Warning: This article contains spoilers for this year’s Strictly Come Dancing Christmas special.
RuPaul’s Drag Race UK finalist Tayce has major grounds for celebration this festive season.
During this year’s Christmas Day special of Strictly Come Dancing, Tayce and her professional partner Kai Widdrington triumphed, picking up the coveted Silver Star trophy for their Cha Cha to Kylie and Dannii Minogue’s festive duet 100 Degrees.
After scooping a perfect score from the judging panel, Strictly’s studio audience put Tayce at the top of their ranking, making her this year’s festive winner.
Tayce was already the first drag performer to ever compete on the UK’s leading TV dance contest, and she’s now the franchise’s drag queen winner.
She previously said it was “an incredible honour” to be “the first drag artist to be taking part in Strictly Come Dancing” when she was revealed to be taking part last month.
Kai is also enjoying his first ever Strictly win thanks to his partnership with Tayce.
While traditionally, the Christmas special features one-off contestants, two of the stars on this year’s regular line-up – EastEnders star Jamie Borthwick and JLS singer JB Gill – were former festive champions, so it’s not out of the contest that we might see Tayce back in the ballroom in 2025.
Tayce first rose to fame on the second season of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, often hailed as a high point for the BBC show, where she finished as runner-up behind champion Lawrence Chaney.
Since then, she’s landed a number of prolific endorsement deals, presented on Radio 1 and hosted the MTV series Queerpiphany with the model and activist Munroe Bergdorf.
Joining the Welsh queen on the Christmas line-up were TV personality Vogue Williams, soap queen Tamsin Outhwaite, racing driver Billy Monger, Olympian-turned-Gladiator Harry “Nitro” Aikines-Aryeetey and comedian Josh Widdicombe.
It’s been a historic year for Strictly all-round, after comedian Chris McCausland became the show’s first ever blind celebrity.
He went on to give his professional partner Dianne Buswell her first win in the live final earlier this month.