Today on Monday Mysteries we kick off a week-long look at the Eurovision 2014 contest by taking a look at the unfolding controversy surrounding Austrian singer Conchita Wurst.

Eurovision, for those who may have forgotten, is a yearly song contest in which European countries (“European” being rather loosely defined) enter new pop songs to represent their country in the competition. This year’s competition starts tomorrow night with the first of 2 semi-final competitions. The “Big Five” countries (United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain and Italy), along with the host country (which this year is Denmark), don’t have to compete in the semi-finals. They join the winners from the 2 semis and compete for the Eurovision title in the final on Saturday. The semi-finals and final are all broadcast live in all the participating countries: the countries vote and each award points to the acts they like, and that’s how the final winner is decided.

Since I’ll be spotlighting the competition all this week, I won’t go into too much detail about how it all works today. However, you can click here to pull up my previous posts about past controversies, scandals and songs.

Anyway, going into this year’s contest, the biggest controversy is swirling around Austrian singer Conchita Wurst. Conchita Wurst is the stage persona of a man named Thomas Neuwirth. He will perform Austria’s entry at Eurovision 2014 in character as Conchita, who appears as a bearded woman in a long evening gown.

Chris and I first ran across a mention of Conchita Wurst of couple of years ago, when she unsuccessfully competed in the contest to represent Austria in Eurovision in 2012. Both Chris and I thought she and her song that year, That’s What I Am, were much better than the eventual pick for Austria, but Conchita only came in 2nd in that in-country competition.

Now, I don’t remember what Austria’s entry was last year. But I know they didn’t win, since the winning country hosts the following year’s Eurovision contest and, as I said, this year’s contest takes place in Denmark. Perhaps because they did badly the past couple of years, the Austrian Eurovision powers-that-be decided this year to forgo their normal in-country competition, and they just chose Conchita to sing the 2014 Austrian entry, without holding a contest.

Controversy erupted almost immediately about that selection process. There was a petition that was started in Austria to try to force the committee to change their decision. But the push to oust her was unsuccessful, and so Conchita is set to perform the song Rise like a Phoenix in Denmark this week. Click here to read a little bit about the song and see a video of her performance in Vienna earlier this year. 

However, there’s currently an even bigger issue brewing. Several Eastern European countries, at last count Russia, Ukraine, Armenia and Belarus, have announced that it is immoral to have a bearded man dressed in drag performing at Eurovision. So they are urging their country broadcasters to block the transmission Conchita’s live performance during the semi-final on Thursday (and then again on Saturday if she should make it into the final.) Such an action would violate the rules for Eurovision, which states that each participating country must broadcast the competition in its entirety.  In 2005, Lebanon was supposed to enter the competition for the first time, but ran afoul of this rule. You see, Israel is also in the competition, and Lebanese law prohibits Israeli stuff from being shown on Lebanese television. When the Lebanese Eurovision committee could not guarantee that the Israeli act would actually be transmitted (and not blocked), Lebanon was forced to withdraw from the competition, and so they have yet to participate in the contest.

However, Russia, Ukraine and Armenia at least are all fairly major players in Eurovision, with Russia and Ukraine recent winners, and Armenia the odds on favorite to win this year. So, what will they do if Conchita performs – will they truly not transmit the performance, and thereby be disqualified according to the Eurovision rules?  Will they withdraw their entries before competing? The tension mounts as Thursday’s semi-final approaches. Stay tuned to the blog – I’ll keep you posted.

****

BTW, Conchita is, as far as I can tell, the first man to perform at Eurovision while dressed in drag and wearing a beard. However, she’s not the first man to perform in drag. In fact, one of the most surprisingly successful Eurovision acts was in 2007, when a man performing in drag as Verka Serduchka, described in the Eurovision notes as a “nouveau Russian housewife”, almost won the whole thing. The performance has to be seen to be believed – I cannot do it justice with mere words.

And here’s the ironic part: this performance by Verka Serduchka, the guy dressed in drag, was the Eurovision 2007 entry for …. Ukraine.