[Shaun]

63rd Place: Dida Ritz (Season 4) - finished 5th (technically 6th since Kenya was brought back but Kenya sucked so **** off)

This is where the knockouts start to hurt: I loved Dida Ritz in season 4. She was the most down-to-earth, effortlessly fun and charismatic queen that unfortunately got sidetracked by an incredibly strong cast (well, Sharon/Chad/Latrice/Willam/Phi Phi anyway). Her talking heads are almost always great, and she put in a couple of good performances.

She's seen as something of a Drag Race joke, though, and is often referenced by queens on later seasons (Courtney Act calls Joslyn Fox the "Dida Ritz of season 6" as a metaphor for her supposedly coasting; there are repeated references to Dida's thirsty wigs) and it's hard to vehemently deny all criticisms of her. She would eventually be sent home for refusing to take part in politics, and that pretty much summed up her problem: she was too shallow and surface-deep of a queen to really take to heart or even take seriously. Something of a fence-sitter in Untucked, too, poor Dida was often literally in the middle of some of the show's nastiest and most hostile environments. Other challenge lowlights include her weird CD advert as a housewife who makes vague allusions to her husband being hunky or whatever, her shaky voice in the Frenemies challenge with Chad Michaels, and her runways did indeed often leave us uh...underwhelmed.

But she definitely has a far harsher reception than she deserved: she stole the scene in the Tuckahoe prison sitcom challenge, and could easily have won had Latrice not pulled off an all-time classic moment. She played a great bimbo in the Wrestling challenge, and her Snatch Game as Wendy Williams was pretty good too but sadly interrupted by childish antics from Jiggly, Phi Phi and Kenya. We also have to mention the greatest individual lipsync of all time and it's STILL Dida, I won't hear any talk of Manila's MacArthur Park.

Youtube video

I think only the live Kitty Girl performance gave me the same level of pure, unbridled joy and awe that I felt seeing this for the first time.

Nowadays she's part of the same Chicago scene as The Vixen and Shea Coulee, and regularly pops up in the Black Girl Magic events, so I would be more than interested to see how she's evolved and matured since Season 4. Season 4 still counts, I think, as one of those early seasons where queens were too naive and unaware of themselves, and Dida definitely has more depth than the ditsy girl who wanted to be Carrie Bradshaw in her entrance look.

Memorable quote(s): "Latrice Royale. You're free now, you don't have to rock the yard-sandals any more. "
"Baby, you were born this way. You were born... you were born this way " re: Milan's final disastrous lipsync
Best Runway(s): Has to be her gold corset she lipsynced in, but I do have a soft-spot for that Float Your Boat look even if the t-shirt was stained
Best Moment(s): Obviously the 'This Will Be' lipsync, but I will throw in a vote for her refusal to play to stereotypes in the Dragazines challenge. Talking at length about how she's uncomfortable eating fried chicken or watermelon in public, whilst Latrice and Jiggly cackle