Eurovision contest - a referendum on Europe?

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Last night all of Europe voted for their favorite performer during Eurovision’s annual song contest. And the winner was a bearded Kardashian lookalike Conchita Wurst from Austria.

To cite the BBC: Austrian drag act Conchita Wurst is crowned the winner of the 59th annual Eurovision Song Contest in Denmark’s capital, Copenhagen.

What is interesting to note is the fact that Azerbaijan, an Islamic country in the Caucasus was among those voting in favor of the “talent” represented by the Austrian performer.

What has happened to Europe? Can anyone from across the pond offer an insight?
 
Ontheway said:
Last night all of Europe voted for their favorite performer during Eurovision’s annual song contest. And the winner was a bearded Kardashian lookalike Conchita Wurst from Austria.

To cite the BBC: Austrian drag act Conchita Wurst is crowned the winner of the 59th annual Eurovision Song Contest in Denmark’s capital, Copenhagen.

What is interesting to note is the fact that Azerbaijan, an Islamic country in the Caucasus was among those voting in favor of the “talent” represented by the Austrian performer.

What has happened to Europe? Can anyone from across the pond offer an insight?
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As you will no doubt know Israel is also in the Eurovision Song Contest and they also gave the full 12 points to Conchitta. So it was across the board from devoutly Jewish state to Muslim one to Catholic Austria where this person hails from.

It sure was a strange event to behold and I had been hoping for the runner-up from the Netherlands, a couple singing a beautiful country song, to win…

Nonetheless “Conchitta” did sing his song very well. So I suppose ignoring the sheer incongruity of a man with a beard dressed up as a woman modelled on Kim Kardashian, based on his voice alone he wasn’t a “bad” choice.

However I don’t doubt that humour was involved in this too, as in “ha ha, look at the state of that bloke with the beard and a dress, must vote for him. How funny would it be if this act won?”

🤷
 
I should add that an Israeli transsexual won Eurovision in 1998 when it was held in the UK.

So, is this really so surprising? 🤷
 
I just blocked a photo on my Facebook page of this Man’s face superimposed upon an image of the Sacred Heart. If I had an ounce of courage, I’d dare then to reproduce one of Mohammed… :mad:
 
I live on the left side of the Atlantic, so I may be wrong. However, my impression of the Eurovision Song Contest is that it has long rewarded novelty performances. It also has a tendency to feature acts which are tacky, or just plain awful.

I am thinking that the selection of Conchita Wurst isn’t that unusual, especially given the political difficulties which have dominated the news.
 
Seems like it has a lot in common with sone of the nobel prizes awarded anymore!
 
The Eurovision Song contest has very little to do with talent. Had the greatest singer in the world entered and they were Russian, they would not win. However, I admit that I stopped watching it a long time ago when I realised it was a political (and mainly talentless) farce.
 
Ontheway said:
What has happened to Europe? Can anyone from across the pond offer an insight?
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Regarding the whole bearded appearance thing, I’ll just quote myself from another thread:
Rin said:
It should be noted that this year’s winner is not transsexual or transgender.

Conchita Wurst is simply a character, played by the drag artist Tom Neuwirth, who identifies as male. He may be gay, but he is not transgender, and does not claim to be anything but male.

That said, the fact that she (the character) won the contest, could be seen as good for the transgender population since it proves that many Europeans now are comfortable with the phenomenon. But it could also be said that it only proves that many Europeans now are comfortable with gay men in drag… so I’m undecided. I’m sure many of those who voted for Conchita may still be found harassing transgender people in another situations.

In either case, men played women’s parts in Italian opera houses for centuries. This is no different. And again, it’s unrelated to the transgender phenomenon, which is a medical, congenital condition only treatable through cross-sex hormones and in some cases surgery. Drag, on the other hand, is a hobby in most cases; an act, which ends as soon as the artist gets off stage and the cameras are turned off.
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As to your question above, I think the reasons Conchita won, was mostly the novelty factor. As others have pointed out, music rarely wins Eurovision. Performance, humor and shock value does. I can only remember a few contests where a country won because the music was good.

