'RuPaul's Drag Race': Which queen will win Season 10? Who should?

The time has come for the last four queens on "RuPaul's Drag Race" to lip-sync — not for their lives but for final bragging rights as the winner of Season 10 (VH1, Thursday, 8 EDT/PDT).

"To do a great lip sync for your life, you need to embody everything 'Drag Race' is about," RuPaul tells USA TODAY by email. "Head to head and toe to toe, it’s like sudden death at a sporting event."

Those battles, RuPaul says, are "the reason everyone stays tuned to the very last moment of every episode. It finally dawned on us last season: A lip-sync smackdown for the crown is the perfect last challenge for the grand finale as well." (It worked: A record 859,000 viewers turned in to watch Sasha Velour win two lip-sync battles to claim the Season 9 crown.)

The Season 10 queens have already provided lip-sync fireworks on multiple occasions. In Episode 9, Tennessee queens Kameron Michaels and Eureka gave their all on Patti LaBelle's "New Attitude" and impressed RuPaul so much that neither went home that week.

With the help of "Drag Race" veteran Tatianna from Season 2 and "All Stars" Season 2, USA TODAY sizes up the four finalists and predicts who will be named "America's next drag superstar."

Kameron Michaels 

Real name: Dane Young
Age: 31
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Genre: Tattooed muscle queen who straddles the line between "supermasculine and hyper-feminine"
Known as: The quiet one
Number of times in the bottom two: three

How she got to the final four: By being the lip-sync assassin. The Cher musical challenge was her only win all season (the lowest tally of any finalist), but she lip-synced her way out of the bottom two three weeks in a row, the most of any contestant this season.

Tatianna's take: "Kameron is reserved but knows exactly what she is doing onstage, and that really impressed me."

Eureka

Real name: David Huggard
Age: 27
Hometown: Johnson City, Tennessee
Known as: The loudmouth
Genre:  A big girl with an even bigger personality
Number of times in the bottom two: two

How she got to the final four: Eureka, who returned to "Drag Race" after blowing out her knee during a Season 9 challenge, got into a groove once she got out of her own head. This season's best comedy queen, she was willing to do anything for a laugh  (including rolling around on the floor in a diaper and bib), which won her the talk-show and DragCon-panel challenges. She was also routinely praised for her runway looks, won Reading Is Fundamental (one of two fan-favorite challenges featured every season) and matched the smaller queens move for move in the "American" video challenge.

Tatianna's take: "I really love how Eureka kind of found herself this season and overcame some internal battles she had."

Asia O'Hara

Real name: Antwan Lee
Age: 35
Hometown: Dallas
Genre:  Pageant queen
Known as: The motherly one
Number of times in the bottom two: one

How she got to the final four: When she wasn't mediating other queens' feuds or helping them with their sewing, Asia was whipping up runway looks that consistently put her near the top of the runway pack. And despite being a pageant queen who exudes poise, she was willing to get butt-ugly in the Tap That App challenge and played a wickedly funny Sarah Palin in the "Westworld" parody "Breastworld."

Tatianna's take: "Asia is so polished and knows exactly who she is and what she stands for."

Aquaria

Real name: Giovanni Palandrani
Age: 22
Hometown: Brooklyn, New York
Genre:  Fashionista 
Known as: The (not so) dumb one
Number of times in the bottom two: zero

How she got to the final four: Aquaria was the most consistent queen on the runway, turning look after gagworthy look and nailing older fashion references that most young competitors would never think of. Midway through the season, she finally showed us she had a personality in addition to impeccable style and that's when she became unstoppable, piling up the most wins of any Season 10 contestant (three maxis, two minis). She never had to lip-sync for her life, which made us wonder how she'd fare in the new final format, where that skill completely determines the winner. But she laid any concerns to rest by slaying the "American" video challenge.

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Tatianna's take: "Aquaria has amazing style for such a young queen, and she really took critiques very well."

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Should win: Aquaria

We are partial to comedy queens. If we pay money to see a drag act, we want to laugh. Aquaria made us wait a long time to prove she had a sense of humor, but it was worth it. She truly came into her own impersonating Melania Trump to hilarious effect, winning Snatch Game, a comedy challenge she was expected to lose bigly. It was around that point that she became as fun off the runway as she is on it.

Here's the unfortunate thing, though. Aquaria may be a victim of timing. If she wins, she'd be the second white, edgy New York high-fashion queen in a row. And we've already had at least three winners from the high-fashion genre (Sasha Velour, Violet Chachki and Raja). It's time for someone different to carry the torch.

Will win (and we're totally cool with it): Asia O'Hara

"I’m rooting for Asia just because she is the all-around example of what this competition is about!" says Tatianna. And this season, well-roundedness counts more than ever.  We need more from America's next drag superstar than sick runway looks and savage reads (both of which Asia excels at).  We need a voice.

At a time when both the gay and African-American communities feel under attack, both "Drag Race" and America need Asia. A lock for this season's Miss Congeniality title, the Texas-bred queen has already shown her diplomatic skills, which will be needed to build bridges between the drag world and the rest of the country. Better yet, she embraces that challenge. Plus, she could teach Miss America and Miss USA contestants a thing or two about discussing social issues.  Yas, pageant queen!

To quote Asia herself, "This is about to be Asia O'Hara's Drag Race!"

WPXI