Drag Race Belgium
Drag Race Belgium, also known as Drag Race Belgique, is the Belgian adaptation of the American reality competition RuPaul's Drag Race, in which drag queens compete in challenges, runway presentations, and lip-syncs for the title of Belgium's drag superstar. The series is produced by the Belgian francophone public broadcaster RTBF in conjunction with World of Wonder Productions, is presented in French, and has run for two seasons, in 2023 and 2024.1 • 2
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Announcement | Officially announced on April 29, 2022 on WOW Presents Plus' Instagram account1 |
| Production | RTBF with World of Wonder Productions; executive producers Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato, Tom Campbell, and RuPaul2 |
| Broadcast | Tipik and RTBF Auvio in Belgium; WOW Presents Plus in the UK, US, and select territories; language French3 • 2 |
| Host and judges | Rita Baga (host, seasons 1–2); judges Mustii (seasons 1–2), Lufy (season 1), Lio (season 2)1 |
| Season 1 | Premiered February 16, 2023; finale April 6, 2023; 8 episodes, 10 contestants; winner Drag Couenne; Miss Sympathie Valenciaga1 |
| Season 2 | Premiered February 1, 2024; finale March 21, 2024; 9 contestants; winner Alvilda; Miss Sympathie Star1 |
| Episode length | About 66 minutes per episode4 |
Spoilers
Season 1 (2023)
The first season premiered on February 16, 2023 and concluded on April 6, 2023, with ten Belgian contestants.1 The cast included Drag Couenne, Athena Likis, Susan from Grindr, Mademoiselle Boop, Peach Rich, Valenciaga, Mocca Bone, Edna Sorgelsen, Amanda Tears, and Brittany Von Bottoks.4 Drag Couenne won the season, and Valenciaga was named Miss Sympathie, the franchise's congeniality award.1
Guest judges across the two seasons have included the singer Sandra Kim, the singer Plastic Bertrand, the designer Jean-Paul Lespagnard, the judge and author Anne Gruwez, the drag queen Jimbo, and others.4
After her win, Drag Couenne described the Belgian drag scene as shaped by the country's small size and culture of compromise: because nearly all Belgian drag artists know one another, performers constantly reinvent themselves, and the scene includes roughly as many queer drag performers (or "monarques") as drag kings and drag queens.7
Season 2 (2024)
The second season premiered on WOW Presents Plus on February 1, 2024 and concluded on March 21, 2024, with nine contestants.1 • 8 Its challenges included a rodeo-unicorn photoshoot and talent show in the premiere, a martial-arts-themed photoshoot with a design challenge, a 1990s girl-band performance challenge, a Belgian "Drag Government" lawmaking sketch, the Snatch Game, a parody of Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express, a family makeover, and a singing-and-dancing grand finale.8 Alvilda won the season, and Star received Miss Sympathie.1
Announcement and production
World of Wonder, the Los Angeles-based media company behind the Drag Race franchise, announced the Belgian edition on April 29, 2022, shortly after announcing Drag Race Sweden at the MIPTV market. The new series joined existing franchise versions in Thailand, the United States, Chile, Canada, Holland, the UK, Spain, Australia and New Zealand, France, the Philippines, and Italy. The Belgian series was to air in French with subtitles and premiere exclusively on WOW Presents Plus in the UK, US, and select territories, with a local Belgian broadcast to be arranged.2
The show is produced by RTBF (Radio Télévision Belge Francophone) together with World of Wonder Productions, and streams in Belgium on RTBF's Auvio platform with television airings on Tipik.1 • 3
Format and presentation
Each season runs eight episodes of roughly 66 minutes, in which the contestants face mini-challenges, maxi-challenges, runway walks, and lip-sync performances.4 • 5 The host, mentor, and head judge is Rita Baga, a French-Canadian drag queen; she is joined on the judging panel by the singer and actor Mustii (credited as Thomas Mustin) in both seasons, by the fashion YouTuber Lufy in season 1, and by the singer Lio in season 2.1 • 4 • 5
In an interview around the first season's launch, Rita Baga described francophonie as her personal cause on the show, positioning the Belgian edition within the French-speaking branch of the franchise that also includes Drag Race France and Drag Race Canada.6
Reception and status
On IMDb the series holds a rating of 6.4 out of 10 from about 561 user votes, with individual episode scores ranging from 5.1 to 8.5.9 Database listings such as BetaSeries record the show's status as canceled after two seasons, for a total of 16 episodes.4
The first season coincided with a period of growing visibility for drag in Belgium; a 2023 academic study at UCLouvain cited the launch of Drag Race Belgique as a marker of the mainstreaming of drag art in the country.10 Belgian press coverage noted that four of the ten first-season contestants were based in Brussels, and foreign reviewers characterized the season's humor as absurd and idiomatic.11
References
- Drag Race Belgique, RuPaul's Drag Race Wiki (Fandom)
- World of Wonder takes Drag Race to Belgium, Advanced Television (April 29, 2022)
- Drag Race Belgique, TVmaze
- Drag Race Belgique, BetaSeries
- Pourquoi faut-il regarder Drag Race Belgique ?, ELLE Belgique (February 16, 2023)
- « La francophonie est mon cheval de bataille », assure l'animatrice Rita Baga, 20 Minutes (February 14, 2023)
- Interview : "Drag Couenne essaie de déconstruire ce qui a déjà été déconstruit", Têtu (May 5, 2023)
- Drag Race Belgium, WOW Presents Plus
- Drag Race Belgique (2023) – Ratings, IMDb
- Caroline Franzen, L'art du drag : un outil stratégique du mouvement social queer, master's thesis, UCLouvain (2022–2023)
- Dragqueens in Brussel: glitter, glamour en gladde buiken, BRUZZ (May 10, 2023)
Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026
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