The 'gay world cup': why LGBTQ+ dienc love Eurovisn

Contents:

• WHY THE EUROVISN SONG CONTT IS LIKE GAY CHRISTMAS IN MY HOE
• EUROVISN: IT'S NOT 'GAY CHRISTMAS' FOR LGBT+ UKRAIANS
• IS EUROVISN A GAY EVENT? LGBT PERFORMANC THROUGHOUT THE HISTORY OF THE NTT
• GAY CHRISTMAS (EUROVISN SONG CONTT)
• THE ‘GAY WORLD CUP’: WHY LGBTQ+ DIENC LOVE THE EUROVISN SONG CONTT
• EUROVISN’S CONCHA: THE QUEEN OF GAY CHRISTMAS

WHY THE EUROVISN SONG CONTT IS LIKE GAY CHRISTMAS IN MY HOE

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.

EUROVISN: IT'S NOT 'GAY CHRISTMAS' FOR LGBT+ UKRAIANS

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. 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.

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

GAY CHRISTMAS (EUROVISN SONG CONTT)

The ternatnal TV and rad ntt has long been embraced by gay, lbian and transgenr people tuned to s msage of uny. Slowly, but surely, the LGBT (lbian, gay, bi and transgenr) muny found a welg home Europe’s annual mil extravaganza.“Many of our most dited ntt fans, those who follow Eurovisn throughout the entire year, are om the LGBT muny. “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 sisted.He 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.A ‘3D’ pneerAlthough the song ntt is not signed to appeal specifilly to the LGBT world, many say projects the valu of tolerance and diversy that are ar to them.

Eurovisn adopted , and never looked back.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 parents.At 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 Sgleton.Wdow on the worldIn the 60s and 70s Eurovisn was also a rare wdow on the world for Europeans still largely isolated om one another. And one night a year, we uld see people om other untri and other cultur and how different they were,” the scholar relled.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.Shg a spotlight on diverse languag, styl and cultur of Europe – and the world – remas at the re of the ntt today.

THE ‘GAY WORLD CUP’: WHY LGBTQ+ DIENC LOVE THE EUROVISN SONG CONTT

“When you mix all the different cultur you almost tomatilly create an environment where beg a b different is accepted, where differenc don’t matter,” Bakker said.“The people who take part Eurovisn don’t see each other as gay or straight.

It’s jt one big meltg pot of var different backgrounds, and beg gay or straight is jt part of the mix.”From Dana to ConchaObservers say that spe the climate of tolerance, Eurovisn “me out” gradually, and the change started wh dienc.Gay men had already been anizg viewg parti for years, when the first Eurovisn fan clubs wh close LGBT lks began croppg up the 1980s.

EUROVISN’S CONCHA: THE QUEEN OF GAY CHRISTMAS

The trend would only bee stronger the to follow.“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 century.The 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 said.Thgs were also changg on stage. In 1997, Icelandic pop sger Pl Osr beme Eurovisn’s first openly gay nttant, although he didn’t w. 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).Eurovisn prohibs nttants om makg any kd of polil statement durg performanc, but that le do not apply to victory speech, and the artists are well aware of .

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.Concha Wurst chose a more subtle approach last year. Three years ago, jt as Concha Wurst was about to claim the Eurovisn Song Contt crown Vienna, The Guardian nicknamed 'gay Christmas'.