8 listenable singles by 'rupaul's drag race' contestants

The competing queens on _RuPaul’s Drag Race_ are known for lip-synching for their lives, but sometimes, when they try to _sing_ live, they #$%& it up, to semi-quote Ru. Many _Drag Race_

alums have released aggressively Auto-Tuned singles after sashaying away from the show, but few of them have proven to have the charisma, uniqueness, nerve, and talent to become real-life

pop stars. [RELATED: AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH DANNY NORIEGA] But interestingly, two of this just-wrapped season’s _Drag Race_ finalists, Courtney Act and Adore Delano, are talented _live_

_singers_ — in fact, before making it to the _Drag Race_ top three this year, they competed on _Australian Idol_ and _American Idol_, respectively. (They lost on this Monday’s finale to

very worthy opponent Bianca Del Rio.) Courtney recently released her new single, “Mean Gays,” and Adore, formerly known as _American Idol_ Season 7 semifinalist Danny Noriega, just filled up

our earholes with her gooey debut single, “DTF.” [RELATED: COURTNEY ACT VS. ADORE DELANO: RU SANG IT BEST?] So to celebrate this week’s RELEASE OF ADORE’S DEBUT ALBUM, here’s a party

playlist of actually decent singles by actually musically talented _Drag Race_ alumni. You betta werk! 8. ALASKA, “RU GIRL” Take the _Rosemary’s Bab_y-like hell-spawn of Lady Gaga and

Marilyn Manson, put her in a low-budget version of Madonna’s “Justify My Love” video, and have her deadpan-rap the names of her fellow_ Drag Race_ alums a la the Nails doing “88 Lines About

44 Women.” The result? The super-dirrty “Ru Girl.” This one’s totally NSFW (even if you happen to work at Logo TV or World of Wonder), but you can watch the always-controversial Alaska’s

unRuPaulogetically seedy video HERE. 7. JINKX MONSOON, “COFFEE AND WINE” Let’s raise a toast to the Season 5 _Drag Race_ queen and starlet of the traveling cabaret show “The Vaudevillians,”

who keeps it old-school with this charming burlesque number. That Jinkx is always such a class act! Her full-length debut, _The Inevitable Album_, features contributions from B-52’s frontman

Fred Schneider. Watch the video HERE. EDITOR’S PICKS 5 – 6. WILLAM BELLI, “CHOW DOWN AT CHIC-FIL-A” / “RUPAULOGIZE” (TIE) The infamously disqualified troublemaker of Season 4 got her

musical start in a dragtastic L.A. punk/glam band, whose X-rated name cannot be printed here. And post-_Drag Race_, Willam is still raising (perfectly stenciled) eyebrows with her music

parodies, sometimes as part of DWV, a group with fellow comedy queens Detox (_Drag Race_ Season 5) and Vicky Vox. All of Willam’s NSFW singles are hilarious, but “Chow Down,” a bizarre ode

to anti-gay fast food joint Chic-Fil-A set to the tune of Wilson Phillips’s “Hold On,” and the OneRepublic sendup “RuPaulogize” are the funniest of the lot. Willam is well on her way to

becoming the Weird Al of drag — and I mean that as the _highest_ compliment. Watch the gut-bustingly funny videos HERE and HERE. 4. RAJA, “DIAMOND CROWNED QUEEN” The Season 3 runway-ruling

champion’s debut single is a deliciously trashy track, reminiscent of ’70s sleazefests like “Warm Leatherette,” ’80s industrial, and mid-’90s house music — with a whole lot of groaning

straight out of a Berlin or Donna Summer/Giorgio Moroder remix thrown in. As a bonus, the song’s steamy video stars the other fiercest femme fatale in _Drag Race_ herstory, Raven. (Why

didn’t Raven ever put out a single, huh?) Watch the video HERE. [RELATED: SHARON NEEDLES PERFORMS AT LOU REED SXSW TRIBUTE] 2 – 3. SHARON NEEDLES, “CALL ME ON THE OUIJA BOARD” / “THIS CLUB

IS A HAUNTED HOUSE” (TIE) The winning Goth-glam goddess of Season 4 spent the majority of her _Drag Race_ $100,000 booty financing the recording and promotion of her original album, _PG-13_.

Was this money that would have been better spent at Party City? That’s up for debate, but _PG-13_ (which features cameos by RuPaul, Jayne County, Scissor Sisters’ Ana Matronic, and Amanda

Lepore, plus a cover of Ministry’s “Every Day Is Halloween”) _did_ debut respectably at No. 186 on the Billboard 200. It even got all the way to No. 4 on iTunes’ Pop chart! It also spawned

two of the best _Drag Race_ contestant singles ever. “Ouija Board” is a particularly Blondie-esque pop-punk romp. Watch the videos HERE and HERE. 1. Adore Delano, “DTF” TRENDING STORIES This

is the song Kelis wishes she’d made. Adore brings all the boys to yard (or, in the just-premiered, NSFW video’s case, the laundromat) with her trampy, unabashedly trashy jam with the

seemingly _Jersey Shore_-inspired title. If only she’d been able to get this down ‘n’ dirty on _Idol_ back in the day! There is a lot to adore about “DTF.” Adore’s brilliantly titled debut

album, _Till Death Do Us Party_, comes out June 3. Watch the video HERE. Party! FOLLOW LYNDSEY ON TWITTER, INSTAGRAM, GOOGLE+, AMAZON, TUMBLR, VINE, SPOTIFY