''Mamaru'' (stylized in all lowercase) is the fourteenth studio album by American singer and drag queen

RuPaul RuPaul Andre Charles (born November 17, 1960; stylized as RuPaul) is an American drag queen, television personality, actor, musician, and model. Best known for producing, hosting, and judging the reality competition series ''RuPaul's Drag Race'' ...

, released on January 7, 2022. The album was released on the same day as the premiere of the fourteenth season of '' RuPaul's Drag Race''. The song "Catwalk" was used during the runway presentations segment of the show.

Singles

"Blame It on the Edit" was released as the first single on October 8, 2021, preceding the album's release. A music video was released alongside the single, directed by Weston Allen. On November 5, 2021, "Just What They Want" was released as the second single from the album with a lyric video. On December 2, 2021, the third single, "Catwalk" was released from the album. On April 10, 2022, a remix featuring the top five finalists from ''RuPaul's Drag Race'' season 14 was released.

Reception

Stephen Daw of ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' wrote, "Throughout ''Mamaru'', the ' Supermodel' star delivers what fans have come to expect from her — fun, danceable singles that are made for you to strut to. Some songs like 'Blame It on the Edit', 'Queendom' and 'Pretty Pretty Gang Gang' see Ru leaning into a slightly edgier, updated hip-hop sound, but others like 'Catwalk' see the star capitalizing on the pop that made her a superstar." Ian Fredrickson of ''

The Daily Californian ''The Daily Californian'' (''Daily Cal'') is an independent, student-run newspaper that serves the University of California, Berkeley, campus and its surrounding community. It formerly published a print edition four days a week on Monday, Tuesd ...

'' gave the album a 3.5 out of 5, and wrote that "''Mamaru'' shows audiences young and old that RuPaul is still in her prime nearly half a century into her career. Incredibly fun to listen to — with some tracks definitively worth putting on your hype playlist — the album is impressive even with its occasional blunders." Reanna Cruz of NPR wrote that the album is the "final death knell of bubblegum hyperpop. Throughout the thirty-minute record, Ru somehow manages to commodify and repackage the sounds of almost every single musician who has made an impact on

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internet communities over the past several years, including but not limited to Charli XCX,

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Kim Petras Kim Petras (born 27 August 1992) is a German singer and songwriter based in Los Angeles, California. Between 2016 and 2020, she released music as an independent artist under her own imprint, BunHead Records, before signing with Amigo and Republ ...

Namasenda Naomi Namasenda (born 14 November 1993), known mononymously as Namasenda, is a Swedish singer and songwriter from Stockholm. She is most well known for releases on British pop and electronic label, PC Music. Graduation and music career Namas ...

and the late

Sophie Sophie is a version of the female given name Sophia, meaning "wise". People with the name Born in the Middle Ages * Sophie, Countess of Bar (c. 1004 or 1018–1093), sovereign Countess of Bar and lady of Mousson * Sophie of Thuringia, Duchess o ...

, who is rolling in her grave at the familiar fruit production on a song named 'Pretty Pretty Gang Gang'." The album won the 2022 WOWIE Stream Queen Award for Best Album, presented at

RuPaul's DragCon LA RuPaul's DragCon LA is an annual expo of drag culture held in Los Angeles billed as a "convention that celebrates 'the art of drag, queer culture and self-expression for all'", which debuted in 2015. Its sister event is RuPaul's DragCon NYC sta ...

Track listing

References

{{Authority control 2022 albums RuPaul albums Bubblegum pop albums Hyperpop albums