In addition, there’s the fact that Russia isn’t very popular at the moment. There’s the thing about the anti-gay laws, and the Ukraine business made it even worse. Note that Conchita got high scores even in more conservative, Eastern European countries - they may not care as much about the anti-gay laws, but they for sure care about Russia again trying to expand. Given the fact that Tom Neuwirth, who “plays” Conchita, is gay, the victory was a slap in the face to Russia, even if the reason for some or many of the votes was Ukraine. It wouldn’t be the first time voting in Eurovision was more about politics than the actual performances - though obviously, the performance (not necessarily the music) in itself probably did gather a lot of votes, too.
 
Ontheway said:
Last night all of Europe voted for their favorite performer during Eurovision’s annual song contest. And the winner was a bearded Kardashian lookalike Conchita Wurst from Austria.

To cite the BBC: Austrian drag act Conchita Wurst is crowned the winner of the 59th annual Eurovision Song Contest in Denmark’s capital, Copenhagen.

What is interesting to note is the fact that Azerbaijan, an Islamic country in the Caucasus was among those voting in favor of the “talent” represented by the Austrian performer.

What has happened to Europe? Can anyone from across the pond offer an insight?
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I’m not from across the pond, but I can offer an insight. This is a fairly strong hint that you should stop watching television.
 
Avila123 said:
The Eurovision Song contest has very little to do with talent. Had the greatest singer in the world entered and they were Russian, they would not win. However, I admit that I stopped watching it a long time ago when I realised it was a political (and mainly talentless) farce.
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I admit that this was my first, and no doubt last time to watch this show. It was interesting to see that Azerbaijan and Israel are now considered to be part of Europe.

The result did not surprise me one bit, once I learned that a cross-dresser was in the contest. “Conchita” didn’t really have to sing at all. All he had to do was to appear on stage for a few minutes and the victory was his.

This is a statement of sorts, as all the countries of Europe participated in this show. That’s our old Western civilization casting a vote that represents its current value system. And, I have no comment.
 
I just wanted to add that the UK public actually gave the full 12 points to Poland’s entry, not Conchita, however the “expert panel” of judges which made up 50% of the vote gave the top place to Conchita and ranked Poland lowest, meaning that they received “nill” points from the UK even though they were the public’s favourite!

I expect this happened in other countries too.
 
Eurovision is one big tack fest. Nobody takes it seriously anymore (it has been like that for a long time now). Nothing surprises me when it comes to its winners 🤷
 
Ontheway said:
I admit that this was my first, and no doubt last time to watch this show. It was interesting to see that Azerbaijan and Israel are now considered to be part of Europe.
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Israel has won Eurovision three times in 1978, 1979, and 1998 respectively and hosted it twice.
This is a statement of sorts, as all the countries of Europe participated in this show. That’s our old Western civilization casting a vote that represents its current value system. And, I have no comment.
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Actually, a lot of the publics in the various countries probably didn’t vote to given Conchita full points. The “vote” was a combination of public vote and an ‘expert panel’.
 
Contra_Mundum said:
Eurovision is one big tack fest. Nobody takes it seriously anymore (it has been like that for a long time now). Nothing surprises me when it comes to its winners 🤷
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I used to watch Eurovision for a laugh to be honest. Some of the acts were so ridiculously hilarious.

However it has become more serious again in the last couple of years.
 
Contra_Mundum said:
Eurovision is one big tack fest. Nobody takes it seriously anymore (it has been like that for a long time now). Nothing surprises me when it comes to its winners 🤷
Click to expand...
Did anyone ever take it seriously? Even clips back from its very beginning are laughable, when compared to the music that was actually popular at the time. Obviously with a few exceptions (ABBA being one), but still, it seems to always have been a tack fest to me.
Vouthon said:
I just wanted to add that the UK public actually gave the full 12 points to Poland’s entry, not Conchita, however the “expert panel” of judges which made up 50% of the vote gave the top place to Conchita and ranked Poland lowest, meaning that they received “nill” points from the UK even though they were the public’s favourite!

I expect this happened in other countries too.
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I also read that the opposite happened in some country (or countries, I don’t know) in Eastern Europe - Conchita came out on top, but the “expert panel” voted her down. If this is correct, it says even more about the political nature of this.

(Additional thought from me: I find it ironic that I’m here debating Eurovision since I only watched it because I was forced to, and I arrived to the party a few hours so I could avoid half the show 😉 . I didn’t even see Conchita’s number, to be honest, just short clips, which gave me the impression it was above average for Eurovision, but still not great. But still, the political undertones are interesting.)
 
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