A Victory for Diversity
I didn’t watch the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest last night, but my Twitter feed was full of comments by people who did. That’s how I found out who won!
Conchita Wurst, Winner of the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest
I don’t know what the song was like, but that doesn’t matter at all; the Eurovision Song Contest isn’t about the songs at all. What is important is that Conchita Wurst‘s victory sends out a clear message that there is a world out there that is happy to embrace diversity. Interviewed after the voting, Conchita said “I’m just a singer in a fabulous dress, with great hair and a beard”. That sums it all up, really.
I agree wholeheartedly with the official statement of the Beard Liberation Front:
The Beard Liberation Front the informal network of beard wearers has welcomed the win for Austria’s Conchita Wurst in the Eurovision Song Contest as a victory for a diverse Europe over transphobia and pogonophobia.
The BLF has long campaigned for the right of people to be able to dress and appear as they want.
There will no doubt be those who mock Conchita Wurst (original name Thomas Neuwirth), even within the gay community. But it’s important to remember that the Stonewall Riots of 1969 that galvanised the gay rights movement in the United States into action, paving the way for example to Equal Marriage, began as a fightback against heavy-handed policing that was predominantly led by drag queens. It takes courage to stand up for the right to be different, and in that respect Conchita is an example to inspire us all.
UPDATE: Here’s the official video made in advance of the contest
P.S. I’m pretty sure that this means that Beard of the Year 2014 is now a foregone conclusion….
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In the Dark 
May 11, 2014 at 3:52 pm
She was absolutely fantastic and if you do get the chance, I recommend listening to the song; there was something very Shirley Bassey about her singing.
May 11, 2014 at 4:01 pm
I put the official video on just now. the song is a fairly generic sort of ballad of no great interest, but Conchita certainly has a decent voice!
May 11, 2014 at 11:03 pm
Shirley Bassey or Burly Chassis?
May 12, 2014 at 9:39 am
A decent voice but no comparison with this…
May 13, 2014 at 9:56 am
I was told by a Welshman that she was actually from a place called Splot but said she was from nearby Tiger Bay, which suits her image better. I can’t imagine how either place got its name.
May 13, 2014 at 10:15 am
The place is actually called Splott – it’s very near the Physics department in Cardiff, actually, between the city and Cardiff Bay, which is what Tiger Bay is now called. I think the official name for the area is Butetown, although precisely where the boundary lies between Splott and Butetown I don’t know.
Here’s what wikipedia says about Splot:
The name is from Old English splott “speck, blot, patch (of land),” which is also the source of place names in the Vale of Glamorgan, Gower, and Pembrokeshire. Fanciful suggestions for the origin of the name have included a truncation of “God’s Plot”, as the land belonged to the Bishop of Llandaff in medieval times, and a derivation of plat, meaning a grassy area of land.
Splott however is not in the least bit grassy.
May 13, 2014 at 10:42 am
Well, that’s settled that. But I doubt that there were tigers there.
May 13, 2014 at 11:31 am
One theory is that Tiger Bay was given the nickname by sailors because it was such a dangerous place to go ashore…
May 15, 2014 at 8:31 am
I should add that, as its name may suggest, Splott isn’t a particularly salubrious part of town either..
May 11, 2014 at 4:08 pm
The song was very average. She definitely has a great personality on stage, but I am not sure she would ever have won without that beard
May 11, 2014 at 4:17 pm
Beard Power yet again proves decisive!
May 12, 2014 at 1:16 am
A brave and attractive entertainer whose passion is to sing – that is all.
May 12, 2014 at 9:27 am
To the anonymous trolls who keep trying to post abuse,
I will not allow your messages to be posted here or anywhere else on this site, so you’re wasting your time.
P.S. Get a life.
May 12, 2014 at 9:49 am
[…] What is important is that Conchita Wurst's victory sends out a clear message that there is a world out there that is happy to embrace diversity. Interviewed after the voting, Conchita said “I'm just a singer in a fabulous dress, with … […]
May 12, 2014 at 10:47 am
If “Das ist mir Wurst” means “it doesn’t matter to me” then the origin of the idiom suggests that sausages don’t matter to the Germans, which is contrary to what I have observed.
May 12, 2014 at 10:31 pm
I think it comes from the time when each german city had its own named sausage, different measurements but similar content.
May 13, 2014 at 9:53 am
Expect the wurst!
May 12, 2014 at 1:10 pm
It has been noted that this year’s Eurovision may be evidence that we’re reaching Peak Beard….
May 12, 2014 at 8:07 pm
I was concerned about a plea for people to grow beards on this blog some weeks ago because I thought it unfairly excluded women.
I now see that I got that wrong and therefore apologise unreservedly.
May 13, 2014 at 4:15 pm
Or decline, depending on one’s opinion of beards.
May 13, 2014 at 7:19 am
Ironically, the Wurst performance was judged to be the best…
Lots of heterosexual people have been LGBT icons for lots of different reasons. Sometimes all it takes for an artist to say something nice about their gay fans!
May 13, 2014 at 8:32 pm
I’m a little uncomfortable about people saying ‘she’ did well, it’s a guy in drag not someone who is going down the very long and difficult journey of SR(S). Of course it’s great he won, but let’s not get worked up about a modern day Danny La Rue. Dana International winning was a much more important event, and she had better legs.
May 15, 2014 at 4:21 pm
I suppose this was inevitable: