“Why does the homosexual neighborhood love Eurovision a lot?” is a very fashionable query: and search time period.
Anybody who has ever met a single queer individual is aware of that for LGBTQ+ individuals, Eurovision night time is a nationwide vacation, a day of relaxation adopted by a night of celebration. Homosexual Christmas, if you’ll. However why is that?
It does make sense that the Eurovision Tune Contest – with its camp, vibrant and eclectic vibes – has grow to be unabashedly synonymous with the LGBTQ+ neighborhood. Nonetheless, certainly that’s not the one cause?
When did the queer historical past of Eurovision start? Additionally, why did LGBTQ+ followers flock to the tune contest? Let’s check out the background to this iconic annual occasion.
Eurovision’s legion of queer followers
Eurovision has round 180 million international viewers, and contestants yearly pull out the stops with daring extravagance and unashamed queerness that refuses to be toned down.
It’s mainly LGBTQ+ visibility writ massive, with queer contestants usually singing about their experiences of, amongst different issues, popping out – and people distinctive accounts of their experiences are then beamed into the houses of individuals in places that generally aren’t precisely very accepting of LGBTQ+ individuals.
On this night time, the facility of creativity thrives with highly effective assertions of self-expression and self-confidence. All of this visibility has led to Eurovision turning into a haven for LGBTQ+ individuals.
Eurovision lovers applaud the present for its inclusivity and positivity: with lesbian, homosexual, bisexual, transgender and queer contestants persistently met with cheers, applause and acceptance as they take to the stage.
Eurovision additionally engages with the social-cultural points of queer id, creating an area and platform for the neighborhood can collect and rejoice themselves and one another.
Most annual competitions are linked to sports activities, environments that may usually be heteronormative and reasonably treacherous for some queer individuals.
Nonetheless, Eurovision gives the visceral and all-consuming expertise of being a part of a sporting fandom, following the competitors intently and selecting a favorite to assist: however on the planet of tune and dance.
Plus the character of Eurovision, with its tense voting reveals, stage mishaps and singing scandals all create a background of intrigue, and naturally there’s nothing we queers love greater than the spectacle of some messy, surprising drama!
Tickets are promoting like hotcakes and, following bisexual singer Loreen’s victory in Liverpool final 12 months, Eurovision will transfer to Malmö, Sweden for 2024. So when did LGBTQ+ individuals start being seen at Eurovision?
Eurovision’s queer historical past
The tune contest started in 1956 but it surely was not till the 1997 occasion that the primary overtly LGBTQ contestant+ contestant graced the stage, additional cementing the homosexual neighborhood’s love of Eurovision.
Iceland’s Paul Oscar carried out the tune “Minn hinsti dans” (“My Ultimate Dance”) and although he solely reached twentieth out of 25, Oscar’s monitor garnered plenty of consideration from homosexual audiences, which launched his worldwide reputation.
Maybe one of the crucial well-known queer performers was Israel’s Dana Worldwide along with her triumphant efficiency of “Diva” in 1998 when the present was hosted in Birmingham. She received the present with 172 factors.
Dana Worldwide is a trans lady who got here out at age 13. She appeared once more on the competitors in 2011, however “Diva” stays her most iconic efficiency.
The Hebrew-language, uptempo celebration tune is an ode to highly effective ladies in historical past and mythology. Dana sings about Victoria, the Roman goddess of victory, Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of magnificence and love, and the Greek queen Cleopatra.
Her win was a landmark second that noticed trans id celebrated and uplifted within the mainstream media. This additionally demonstrated that Eurovision has lengthy been wayyy forward of most traditional types of leisure on the subject of LGBTQ+ illustration.
In 2007, the highlight continued to be shone on queer stars. Serbia’s Marija Šerifović carried out “Molitva” in a masculine tux with quick hair.
Although Šerifović was not out on the time, her efficiency nonetheless embodied qualities of queerness by difficult conventional gender roles. Šerifović went on to come back out publicly as a lesbian in 2013.
Acts like Šerifović’s additionally provided the stage to an alternate sense of queerness. Her efficiency was not in English and he or she was singing about particular Serbian themes which illustrated that the queer expertise shouldn’t be unique to Western European, English-speaking nations.
And naturally, who can overlook about Austrian drag queen Conchita Wurst who received the 2014 contest? Regardless of various assist throughout Europe, Wurst was unwavering in championing gender and sexuality range and proved that she was extra than simply “that woman with the beard.”
Wurst’s efficiency brought about fairly a stir on the time. Vladimir Zhirinovsky, head of Russia’s Liberal Democratic celebration, labelled her act as an outrage.
Russia continued to take part in Eurovision till 2022 when the nation was expelled from the tune contest following the invasion of Ukraine.
Comparable requires Israel to be banned from the competitors are being raised in 2024 as a result of ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, with some Eurovision followers threatening to boycott the singing competitors to protest the truth that Israel has not been barred from the occasion this 12 months.
LGBTQ+ singer Olly Alexander is representing Britain at this 12 months’s Eurovision Tune Contest. Dua Lipa and Charli XCX collaborator Danny L Harle wrote and produced his tune.
After extra greater than 450 queer artists, public figures and organisations signed an open letter calling on him to withdraw Alexander posted an announcement (alongside a number of different Eurovision acts) stating: “We stand united towards all types of hate, together with antisemitism and islamophobia.”
“You will need to us to face in solidarity with the oppressed and talk our heartfelt want for peace, an instantaneous and lasting ceasefire, and the secure return of all hostages.
In his personal assertion on Instagram, the homosexual actor and singer posted that he “understands and respects” these boycotting Eurovision, however received’t achieve this himself. He additionally said he hopes to see “an finish to the atrocities we’re seeing happening in Gaza.”
So, to reply that unique query: why does the homosexual neighborhood love Eurovision a lot? As a result of it’s far more than only a tune contest: it’s an enormous queer occasion that holds unbelievable social and political significance.
The Eurovision Tune Contest ultimate takes play on 11 Might 2024.