Celebrity Big Brother has hit the scene! After every eviction, Parade’s Mike Bloom interviews the latest celebrity to leave the Big Brother house.

Big Brother is a tough game to learn on the fly. Between all the terms to memorize, powers to learn, and strategies to analyze, walking into the house with little knowledge can give you a slow start in comparison to your opponents. But once you learn how to flap those BB wings (not cereal boxes), you can get up in the air to perform some complicated maneuvers. Grammy winner and Real Housewives of Atlanta star Kandi Burruss is the most recent example of this success, surviving a set of early nominations to take out one of the most dominant players in the game.

Kandi came into the house to face bad news and worse news. The bad news was that her competitors knew more about the game than her, and her lack of experience had her starting at a disadvantage. The worse news was that she would be sharing a house with Tamar Braxton, with whom she had decades of history in the music business that recently ended on a sour note. Kandi’s initial brutal honesty got her up on the block twice in the first few evictions, but her situation with Tamar was night and day between the two instances. Though Tamar had wanted to get the bad blood out of the house within the first week, the two began to mend fences as the days passed, and she ended up being the swing vote to keep Kandi from being third evicted. Though Kandi had no formal alliance, she observed the trio of Natalie Eva Marie, Lolo Jones, and Ricky Williams becoming more powerful by the day. So when their number one target Tom Green became Head of Household, she was able to get in his ear, convincing him to eventually gun for who she considered the biggest threat in Natalie. Though she wasn’t HoH in title, she held power, a true display of strategic skill. Unfortunately, her momentum stopped there, as a series of wins from Ricky and Lolo ended Kandi’s game at the final five, to Tamar’s protestations.

Now out of the house, Kandi talks with Parade about managing her relationship with Tamar on top of the game, how her constant nominations affected her game, and how she learned to find calm in the storm of the Big Brother house.

It seems pretty obvious why you would give Tamar your jury vote, but can you clarify your exact rationale behind that decision?

It was really easy for me. At the end of the day, if I didn’t win, of course, I wanted Tamar to win. It’s just out of us wanting to continue to build our friendship and me wanting to see her happy. I know she came off a really hard year last year and I kept saying to her, “We’ve got to make sure 2019 is everything!” It’s a great way for her to start with a new beginning.

You and Tamar promised to take each other to the end. But I know that after you were evicted, you told Julie Chen Moonves that you would have taken Ricky if he saved you in the tiebreaking vote. Who would you actually have taken to the finals if you had that opportunity?

The reason why I was saying that was because initially, of course, I wanted to take Tamar. But Ricky had asked if he had to save me, would I agree to take him? I probably would have taken him just to keep my word, not necessarily because I wanted to.

You admitted that you didn’t know a lot about Big Brother before going into the show. What was the process like to figure out the game in the first few evictions?

It was crazy for me. I didn’t know the show or the rules, but I did watch a few episodes in sequester. I just knew you were supposed to stay in the house with people and try not to get kicked out. So my goal was just not to get kicked out at first. But when people started to tell me things, I realized I had to not come off as a threat. Which is easy when you’re in a house full of athletes!

That first week, I was just surviving. I wasn’t really trying to strategize. Then after around the second eviction, I was like, “Okay, I need to start figuring things out.” Everyone was talking about this final five thing. I knew I wanted to make it to the final five with Dina and Tamar. For all three of us to be there at the end, I knew one of the people in Tamar’s room had to go. That would have made six of us, and that’s not happening. I decided there that Natalie was the strongest one.

How much did you respond to those early nominations, considering you might be going home before you even learn the game?

The first week I was super emotional because Tamar and I had been getting into it. I felt like everyone was turning against me, and I really didn’t want to get kicked out first. After I survived that, I became a lot cooler about it. Everyone gets upset about being put on the block, but I didn’t want people to think I’d put them up because they nominated me. I could never let people feel like I was holding grudges, so they wouldn’t feel like they had to get rid of me. I was like, “I’ll always keep a cool attitude. I’m always going to be the person that people say is cool. I’m going to have a good relationship with everybody.” In the end, it’s all just a popularity contest and vote.

