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Blu Hydrangea

Northern Irish drag performer (born 1996)

Image credit is listed at the end of this article.

Blu Hydrangea (born 15 February 1996) is the stage name of Joshua Cargill, a Northern Irish drag queen from Belfast who competed the first series of RuPaul's Drag Race UK in 2019, and won the first series of RuPaul's Drag Race: UK vs. the World in 2022.

01Career

Blu Hydrangea was announced as part of the cast of the first series of RuPaul's Drag Race UK on 21 September 2019 and subsequently finished in fifth place on the series, losing the lip sync to fellow contestant Cheryl Hole.

Outside of Drag Race, Blu Hydrangea is a make-up queen and a part of a group called the Frock Destroyers (with Baga Chipz and Divina de Campo). She also hosted the BBC web series Strictly Frocked Up, a weekly web series where she and another drag queen watch and review each episode of Strictly Come Dancing.

In January 2022, she was announced as one of the nine contestants on the first series of RuPaul's Drag Race: UK vs. the World. On 8 March 2022, Blu Hydrangea was announced as the winner of the series, becoming the first Northern Irish queen to win across the franchise. In December 2023, she was announced as competing on the seventh season of the Irish version of Dancing with the Stars, premiering in January 2024, where she finished as runner-up. She broke the record of receiving the most perfect scores in any series, with 5, and the most 10s of any contestant (along with Aoibhín Garrihy and Nina Carberry), with 18.

At RuPaul's DragCon LA in 2023
At RuPaul's DragCon LA in 2023

02Personal life

Cargill grew up in Royal Hillsborough but later moved to live in Belfast. He has dated Johnson Orr since 2014, becoming engaged in December 2023.

03Filmography

Television

Year Title Role Notes
2019 RuPaul's Drag Race UK Herself Contestant (5th Place); Series 1
2021-2022 Stitch, Please! Herself Host
2021 Be Here, Be Queer Herself Netflix special
2022 RuPaul's Drag Race: UK vs. the World Herself Contestant (Winner); Series 1
Queens for the Night Mentor One-off special
2023 RuPaul's Drag Race UK Herself Special guest; Series 5
2023 Mwy Na Daffs a Taffs Herself Episode 6
2024 Dancing with the Stars Herself Contestant (Runner-up); Series 7
Wreak Drag Queen
Celeb Cooking School Herself Contestant (Winner)
RuPaul's Drag Race: UK vs. the World Herself Special guest; Series 2
2026 Dancing with the Stars Herself All-Star mentor; Series 9

Web

Year Title Role Notes
2020 God Shave the Queens Herself Produced by World of Wonder
Strictly Frocked Up Herself (Host) BBC iPlayer
The X Change Rate Herself Produced by BUILD Series
Strictly Frocked Up! Herself Produced by BBC Three
Cosmo Queens UK Herself Produced by Cosmopolitan UK
2021 I Like to Watch UK Herself Produced by Netflix
2022 Frockumentary Herself WOWPresents+ Original
EW News Flash Herself Produced by Entertainment Weekly
Drag Us Weekly Herself Produced by Us Weekly
Bestie Test Herself With Cheryl Hole, Produced by Glamour Magazine UK
Bring Back My Girls Herself Produced by World of Wonder
2023 Binge Queens: UK5 Herself (Host) With Cheryl Hole, Produced by World of Wonder

Music videos

Year Title Artist Ref.
2020 "Always" Waze & Odyssey
2020 "Her Majesty" Frock Destroyers (Herself, Baga Chipz & Divina de Campo)
2021 "My House" Jodie Harsh

04Discography

Singles

As lead artist

Year Song Album
2022 "Champion (Ru x Blu)"
(with RuPaul)
Non-album single

As featured artist

Title Year Peak chart positions Album
UK
US
Elec.

"Break Up (Bye Bye)"

(RuPaul featuring the cast of RuPaul's Drag Race UK, season 1)

2019 3545 Non-album single
"Living My Life in London" (Cast Version)
(RuPaul featuring the cast of RuPaul's Drag Race UK vs. The World, season 1)
2022 , ,

With the Frock Destroyers

Watch videos about Blu HydrangeaExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article Blu Hydrangea, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

Images, from Wikimedia Commons:

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