LOUD & PROUD: The Gayns, Or Otherwise, Of The Eurovisn Song Contt, And Why It Matters | HuffPost UK Entertament

Contents:

• HOW EUROVISN BEME A GAY-IENDLY NTT
• IS EUROVISN A GAY EVENT? LGBT PERFORMANC THROUGHOUT THE HISTORY OF THE NTT
• LOUD & PROUD: THE GAYNS, OR OTHERWISE, OF THE EUROVISN SONG CONTT, AND WHY IT MATTERS
• ‘HAVE YOU NOTICED THAT EUROVISN IS VERY POPULAR WH GAY PEOPLE?’
• TURNS OUT, BARBIELAND ISN'T AS GAY AS S QUEER FANS HAD HOPED

HOW EUROVISN BEME A GAY-IENDLY NTT

Subwoolfer performs Tuday on behalf of Bertorello / AFP - Getty ImagHostg the extravaganza will also be two beloved out gay stars: sger Mika, who’ll be live om Tur as an onse host for the global dience, and Olympian turned NBC mentator Johnny Weir, who’ll emcee the exclive Amerin feed of the broadst on Peack. Mar Bertorello / AFP - Getty ImagSystur’s folk ballad Eurovisn entry, “Með hækkandi sól” (“Wh the Risg Sun”), is an o to the promise of the sun’s warmth and light overg the ld darkns of lyrics of Atralian nttant Sheldon Riley’s song, “Not the Same, ” also celebrate light shg through a broken darkns — and have ronated so strongly wh some LGBTQ fans that the song is beg hailed as a gay anthem. “So the ia of beg gay and beg all of those thgs that Eurovisn is so proud of beg wasn’t acceptable for me, was jt this thg that was nstantly prayed over.

‘We pray that Sheldon will be a real man; we pray that Sheldon won’t be gay, will be straight, will have a wife, will have kids.

It me ls than a year after Vladimir Put passed a law banng children Rsia om learng about homosexualy and the untry's entry was loudly booed by the arena crowd, while others waved the Pri flag for the mera. It's believed by many terpreters that the song was about a homosexual relatnship, wh ambiguo lyril them about partners facg judgement om those around them amid referenc to hell and irons. A 2019 article by Belgian broadster RTBF took a closer examatn of the text, even clarg a prott song favour of the gay movement, although is never explicly stated that the song is about two source, Getty Imag / KeystoneImage ptn, Jean-Cl Pasl, a French artist reprentg Luxembourg, won the 1961 Contt wh the song No l AmourexThere was a ltle ls subtlety 1986 when host natn Norway field Ketil Stokkan, performg Romeo, wh members of a drag troupe.

IS EUROVISN A GAY EVENT? LGBT PERFORMANC THROUGHOUT THE HISTORY OF THE NTT

By the time Pl Osr of Iceland turned up 1997 as Eurovisn's first openly gay entrant, fans like myself were startg to fd each other the early ter foms. "I would read webs, take part foms, and gradually dawned on me that, actually, probably, most of the people I was teractg wh on there were gay - back then that was the ma LGBTQ+ inty that people had, " she explas.

In the north-wt of England, I beme volved regular days (and nights) out where a majory-gay crowd of Eurovisn enthiasts would chat, drk and - ocsnally - see romance blossom. "Eurovisn isn't an LGBTQ+ event but 's affectnately referred to as 'Gay Christmas', " explas the dited ntt fan.

In the 1997 Israeli film Ba’al Ba’al Lev (Gotta Have Heart), a gay teenager obssed wh the Eurovisn Song Contt (ESC) exprsed py for his LGBTQ brethren the Uned Stat. As Eurovisn veterans perform at gay pri ftivals om Madrid to Stockholm this summer, we reunt five memorable LGBTQ moments at Eurovisn.

LOUD & PROUD: THE GAYNS, OR OTHERWISE, OF THE EUROVISN SONG CONTT, AND WHY IT MATTERS

The ntt, held Birmgham, England, would feature a public televote for the very first time, and supporters began to see her potential succs as a statement on gay power. Krista, a straight ally wh a male fiancé, emed the move a public prott over Fland’s failure to extend equal rights — cludg same-sex marriage — to gay people.

