Tayce on claims her Strictly win will take show in ‘different direction’
Tayce has been crowned the winner of the Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special. (BBC)
Drag Race UK star Tayce has made herstory as the first drag queen competitor to both enter and win Strictly Come Dancing‘s Christmas Special. The performer has perfectly shut down claims that her success could take the show in “a very different direction”.
Tayce and her dance partner Kai Widdrington were crowned the winners of this year’s Christmas special after being praised by judge Craig Revel Horwood for their cha-cha, which they performed to “100 Degrees” by Kylie and Dannii Minogue.
They won tens across the entire judging panel for the routine, with Tayce – who is gay and uses she/her pronouns whilst in drag – beating the likes of podcaster Vogue Williams (who danced with Gorka Márquez), Gladiator and Olympian Harry Aikines-Aryeetey (with Nancy Xu), actress Tamzin Outhwaite (with Nikita Kuzmin) and racing driver and TV presenter Billy Monger (with Nadiya Bychkova).
However, after a clip was shared to Strictly’s official Instagram account of their winning number, one commenter expressed “confusion” about Tayce’s “character/persona”.
The commenter seemed to believe that her inclusion is akin to including characters from soap operas and TV shows on the dance competition series, appearing to disregard Tayce’s identity.
“Personally, I really enjoyed Tayce, but think her appearance could open the door for the show taking a very different direction,” the commenter wrote.
To this, Tayce had the perfect response, and simply replied: “I am me.”
Unfortunately, the drag artist is no stranger to navigating online hate – especially in the run-up to her appearance and win on Strictly Come Dancing. “I’ve seen hate, I’ve seen it’s controversial, it’s provocative but that’s all the things that I am I wouldn’t change that for the world,” she offered in a recent interview with MailOnline.
The Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special is available on BBC iPlayer now.
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