Blu Hydrangea, also known as Josua Cargill, absolutely slayed on the most recent season of Dancing With the Stars: Ireland, and, in the lead-up to the finale on Sunday, March 17th, the drag legend was more determined than ever to “take the crown home, home, home” for Northern Ireland, though they ended up leaving the competition as a runner-up. 

A native of Belfast, Hydrangea rose to fame when they appeared on the premiere season of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK in 2019. Hydrangea later returned to the series to snatch the crown and the title “Queen of the Mothertucking World” on RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs the World in 2022.

Late last year, Hydrangea joined the cast of the seventh series of Dancing With the Stars Ireland alongside her professional dance partner, Simone Arena. 

Week after week Hydrangea and Arena wowed the judges, and for the last two weeks of the competition, the pair brought home perfect scores from the judging panel, launching them into the front-runner’s position leading into the finale. 

Unfortunately, Hydrangea and Arena were unable to emerge victorious from the Paddy’s Day finale, with the glitterball trophy ultimately going to their stiffest competition, former Paralympic speed runner Jason Smyth and his dance partner, Karen Byrne. 

In an interview with Sunday World ahead of Sunday’s finale, Hydrangea expressed their hope that they’d done enough to win over the people of Ireland throughout the competition. “I’m so lucky that I have a little angel face and all the mummies just want to pinch my cheeks.” 

Alas, pinchable cheeks obviously weren’t enough to charm the nation, and as DWTS relies on a public vote to select its winner, Smyth and Byrne managed to win the competition despite the fact that Hydrangea and Arena actually scored better on average. 

Despite taking the runner-up accolade, Blu Hydrangea explained that they were proud to be flying the flag for queer people throughout the Republic and in their home, Northern Ireland. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Simone Arena (@simonearena_official)

“I grew up as a gay person in Northern Ireland and I knew that I wasn’t accepted in certain spaces. I think it would be gorgeous for this to kind of open people’s minds a little bit more because there is no real difference between a gay person and a straight person, only just who they love.  

“What DWTS has given me is an opportunity to show people that maybe are in my situation whenever I was a young kid, that they can grow up and do whatever they want with their lives and be as fabulous as me if they want,” added Hydrangea.

Despite their current confidence, the Irish drag icon expressed that, when they were young, they used to pray “Please fix me” because of their queerness. “My teachers in school would make passive aggressive comments about queer people and stuff like that. And I remember my dad would make jokes about ‘you better never bring a man home.’ That’s the things that were ingrained into me…there was definitely a fear about being myself,” said Hydrangea. 

“My dad probably was scared that I would grow up gay because I used to dance around the kitchen and make my sister do the male lead and I’d do the female lead. I mean, it was quite obvious.

“But I think him seeing how it’s not changed me as a person, it’s not made me to be in any kind of difficulties in my life and I’m just a happy person who has decided to love someone that’t the same gender as me…he never probably would have thought he’d be able to accept that. But almost immediately he was able to, just because he knows me and he loves me and it didn’t change anything about me.”

Hydrangea and Arena kicked off Sunday night’s finale by returning to their contemporary ballroom dance routine to the track “Tattoo” by Loreen. The couple originally performed the number in Week 5 of the competition, only earning a score of 25 out of 30 from the judges. Returning to the performance for the finale, Hydrangea and Arena were able to score a perfect 30 from the panel.

Offering their feedback on the pair’s finale performance, DWTS judge Brian Redmond told the couple: “If this is what you could do with contemporary ballroom, then there’s more to come, folks, stay tuned.

“People say lights, camera, action but this was more than that. It was lights, camera, action, hair, makeup, choreography, music, everything, it was just epic.”

As Blu Hydrangea left the stage following their final performance, which ultimately ended in a runner-up placement, they were visibly holding back tears.

“Both of us are honestly on the verge of tears here just letting everybody know, there will be tears coming tonight I’m sure,” said Blu.

“It’s the last dance together and I’m just here to enjoy myself, it’s been a great season.”