Despite Act 131 — originally Senate Bill 43 — being signed into law, drag superstar Kim Chi held the final night of her residency with UCA Friday.

After a successful first day of her residency, consisting of a makeup tutorial and an informal conversation with fans, Kim Chi closed her UCA residency with “An Evening With Kim Chi.”

Kim Chi, who first came to prominence after competing on season eight of “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” has also had a successful career with her very own makeup brand, touring around the world and maintaining an online presence with her audience since the show’s airing back in 2016.

The event was not only free for UCA students, but was free for the general public to enjoy as well.

The evening kicked off with Kim Chi lip syncing “Vision of Love” by Mariah Carey as her big opener for the night, with the audience eating up her soulful performance. 

After Kim Chi’s first lip sync performance, audience members were allowed to come up and ask questions about anything their hearts desired.

Questions ranged from topics related to Kim Chi’s drag, growing up queer, and, of course, more lighthearted questions such as someone asking Kim Chi to go to Chipotle after the show. 

Kim Chi got personal with the audience during this portion, taking time to answer each question thoroughly while also having fun with the audience. 

As the Q&A line finished, it was time for the second lip sync performance of the evening, which was actually performed by handpicked audience members. Kim Chi served as the judge. 

As seen on RuPaul’s Drag Race and many other drag competitions, a “lip sync for your life” is a way for contestants to have one final chance to show what they’ve got before potentially getting kicked out of the competition.

Four contestants were chosen before the evening started and two more contestants were picked out from the audience right before the lip sync battle started.

Kimchi split the six contestants into pairs of two where contestants lip synced against their partner to songs such as “Toxic” by Britney Spears.

As each group performed, it was up to the audience to decide who was to sashay away and who was to stay for the final face off. 

The final performance of the battle was between the last three contestants, where each contestant had to lip sync to a song picked by Kim Chi as a way for them to truly show what they’ve got. 

It was clear that the three did not know the song Kim Chi had chosen, which made for an entertaining performance for all three contestants. 

When the final song had ended, the three contestants were put up for one final judgment by the audience where they crowned a lip sync queen. All three contestants received a Kim Chi swag bag for getting into the top three.

Kim Chi closed the show with a performance of “Alone” by the group Heart, showcasing her lip syncing talents with the audience being moved by the performance. 

As the show came to a close, Kim Chi shared her final statements of the evening, sharing much love for UCA and some of its administrators for hosting the event and sharing so much kindness over the course of her stay.

Kim Chi ended the evening with a group picture with the audience and even stayed for a moment after the show ended to grab pictures with fans.

UCA student Elise Smith talked about how amazing it was to have an artist such as Kim Chi perform on campus.

“I really enjoyed it because it gave me a sense of community that I don’t get to normally see on campus or as obviously on campus,” Smith said. 

This event was a part of UCA’s Artist in Residence program and was hosted by The College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.