How a Eurovisn star's song about g out beme a gay anthem

HOW EUROVISN BEME A GAY-IENDLY NTT

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Last year, a rerd five acts the grandfFal nsisted fully or part of out queer performers — cludg wners Månk om Italy, wh bisexual member Victoria De Angelis and “sexually ee” member Ethan Torch.This year’s Eurovisn Grand Fal on Saturday will feature two out queer acts — Iceland’s aforementned Systur and Atralia’s Sheldon Riley — and performanc om several other nttants will telegraph robt endorsements of queer sexualy.Subwoolfer performs Tuday on behalf of Norway.Mar 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 wter.The 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.“I never really set out for to be an anthem,” Riley told the Netherlands’ OUTtv.

“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.

Dpe anti-gay activists prottg on the streets of Slovenia's pal, Ljubljana, the tr won fans around the world wh their performance of 'Samo Ljubezen (Only Love)', their participatn, wh protts even reachg parliament and the European Stokkan, Norway (1986)In 1986, Norway's Ketil Stokkan performed his song 'Romeo' alongsi a member of the Great Garlic Girls, a well-known drag group. Pl Osr, Iceland (1997)Consired by many Eurovisn die-hards as beg ahead of his time, Iceland's beme the first openly gay sger to perform at Eurovisn 1997. Dpe not makg through to the fals, DQ's entry song 'Drama Queen' was loved by members of the LGBTIQ+ muny and soon beme a go-to dis track at gay clubs.

BLAS CANTó: “EUROVISIóN HUMANO, NO GAY NI HETEROSEXUAL”

The LGBT muny’s passn for the Eurovisn Song Contt hardly began wh Concha Wurst’s triumph last year. The ternatnal TV and rad ntt has long been embraced by gay, lbian and transgenr… * cancion eurovision gay *

Wurst has sce bee a vol advote for LGBTIQ+ rights, appearg at Pri ftivals around the world (cludg Sydney's Gay and Lbian Mardi Gras) and even addrsg the Uned Natns. 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. “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.

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

The Eurovisn Song Contt is for everyone, whether "gay, straight or between". LGBT visibily the ntt clus both LGBT them the petg acts and performers themselv. * cancion eurovision gay *

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.

POR QUé EUROVISIóN LE TERA SOBRE TODO AL PúBLI GAY

For s legn of gay fans, Eurovisn has long been more than a song ntt. * cancion eurovision gay *

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.

“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.

“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. In 1997, Icelandic pop sger Pl Osr beme Eurovisn’s first openly gay nttant, although he didn’t w.