‘We’re Here’ Star Priyanka on Process Behind New Album ‘Devastatia’

Queen Priyanka, the inaugural winner of Canada’s Drag Race, has released a new album, Devastatia.

The We’re Here star has been working hard at creating the hyper-pop album, which opens with a catchy and self-confident anthem, “I’m a Star,” that features the drag queen turned pop star telling the listener: “You are good enough / Now look in the mirror and say / I’m a star.”

The eight-track album, released Friday, has been in the works for a long time. “I’m so used to fast turnarounds and content is content that I didn’t expect for it to take this long,” Priyanka tells The Hollywood Reporter, noting it’s been two years since she released her EP Taste Test. “I didn’t also expect to go through what I went through.”

The singer says that looking back, she feels bad for herself and that’s “crazy to think about.” However, she tries to remind herself not to throw a pity party. “It takes a very hurt person to write a song called ‘No New Friends,’” the singer says, referring to the album’s sixth track. “It takes a very hurt person to write a song called ‘Shut It Down,’ and it made me be like, ‘Huh, these have been a really tough few years since winning Drag Race, since releasing my first record, doing all the things that I’ve done.’”

Priyanka jokes that she previously didn’t understand when artists would say things such as “this album is a page out of my diary” when songs would be about drinking or being in clubs. “Now I know what these artists are talking about,” the drag queen says.

“There’s so much me in the stories in terms of the overarching theme is this Devastatia character,” Priyanka adds, saying it was often suggested she make stereotypical drag queen music. “[I was] like, ‘No, I want to talk about my real-life experience.’ When it came to writing Devastatia, it was almost like throwing that idea back into people’s faces.”

Priyanka adds: “You want me to be in a box, and you want me to say ‘tens across the board.’” She notes that the pre-chorus (“I can’t control myself / I’m reckless / you should go save yourself / The clock is ticking”) has a deeper meaning. “That’s the devastation I felt with having to have to put myself in any kind of box,” she explains.

The We’re Here star is also preparing for a tour across Canada and the U.S., which she says has been “really hard” because she currently doesn’t have a manager. “I’m currently basically doing everything myself,” she explains.

“I’m doing so much that preparing for a tour. It is tough,” Priyanka says. She adds that the major pop stars were right, saying: “You don’t get success unless you do it yourself, and as much as I hate that, it’s tough to find people that understand what it takes to put on these kind of shows.”

The Drag Race winner notes that she turned down the drag queen cast tour to pursue her own tour. And when preparing for her stint across North America, the pop star also came to the realization, “I would actually make less money than just going on a drag queen cast tour.”

“You actually lose a lot by choosing yourself sometimes, but you gain in the end because I’m creating a project that is going to be one of many in laying down that foundation work,” she says, adding that Priyanka the drag queen and Priyanka the singer, although the same person, are different. “I didn’t know that part of this industry, and now I’m learning it, being like, ‘Oh, shit.’” She emphasizes that she loved her Drag Race experience and will also be performing Drag Race songs.

Priyanka adds that her time on the award-winning HBO series We’re Here in 2024 has also informed how she makes decisions and lives life since filming. “Everything that I’ve approached after it has been very… I’ve been more certain,” she says. “Here you have these queer children living in small-town America being like, ‘No, no, no, no, I don’t want to run away to the big city. I live at home.’ I’m like, ‘Well, I’m a bitch then because I ran away to the city.’”