Sexual and Gender Diversity in the Eurovision Song Contest: Dana International, Marija Šerifović and Conchita Wurst
Kelekidis, Stefanos (2017-03-08)
Sexual and Gender Diversity in the Eurovision Song Contest: Dana International, Marija Šerifović and Conchita Wurst
Kelekidis, Stefanos
(08.03.2017)
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The Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) is a song competition among countries whose television networks are members of EBU (European Broadcasting Union), and it has been held for 60 years. This annual event stands as a key spectacle of television and popular culture in the European area and can therefore be seen to represent also changes in the popular cultural scene in that area.
This study examines three winning performances from three different decades, the 1990s, the 2000s and the 2010s, and asks how each of them produced unique queer and camp visibility and addressed gender and sexual diversity. Dana International (winner 1998), Marija Šerifović (winner 2007) and Conchita Wurst (winner 2014) are examined, as they represented LGBTQ community and promoted queer rights in different ways, while defying heteronormative expectations concerning gender and sexuality in their national contexts as well as in European culture at large. Dana International took a huge step for trans-visibility in the media with her victory, Marija Šerifović won by presenting a rather unusual campy lesbian performance and Conchita Wurst was the first drag performer that won the ESC, but she shook gender norms even further with her bearded femininity.
I study these three winning performances through audiovisual analysis from a queer theoretical perspective. Queer Theory is a diverse field of studies that examines non-heteronormative genders and sexualities, but also practices like drag and everything that has been seen as marginal or non-normative in terms of sexuality and gender, while trying to undo heteronormative binaries. In a way echoing queer theory’s goals, the three queer performances that I am focusing on brought up important questions concerning sexual and gender diversity on the ESC. In this study I argue that these three performances won the contest not only because of their queer aspect, which was an important factor, but also the song, the staging and direction of the performance, the voting system and European politics played a significant role.
This study examines three winning performances from three different decades, the 1990s, the 2000s and the 2010s, and asks how each of them produced unique queer and camp visibility and addressed gender and sexual diversity. Dana International (winner 1998), Marija Šerifović (winner 2007) and Conchita Wurst (winner 2014) are examined, as they represented LGBTQ community and promoted queer rights in different ways, while defying heteronormative expectations concerning gender and sexuality in their national contexts as well as in European culture at large. Dana International took a huge step for trans-visibility in the media with her victory, Marija Šerifović won by presenting a rather unusual campy lesbian performance and Conchita Wurst was the first drag performer that won the ESC, but she shook gender norms even further with her bearded femininity.
I study these three winning performances through audiovisual analysis from a queer theoretical perspective. Queer Theory is a diverse field of studies that examines non-heteronormative genders and sexualities, but also practices like drag and everything that has been seen as marginal or non-normative in terms of sexuality and gender, while trying to undo heteronormative binaries. In a way echoing queer theory’s goals, the three queer performances that I am focusing on brought up important questions concerning sexual and gender diversity on the ESC. In this study I argue that these three performances won the contest not only because of their queer aspect, which was an important factor, but also the song, the staging and direction of the performance, the voting system and European politics played a significant role.