There was a quite extra-ordinary victory speech at the end of tonight's Eurovision Song Contest. Broadcast live across Europe, including Russia, it is a powerful declaration of the purpose of the European Union, almost a battle cry.
This night is dedicated to everyone who believes in a future of peace and freedom. You know who you are. We are unity and we are unstoppable."
Perhaps no surprise that it should be from a music festival designed to bring the European Broadcasting Union countries together in a peaceful music competition. A little more surprising is the extent of the popularity of a bearded drag act from Austria. (Her self description.)
Also perhaps getting the message across was the audible booing whenever Russia was awarded a point, which reached a crescendo when the link for results went to the Moscow presenter.
The winner was Conchita Wurst:
Conchita Wurst was born Tom Neuwirth on November 6th, 1988 in Gmunden, Austria, and has dreamed of a career in show business since he was a child. He got his first break in 2006 taking part in the talent TV show Starmania, and in 2007, he joined the boyband Jetzt Anders!
He performed for the first time as his alter ego, Conchita, a long-haired and full-bearded lady, in the talent show Die Große Chance in 2011. Since then, he has not gone unnoticed in Austria. More recently, Conchita Wurst has starred in the ORF production The Hardest Jobs of Austria, where she worked in a fish factory, and in Wild Girls, where a group of candidates had to survive in the deserts of Namibia together with native tribes.
The song is Rise Like a Phoenix. (
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Eurovision is always affected by politics or cultural affiliations. The votes are decided half by a jury of "experts" in each country and half by a popular vote, usually by SMS text message. This results in, for example, Ireland and the Netherlands often giving the UK higher votes and German speaking countries favoring each others. This year the Ukraine received higher votes than Russia. Their votes came from neighboring countries including of course Belarus (more boos through hall). Surprisingly, though perhaps not in the former's case, both Ukraine and Russia gave each other points though these were in the low numbers.