Shantay, we stayed: The trailer for Canada's a Drag Season 2 is here — and it's beyond fierce

The time has come...for a second round of the Canadian extravaganza eleganza that is Canada's a Drag.

Nearly a year after CBC Arts debuted the first season, the docuseries is back with an expanded new season that highlights 13 kings and queens from nine different cities across Canada. And unlike last season, it's coming at you all in one big drop o' drag for your binge viewing pleasure: next Wednesday, February 13th, every episode will be released online at CBC Arts and on CBC Gem.

In anticipation, I'm so excited to offer up this trailer (masterfully edited by Ryan Ferguson) introducing you to all the performers involved and getting you revved up for next week. And speaking of next week, if you're in Toronto there will be a free sneak preview of six of the episodes at the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema on Tuesday, February 12th at 7pm. Many of the performers will be attendance for a Q&A afterwards, which I will personally be hosting — in drag, of course.  

Watch the trailer:

As that trailer makes clear, the performers featured in our second season are beyond fierce: Alma Bitches (Vancouver), Icesis Couture (Ottawa), Savannah Couture (Ottawa), Tynomi Banks (Toronto), Duke Carson (Calgary), Crystal Slippers (Montreal), Irma Gerd (St. John's), Yovska (Toronto), Pharaoh Moans (Winnipeg), Eddi Licious (Victoria), Manghoe Lassi (Toronto), Jenna Telz (Kelowna) and Quanah Style (Vancouver). Alongside the nine queens and kings we featured in the first season, that collectively makes 22 subjects so far on the series, though it's more than clear that's still just a small fraction of the drag talent this country has to offer.

It's also clear just how much filmmaking talent from across Canada has been involved in this project. This season's episodes were directed by Josephine Anderson (Vancouver), Taryn Anderson (Winnipeg), Trevor Anderson (Toronto/Calgary), Kelly Conlin (Victoria), Lucius Dechausay (Toronto), Ashley Duong (Montreal), Istoica (Toronto), Jordan Molaro (Winnipeg), Lian Morrison (St. John's), Steven Roste (Kelowna) and Jennifer Roworth (Vancouver), and they did a stunning job.

Additional thank yous to Hope Little for doing our title graphics, and to our entire in-house team here at CBC Arts, particularly March Mercanti (who packaged the episodes), Kiah Welsh (who edited our Instagram and Facebook videos), Jeff Hume (who organized our release), Romeo Candido (our senior producer), Luke Myers (our unit manager), Andrew d'Cruz (our executive producer) and Mercedes Grundy, who produced this series with me. Without Mercedes's charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent, I can assure you what's coming next week would be considerably less fabulous. 

Watch the first season of Canada's a Drag here, and check back next Wednesday, February 13th, when the entire second season will drop.