we think this time Ru and his team had some inspiration from Charli and Hyperpop? The inspiration seems obvious to me,” one Reddit user wrote.
“The songs sound so similar. To Ru, this is probably all part of what drag is, and I imagine Charli doesn’t care. If this was anyone else releasing songs almost identical to other pop stars, there’d be way more backlash…” another Reddit user noted.
Charli XCX appeared as a guest judge during RuPaul’s Drag Race: All-Stars 6. As a result, the lip-sync song for that episode was her hit song “Boom Clap.” The pop star has not yet commented on the similarities between Mamaru and her music.
RuPaul released songs like ‘Sissy That Walk,’ ‘Call Me Mother,’ and ‘Read U Wrote U’
This wouldn’t be the first time the self-proclaimed “Queen of Drag” released original music. RuPaul first rose to fame with her single “Supermodel (You Better Work)” and its corresponding music video.
Since then, the drag performer featured contestants on remixed versions of her original songs. During RuPaul’s Drag Race season 9, the queens created their lyrics for “Category Is.” For RuPaul’s Drag Race: All-Stars 3, the chosen song was “Kitty Girl.”
Some fans expect season 14 to include another song-related challenge, especially with RuPaul debuting several new tracks ahead of the show’s VH1 premiere. The details, however, will most lately be revealed in the coming weeks, as fans get closer to discovering who will be “America’s Next Drag Superstar.”
