Ding Dong! RuPaul’s Drag Race star Katya pays homage to LOBODA in new cover song

She’s the American drag queen who conquered RuPaul’s Drag Race and All Stars with her comedic Russian persona. Now, Katya has paid homage to Ukraine’s Eurovision 2009 star LOBODA with the new song “Ding Dong!”.

This new track is a cover of LOBODA’s recent single “Boom Boom” and features on Katya’s debut EP Vampire Fitness.

Katya honours LOBODA in “Ding Dong!”

Katya, full name Yekaterina Petrovna Zamolodchikova, has increasingly shown her love for Ukrainian SuperSTAR LOBODA over recent months. The Drag Race star frequently features the Eurovision alum’s music in her Instagram stories – LOBODA has even occasionally re-posted videos of Katya singing her songs to her own stories.

Svetlana Loboda reposted me on her insta so basically it’s over for you hoes

— Katya (@katya_zamo) July 7, 2020

Come on over to IG rn for a 5 min plank to a Loboda song

— Katya (@katya_zamo) September 3, 2020

Now, Katya has taken things a step further and included a cover of LOBODA’s most recent single “Boom Boom” on her debut EP. Katya’s version is titled “Ding Dong!”, which is a reference to a phrase that British make-up artist Val Garland uses on television show Glow Up.

Musically, it’s a faithful cover of the original. However, Katya has mixed the lyrics up a bit. Admittedly, LOBODA’s lyrics in “Boom Boom” were relatively nonsensical to begin with, but that gives Katya a lot of room to play around with them.

“Ding Dong!” retains the opening quote from French feminist writer Simone de Beauvoir, but then Katya proceeds to sing a series of words that somewhat describe herself: “White teeth / Red lips / Vibe check / Nice girl”.

In the original chorus, LOBODA lists off a number of female names who “want Boom Boom”. Katya replaces these names with those of various RuPaul’s Drag Race alumni: “Heidi will say dong too! / Katya crying ding dong! / Sasha crying ding dong! / Alaska crying ding dong! / We all cry ding dong!”.

Scroll down for the full lyrics

Katya (feat. Trixie Mattel) – “Ding Dong!”

LOBODA’s “Boom Boom” featured a rap verse from Russian rapper Pharoh. For her cover, Katya brought in the help of fellow Drag Race contestant and All Stars 3 winner Trixie Mattel. The two drag queens have been close friends since appearing on season seven of the show together and now host two popular web series – WOWPresents’ UNHhhh and Netflix’s I Like To Watch.

Katya revealed in an interview with BuzzFeed that Trixie’s featured section was originally supposed to be a banjo breakdown where Trixie would also rap. However, after deciding that didn’t really work, the All Stars 3 champion now recites a line from horror film The Silence of the Lambs instead.

LOBODA’s music videos are always a visual treat and Katya has emulated this for her own. There are many references to the original “Boom Boom” MV – Katya replicates two of the outfits that LOBODA wore herself and also uses a number of the dance moves from the original (there are no exploding heads though). The “Ding Dong!” clip only features Katya (and Trixie briefly), with most of it involving the Drag Race star dancing in front of various green screen backgrounds.

To confirm just how much Katya loves LOBODA, the music video finishes with the following message:

“Katya loves boom boom!

A loving parody & homage to the complex multi talents of the incomparable, the inimitable, the beyond-this-planet-beautiful legendary Slavic superstar Svetlana Loboda.

we all love boom too!

With special thanks and eternal gratitude to the legendary Val Garland. DIIIIIING DOOOOOOONG!”.

Katya and her love for LOBODA

Although Eurovision fans have known of LOBODA since her appearance at Eurovision 2009 singing “Be My Valentine (Anti-Crisis Girl)”, Katya’s love for the Ukrainian performer is a relatively recent thing. In her interview with BuzzFeed, the drag queen revealed that it was love at first listen:

““Boom Boom” came out in [July], and I was like – the song and the video, I was just so obsessed with. I learned about that singer, Svetlana Loboda, I think only in the last year. And I’ve just voraciously consumed everything she’s recorded, and I’m so obsessed with her.”

Despite LOBODA having re-posted a few of Katya’s Instagram stories, the Drag Race star isn’t sure the Eurovision 2009 singer truly knows who she is. In response to a question about whether LOBODA knew about “Ding Dong!”, Katya says: