‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ Has Major Impact on the Charts
LGBTQ

‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ Has Major Impact on the Charts

The majestic grace and sheer existence of RuPaul has left the television world shook, the Emmys nominations committee slain, and the music industry shocked, among other achievements. Now, not only is he attacking the charts on a regular basis with his studio albums, but his drag queens are making some waves on the streaming charts.

After RuPaul's Drag Race season 9 winner Sasha Velour tweeted that her finale lip-sync track of choice, Whitney Houston's classic "So Emotional," had a 650-percent bump in Spotify streams following her performance, Billboard not only verified the info, but collected data that reveals the impact the show has on streaming. It seems that once queens like Alexis Michelle and Farrah Moan lip-sync a given track on the show, it experiences a sudden boost in streaming. Beneficiaries of the trend include Dolly Parton's "Baby I'm Burning" (2,114 percent increase), Ru's own "U Wear It Well" (154 percent increase), and life-affirming gay anthem "Greedy" by Ariana Grande (118 percent increase). Some tracks like "So Emotional and "Greedy" also saw an increase in sales, albeit they were still small amounts given the state of music sales today.

It seems that RuPaul's impact holds no bounds, and until proven otherwise, we're running with this narrative.