Brigiding doesn’t do labels.

The Filipino drag queen, who took home the crown on the inaugural season of Drag Race Philippines: Slaysian Royale, has never been one to define her brand of drag. While others may describe themselves as pageant queens, glam queens, or comedy queens, Brigiding took a good long pause before trying to explain her own drag niche.

“You can’t expect [me] to be like everyone else,” Brigiding told Rolling Stone Philippines. “A Brigiding performance is high energy. But it’s also gonna be emotional. You know, may puso, pero also, may rock n’ roll.”

This makes sense when you see the queen in her domain. At a show held in Linya-Linya HQ, a few days after she’d won Slaysian Royale last October 2025, Brigiding had no trouble working her magic on a packed room of devotees. After a warm-up performance that had Drag Race Philippines Season 1 winner Precious Paula Nicole and her two drag daughters, Kieffy and Winter Sheason, whip the crowd into a frenzy, a reverent hush fell over the room as we prepared for Brigiding to take her rightful place onstage.

And she did not disappoint. The queen sauntered over in a leopard fur coat while lip-syncing to Barbra Streisand’s rendition of “I’m The Greatest Star.” A wink and a hair toss later, and the coat was on the floor, revealing a sequined and fringed red number that Brigiding had spinning as she danced her way into the crowd. Now lip syncing to Patina Miller’s “Fabulous, Baby!”, Brigiding jumped onto a platform box (in a golden pair of six-inch heels, no less) without missing a beat. 

Two minutes later, Precious Paula Nicole returned to the stage with a bedazzled scepter and crown, which she promptly placed on top of her fellow Drag Race Philippines Season 1 sister’s head. One more strut, one more belt of “I’m fabulous, baby,” and Brigiding was on to the next part of her show: judging an audience twerking contest.

A Different Time

But there was a time when the queen did not reign supreme. 

In 2008, Brigiding was a college student who had yet to enter the world of drag. “After school, the girls and the gays would go out and drink in Malate,” she recalled. “We were looking for boys.”

It was at O Bar that Brigiding first came face to face with Mama Shue Bagets, a drag queen who would become one of her major influences. “I was so amazed by her fantasy,” said Brigiding. “Everything looked like it was sparkling, and she was shining, too. Sabi ko, ‘I wanna be like her.’”

Deciding in 2013 that she wanted to try out drag, Brigiding would spend her evenings performing at venues like O Bar and Red Banana. “Singit-singit lang ako,” said Brigiding. “Parang ‘yung professional fee ko ay hindi pa ‘yung PF from the bar. Collected tips lang. Which was fine, kasi hindi naman ako nag-expect ng PF. It was more for experience and the joy of getting dressed up, playing with makeup, playing with my sisters, dancing, performing… and the free drinks, siyempre.” It took two more years before Brigiding headlined her first show at O Bar.

However, it wasn’t always a joyful experience being a working drag queen in Manila. “Back in my time, wala namang major support for drag, especially here,” said Brigiding. “People would go to clubs to see boys and drink. Parang second act lang kaming mga performers. We weren’t given that much attention, and if we were, usually only for laughs. Comic relief lang kaming mga bading.”

Despite the pitfalls that came with pursuing drag, the time spent with her drag sisters made the experience all the more bearable for Brigiding. “I wish I could do that ngayon, pero ang dami ko na ring ginagawa,” she said. “But ‘yun ‘yung mga na-mi-miss ko, kasi parang hindi na nga lang about drag ‘yung ginagawa ninyo. Even lahat ng life stories nila, talagang makukuha mo.”

It was through those long weekends spent rehearsing numbers with her sisters and helping each other backstage with hair and makeup that Brigiding learned how to step into the spotlight as her own drag queen. Although she acknowledged that the internet has made it easier for people to learn to do drag on their own, Brigiding said that they’re also missing out on what makes drag such a communal experience. “You get to discover everything by yourself now, which is okay,” she said. “But sometimes it really takes a whole community to build someone.”

A Rocky First Season

After years of making a name for herself in the local drag circle, Brigiding seemed to have gotten a break that would have propelled her to even greater national fame: a spot on the first season of Drag Race Philippines.

The inaugural batch featured standout contenders like Marina Summers, Minty Fresh, Precious Paula Nicole, and Viñas Deluxe, the latter two of whom Brigiding had teamed up with prior to the show to form the drag trio, Divine Divas.

Unfortunately, it just wasn’t Brigiding’s season. In Episode 8, she landed in the bottom two with Minty, who sent her home after winning the Lip Sync For Your Life to Yumi Lacsamana’s “Dyosa.”

“I don’t think my need to [win] translated well on the show,” said Brigiding of her time onscreen. “Maybe that was because I came in with this intention of proving to people that I was good enough. I spent more time trying to prove myself than really showing who I am. I was trying to be someone I was not.”

“After Season 1, nag-isip ako, ‘Bakit sabi [ng mga judges] na naghahanap sila kay Brigiding?’” The drag queen continued. “I am Brigiding… but they were missing that vulnerability. ‘Yon ang hinahanap ng mga judges. They don’t need someone who’s just there to win. They need someone who’s having fun and who’s showing their true selves.”

Although she had already been toying with the idea of becoming a house mother prior to Season 1, having taken her first daughter, Zymbading (who competed in the third season of Drag Race Philippines), under her wing as her assistant, Brigiding decided that pouring her energy into building a drag house was the best way to recenter herself after losing her season of Drag Race Philippines. “I thought I couldn’t go on,” she said, “but that was the time I was like, ‘Okay, I lost my season. Now what?’”

“Zymba was like, ‘I want to do drag, I want to experience drag,’” recalled Brigiding. “So sabi ko, ‘Sige. Prove to me that you really want to be a drag queen, because drag is not something you can learn in one night, one week, or one month. You have to observe and immerse yourself in what’s happening.”

Today, the House of Ding is led by Brigiding, its mother, alongside her daughters, Zymbading and Bombading. “You want to hone talents. You want to share your knowledge and experiences. [You want] them to start their own careers and live their best lives. They also inspire me to be the better version of myself: someone’s looking up to me now. Parang having that purpose, gives my drag more meaning.”

Redemption Arc

Four years after Drag Race Philippines Season 1 aired, Brigiding found another chance to enter the Werkroom with Slaysian Royale, the Filipino franchise’s spin on RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars. The contestants — five from the Philippines and seven from countries such as Thailand, Canada, and the United States — competed for the chance to win P2,000,000 and a place in the Drag Race Slaysian Hall of Fame.

To say that Brigiding wasn’t a clear frontrunner from the first few episodes would be a lie. She won her first Maxi Challenge with her performance as the loving bride  Raquel Achoo in the show’s Rusical, Crazy Bitch Slaysians: The Musical. Her runway looks, whether it was a hand-sewn dress made of red cacao leaves or a gown that paid homage to the People Power Revolution, always earned praise from Mama Pao and her rotating panel of judges. Plus, her win during the Lip Sync LaLaPaRuZa Slaysian Smackdown earned her the Golden Balut, which gave her the power to grant immunity to any contestant in danger of being sent home.

So it was no wonder that the queen took home the show’s first-ever crown, beating drag sister Viñas Deluxe in the final Lip Sync For Your Life. After acing Marina Summers and Moophs’ “Born to Do Drag,” Brigiding secured her place as the world’s very first Slaysian Drag Superstar.

Losing on Drag Race Philippines was one of the main reasons why she was able to win the crown on Slaysian Royale. “Naging motivation siya,” said Brigiding. “Instead of being like, ‘Let’s forget about Season 1,’ ginamit ko siya to my advantage. This time, I didn’t need to prove to people that I’m Brigiding. I wanted to prove to myself that I am Brigiding, and that drag is what I do.”

However, she acknowledged that her win also came from being strategic with the alliances she built on Slaysian Royale. As viewers may have noticed, the Filipino queens tended to partner up with one another, leaving the international queens to struggle not only with more culturally Filipino challenges but also with the language barrier.

“Unang-una ko na-feel ‘yon with Khianna, kasi siya ‘yung nag-group sa girl group, pinili niya ‘yung five Filipino queens,” said Brigiding. “And to be honest, medyo naawa ako sa kanila. Kasi parang, ‘Oh my God, Khianna, ang aga-aga pa, pinakita mo na agad ‘yung alliances?’”

“Pero gano’n talaga ‘yung game,” she continued. “Pero when it comes to making hard decisions, you have to really follow your heart. It’s part of the competition to really break someone else’s dreams.”

But beyond the messiness of alliance-building and making difficult decisions, Brigiding noted that the Filipino queens on this season of Slaysian Royale were easily some of the best contestants on the show. “Magaling talaga ‘yung mga Filipino,” she said. “And they inspired me to do so well. Binabantayan ko rin ‘yung mga Filipino queens e, kasi they were doing so much at this level. Kaya hindi ako pwedeng mag-relax. All eyes are on us, ‘di ba? Everyone [was] rooting for our country.”

A Newfound Peace

Life after Slaysian Royale has been surprisingly calm for the newly crowned queen. 

This isn’t to say that Brigiding isn’t keeping busy. Far from it: she’s fully booked for 2026, and she’s hoping to add even more projects as they come.

But Brigiding has found a kind of inner peace that she never felt after years of trying to prove herself in the world of drag. “Mas kalmado ako sa sarili ko,” she said. “Kasi siyempre noong una, you need to prove yourself all the time. You need to show why you should win, why you deserve the crown. Pero ngayon, it’s like, ‘Okay, what do I do next?’”

The queen hopes to use her new status to bring more intention to her projects. “Mas gusto kong i-expand ‘yung platform ko,” she said. “I want to bring my tribe to bigger places, bigger venues. Mas inspired ako to do more things because I was able to win  Slaysian Royale.”

When pressed again on the subject of what defines the Brigiding brand of drag, the queen took a second before giving her final answer. “I’m not really fond of doing things just for laughs,” said Brigiding. “Gusto ko na parang, yes, I’m performing this, but I want people to feel how I feel. I want to ignite something in them. I want them to see courage, see love, feel loss, and feel despair. But then I want them to think, ‘Ah, magaling siya. Storyteller siya.’”

Hair and Makeup Artist Brigiding
Stylist Angelo Vasallo