In 2018, it’s hard to picture pop culture without RuPaul’s Drag Race. Queens from the show sell out venues, references are everywhere, judge Michelle Visage has even become an Irish TV star thanks to Ireland’s Got Talent. But before the advent of the massive reality show, RuPaul launched into the mainstream in November of 1992 thanks to the hit single ‘Supermodel (You Better Work)’.

Words by Conor Behan.

Pre-’Supermodel’, RuPaul moved from the clubs of Atlanta to become a nightlife fixture in New York, performing music, working as a go-go dancer and ultimately ending up a celebrity thanks to a move into a more glamorous drag look.

RuPaul told Interview Magazine in 2013: “I’d been a downtown New York celebrity and was attempting to go above ground - really, above 14th Street — or more mainstream. So got a record deal and changed my image to be not so downtown. wanted to look more glamazon”

The early ‘90s was the era of the supermodel, women who commanded attention on the catwalk and in the media. Models like Naomi Campbell, Claudia Schiffer and Cindy Crawford became household names- something RuPaul realised would make a great basis for a song.

RuPaul admitted to Interview: “My friend who have known for many years said, ‘Wow, your new look is becoming supermodel!’ And he jotted some ideas down and said, ‘I’ve got this song’. So we collaborated and built a song that really spoke to both what was happening in the world and what was happening with my image.”

Their plan worked. An infectious blend of house music with a pop sensibility, Supermodel had a charm all its own. From the savvy use of queer slang like “you better work” and “sashay shantay” to name-checking the supermodels of the day, it was a bright gem of a tune. The project was helped along by people who would remain central to the RuPaul brand. The new supermodel look was created largely by fashion designer Zaldy (who still creates RuPaul’s drag outfits) and makeup artist Mathu Andersen (who would continue to work with RuPaul up until season eight of Drag Race). Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey directed Ru’s videos and managed his career and would later set up the production company World Of Wonder which produces Drag Race amongst countless other documentaries, TV and online series.

The song wasn’t just a calling card for RuPaul’s new supermodel persona but also a chart hit. It reached the US and UK top 40 and the video also helped make the song an MTV staple. The video was drag in every sense: a tall gay black man effortlessly playing with the leggy blonde imagery of the Supermodel era. It was also replete with references to camp classics like Sunset Boulevard and Mahogany - the Diana Ross star vehicle with a cult following (Ross, alongside Cher and David Bowie, are pop icons RuPaul frequently cites as influences). Even in the early days of a pop culture ascent RuPaul showed a canny ability for mixing references, queer culture and the mood of the mainstream to strike gold.

While Divine had enjoyed cult fame in her career and drag acts like Lily Savage enjoyed success in the UK, RuPaul’s fame felt more attuned to pop culture. She performed at events like MTV’s Spring Break in front of a young straight crowd, appeared at the 1993 March on Washington- the LGBT rights rally that an estimated one million people attended, and even had a now infamous bust up with comedian Milton Berle at the 1993 MTV VMAs.

There were other successes too: a talk show on US network VH1, roles in everything from Nash Bridges to Sabrina The Teenage Witch and campaigns for the cosmetics brand MAC, including their Viva Glam campaign that raised money for AIDS charities. Her time as the face of MAC would even include a visit to Dublin in 1997 with Roisin Ingle writing for The Irish Times that RuPaul appeared in Brown Thomas in “a gravity-defying bouffant hairdo, and a black dress split up to the hip” with the drag star the “confection the 800 revellers had squeezed into the store to see.”

The success of ‘Supermodel’ didn’t surprise RuPaul, who told the New York Times in 2014 “I go into everything thinking it’s going to be a huge hit” but confessed the RuPaul persona came with a certain amount of calculation.

“I’d been a downtown New York celebrity and I was attempting to go above ground.

“Drag has always been thought of as something sexually subversive” RuPaul said in a 2013 AV Club interview, admitting “I took sexuality out of my presentation. was more like a Disney character that could be drawn very easily as a caricature and who is very kind and who Grandma and Grandpa wouldn’t be scared of. And that worked”

The end of the ‘90s saw RuPaul approach 40 and take some time out from the spotlight, noting that the early ‘00s and the administration of George W Bush changed things. RuPaul told Rolling Stone in 2013: “When that happened, anything to do with gender or sexual exploration went way underground. So decided would step away from the canvas, so to speak, in terms of show business.”

That break saw RuPaul focus on family life and new projects eventually leading to the debut of RuPaul’s Drag Race in 2009. The splashy reality hit has become a pop culture phenomenon. As the show collects Emmy wins, it’s startling to remember that this was all spawned by the success of one pop song. In the hands of a lesser talent, ‘Supermodel’ might have been an amusing novelty record. But in the smart, savvy hands of RuPaul, one song created an empire.