Haters scribed the character — portrayed by gay male sger Tom Nwirth — as “foolish” and “disgtg”, and some members of Atria LGBTQ muny said she was stg them all as eaks. In 2011 LGBTQ rights group Zagreb Pri nomated him for “Homophobe of the De, ” owg to ntroversial statements he had reportedly ma 2005, tellg Tena magaze that gay men and lbians “nnot be equal wh other cizens bee means a return to Sodom and Gomorrah.

But Houk ma the bold cisn to pete at Eurovisn 2017 Kiev anyway, and a year where anizers had chosen the theme “Celebrate Diversy” — wh s obv nod to gay rights. He lnched a digal mpaign celebratg iendship and gave terviews to media outlets wh large gay followgs. The ternatnal TV and rad ntt has long been embraced by gay, lbian and transgenr people tuned to s msage of uny.

‘HAVE YOU NOTICED THAT EUROVISN IS VERY POPULAR WH GAY PEOPLE?’

Slowly, but surely, the LGBT (lbian, gay, bi and transgenr) muny found a welg home Europe’s annual mil extravaganza. “We want to produce great TV shows that appeal to the greatt number of people: No matter where they are om, no matter if they are men or women, young or old, Europe or out, whe or black, homosexual or straight, ” Bakker poted out that Eurovisn remas a global event, watched by more than 180 ln viewers worldwi, om Portugal to Azerbaijan, and even Atralia, which was ved to participate this year’s edn. Profsor Brian Sgleton, who holds the Samuel Beckett Chair of Drama and Theatre at Try College Dubl, and who wrote an article on the soclogy of Eurovisn for the Society of Queer Studi Journal 2007, said gay men growg up the 60s and 70s gravated toward the event while watchg at home wh their a time when social nventn told men to show extreme emotnal rtrat, Eurovisn was a wele breath of h air, acrdg to Sgleton.

The glamour, the spectacle, ’s all those thgs that gay men vt to get away om the norms of masculy, ” noted on the worldIn the 60s and 70s Eurovisn was also a rare wdow on the world for Europeans still largely isolated om one another. Sgleton, who remas a big Eurovisn fan to this day, argu that the opportuny to see people on TV who were different helped gay men accept themselv as beg outsi the norm, and even to celebrate that difference – a procs many gay men go through. It’s jt one big meltg pot of var different backgrounds, and beg gay or straight is jt part of the mix.

“In the late 90s, there was already this well tablished associatn between Eurovisn and gay inti terms of fandom, ” said Cathere Baker, a historian at the Universy of Hull whose rearch foc on the 20th year 1998 marked a change for the televised ntt, one that would make evint s LGBT magism. “It was very obv that [the dience] was posed mostly of gay men, really sent a signal across Europe, ” Sgleton were also changg on stage. The sger’s triumph was a first for a drag queen, but also for an openly gay man – Tom Nwirth, the Atrian man behd the Concha beard (surprisgly, not his own).

TURNS OUT, BARBIELAND ISN'T AS GAY AS S QUEER FANS HAD HOPED

Some performers have fied the ban, as was the se wh Fnish sger Krista Siegids, who topped off her terpretatn of the song “Marry Me” 2013 by kissg one of her dancers, th clearly takg sis Europe’s heated polil bat on gay marriage. LGBTQ+ fans have affectnately likened Eurovisn to other major events, wh scriptns such as “Gay Christmas”, “the Gay World Cup” and “the Gay Olympics”.

Many have related LGBTQ+ (particularly gay male) admiratn for Eurovisn s “mp” nature and reliance on excs. In San Sontag’s semal piece Not on Camp, she scrib mp as more than jt the effemacy of gay men – is a sensibily that reprents the “love of the unnatural: of artifice and exaggeratn”.

The Eurovisn mtee have planned a number of events, such as Queerovisn, an onle event showsg the bt of Liverpool’s Queer ge, as well as a number of gay club events and after parti. Report by Jossie Evans and Gee Hanrn, ITV News' Here's the StoryEurovisn has a long and proud history of supportg queer artists and champng LGBT+ rights.There have been untls key moments that waved the flag for LGBT+ reprentatn.In 1998 Dana Internatnal entered the petn as the first trans performer - she went onto w for Israel, beg the first trans Eurovisn wner.The ntt has had several out LGBT+ wners sce then.Another key moment me 2014 when Concha (a gay drag queen) brought her genr non-nformg drag to the mass.Concha Wurst reprentg Atria performs the song ' Rise Like a Phoenix'.