Entertainment

RuPaul Is Hosting 'SNL' For The First Time

by Christina Marfice
VH1

RuPaul + Justin Bieber = an episode of SNL you won’t want to miss

RuPaul has become such a pop culture icon, it’s kind of hard to believe he’s never been the host of a Saturday Night Live episode before. But that’s about to change, because SNL and the host of Drag Race just announced an upcoming episode that will have this fab drag queen sashaying right into the hosting position.

Oh, and the episode is basically right around the corner — RuPaul will host on Feb. 8, just over two weeks from now. Consider our engines started (and our DVRs set), because we are more than ready for this.

NBC made the announcement Tuesday, and alongside telling us RuPaul will be the host, they revealed the musical guest for the episode. Are you ready for this? Because it makes the entire announcement even better. Joining Ru that night will be Justin Bieber, and we cannot even imagine a more perfect pairing than these two. We cannot even imagine the sketches, but please, for the love of all that is holy, give us a Drag Race-inspire sketch featuring the Biebs lip syncing for his life. Please.

This will be RuPaul’s first time hosting Saturday Night Live, but not his first time on the show. He made an appearance in a sketch during an episode hosted by Charles Barkley — in 1993. Um, yeah, to say this is long overdue is putting it very lightly.

We can hardly be surprised about Ru getting that hosting gig now, though, since he’s been having a crazy number of career highs lately. In January, Netflix premiered its 10-episode dramedy AJ and the Queen, the first scripted show with Ru in the lead role. That was following announcements last year about a whole lot more Drag Race — we’re getting a 12th season of the original show, a 5th season of the All-Stars spin-off, and a new Celebrity Drag Race edition premiering in 2020. Plus, the show is spreading internationally, with the first season of Canadian Drag Race and season 2 of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK set to air this year. To say our Queen Ru is having a good year would be just a little bit of an understatement.

SNL is just one more amazing accomplishment to add to the list, and we genuinely can’t want to see RuPaul slay that Rockefeller Center stage.