I may not win these competitions, but I want everybody to realize I never had a bad attitude. If I had a problem with someone, I was honest and straightforward, even if that can sometimes work against you. I told Natalie and Jonathan, “I think you’re the strongest one in here.” [Laughs.] That wasn’t the smartest thing to do. But they can’t say that I ever plotted behind their backs because I let them know up front that I think they’re good at this game.

On top of playing the Big Brother game, you’re also managing the ebb and flow of this relationship with Tamar. How did that complicate your strategy?

I was on the block the first week, so I didn’t think I was going to make it all the way to the end. I felt more than anything it was important for Tamar and me to figure out our situation. I didn’t want to keep arguing about stuff that shouldn’t be issues between us. It’s crazy, but we needed that house to make up and build a real friendship. We would have never worked out our issues otherwise. We’ve known each other for twenty years, and it’s been a roller coaster the entire time.

We’ve never been close. We’ve always had mutual friends, so that’s what kept our connection along with being in the music industry. We worked in the same studios at the same time. We knew each other well, but we were never close. I could never put a finger on why that was. We would have never worked that stuff out had we not been in the Big Brother house. That’s a win in itself. When you have a lifelong relationship with somebody and never figure out how to make a good relationship, we needed the help of Big Brother. [Laughs.]

Another person you mentioned about wanting to bring to the final five was Dina. You two forged a bond over not being part of an alliance until the very end of the game. What was your relationship like?

I love Dina. That’s a new and true friend I made on this show. We spent so much time together playing cards and shooting pool. We were the underdogs of the house. We weren’t winning the competitions; at any moment we could be put on the block. Everybody looked at us and said, “They get along with everybody, so they’re threats.” It was harder for us to win competitions, so we had to figure out how we could make it to the final five. That’s why I was on a mission to use my relationships with Tom and Kato to get rid of the others.

Honestly, Tom wasted his HoH the first time putting Joey and me on the block because he thought we had the power. He should have put one them on the block then. If he had gotten rid of one of them earlier, then the game would have changed drastically. But because he was so worried about the power, he stopped thinking about the game. I told him, “From day one, I’ve been a fan of yours. We were roommates; I had your back.” That was stupid to put me on the block then. Even if I had the power, I wouldn’t have used it against him.

Can you talk through your move of convincing Tom to target Natalie instead of Ricky during his second term as HoH?

Tom did not like Ricky. But at that point, Ricky really hadn’t won any competitions. He had only won the “Giddy Up” Veto from a long time ago. The other girls were beating him, and Natalie was coming close a lot. I was also looking at the fact that not only was Natalie pretty good at the game and physically strong, but she was mentally strong. She had remembered every single thing we had done. Every time we would have a conversation about a game element, she would know the answer. On top of that, she hadn’t had any real arguments. So I’m like, “Tom, out of everybody in that room, she’s the threat. Everybody in that room has been arguing with people. You have a chance against anybody in that room but Natalie. If she makes it to the end, you might be done and over with. She’s got to go!”

When he survived the block after Kato went home, he was so emotional. He got teary-eyed. But I knew I had to slap out of that phase really quick and get him back to thinking about the game. I was like, “Dude, you cannot start thinking these people actually care about you and want to keep you here. They still plan to kick you out. You need to win and put one of them on the block. We can’t allow four people who have teamed up to get this far. They’re going to control the game if you allow that to happen.” I kept telling him Natalie is the stronger player, and I didn’t think he would listen to me. I broke down all the reasons why she should be the one to go. But in the end, he listened to me, which shocked me.

Was there anything you learned from your time in the house that you’re going to bring in your business and your day-to-day life?

The ability to remain calm in a very intense situation. I feel like I can be calm, but I have an explosive side. People have seen that a few times on Housewives. In this group, there was no time for me to have a release. Normally, if I go crazy on somebody, I get to go home and talk myself down. But I had no one there who I confident in having my back. So I had to be able to keep my mind clear and stay calm in a very stressful and intense situation. I know now I have the ability to stay calm and manage people. I’m good at talking to people, clearly!