Eurovision 60

If there’s one event in Europe that was created to encourage harmony which has created its fair share of disharmony then it has to be the Eurovision Song Contest.

The brainchild of the European Broadcasting Union (Eurovision) the 60^th contest is being held this week. During the past 30 years, however, countries have often been accused of voting politically. This was seen most clearly after the break-up of Communist eastern Europe when former Soviet states tended to give the highest votes to other former Soviet states.

From its modest beginnings in 1956 the Eurovision Song Contest has now become something of a monster. I was a keen fan at one time, not so much these days. Acting like a kind of reverse mirror the lgbt (predominantly gay male) Eurovision fan-base has become more visible. In fact it’s got to a stage where the contest is regarded as a “gay-fest” in most of the countries where homophobia is common.

Lgbt Eurovision fans have always existed, just as they have with other forms of entertainment. Perhaps the year the community realised they could express their enthusiasm visibly was the success in 1998 of the contest’s first openly transgender winner, Dana International. Since then some participating nations have used any excuse to use contestants or songs to get on their homophobic, political soap box. The words of last year’s winner, Conchita, in her acceptance speech was a defiant statement  – “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”. And I’m not the only person who demands that Conchita must sing the next Bond theme!

Conchita’s victory gives the perfect excuse to look at the other known lgbt participants of the Eurovision Song Contest. I was surprised to learn that the first of these was way back in 1959. Bob Benny competed for Belgium, and I’ll write more about him next week in my “Around the World in 80 Gays” article.

For the purposes of today’s article I’m listing the lead or backing singers who appeared on stage during the grand final (and the semi-finals that were introduced in 2004). I haven’t included members of the orchestra, presenters, designers, voting panels or production crew. Nor have I included singers who competed in the various national heats and finals. These could easily form a future article.

There have been 3 lgbt singers, all solo artists, who have won the contest outright, and another was a backing singer to another winner.

In the list below the singer’s name may also be followed by the name of the group or duo of which they were a part, or indicates for whom they were a backing singer. Other information is also given. There is no space to give the name of the host city or title of the song. In the final placings column the number indicates the position in the grand final, e.g. 6/11 means the performer finished 6^th out 11 countries in the final. No final placing indicates the performer didn’t get pass the semi-final stage. 

Year	Eurovision Performer	Representing	Final Place
1959	Bob Benny	Belgium	6/11
1961	Bob Benny	Belgium	=15/16
1968	Ronnie Tober	Netherlands	16/17
1973	Patrick Juvet	Switzerland	12/17
1976	Jürgen Marcus	Luxemburg	14/18
1979	Louis Hendrik Potgieter (Dschinghis Khan)	Germany	4/19
1986	Olav Klingen and Jonny Nymoen (Eurovision’s 1st drag act; backing act for Ketil Stokkan)	Norway	12/20
1988	Gerard Joling (contest won that year by Celine Dion)	Netherlands	9/21
1989	Alex Panayi (backing singer for Fani Polymeri & Yiannis Savvidakis)	Cyprus	11/22
1991	Alex Panayi (backing singer for Elena Patroklou)	Cyprus	9/22
1992	Christer Björkman	Sweden	22/23
1994	Jan Werner Danielson (with Elisabeth Andreassen)	Norway	6/25
1995	Alex Panayi	Cyprus	9/23
1997	Paul Oscar	Iceland	20/25
1998	Dana International (1st openly transgender entrant)	Israel	1/25
2000	Alex Panayi (Voice, with Christina Argyri)	Cyprus	21/24
2001	Michelle Courtens	Netherlands	18/23
2002	Gary Revel jr. (backing singer for Laura Voutilainen)	Finland	20/24
2002	Srecko Blas (Sestre)	Slovenia	13/24
2002	Damjan Levec (Sestre)	Slovenia	13/24
2002	Tomaz Mihelic (Sestre)	Slovenia	13/24
2004	Jari Sillanpää	Finland	-
2004	Tomas Thordarsson	Denmark	-
2004	Deen	Bosnia	9/24
2005	Donna McCaul (Donna and Joe, with brother Joseph)	Ireland	-
2005	Alex Panayi (backing singer for Helena Paparizou)	Greece	1/24
2006	Brian Kennedy (the 1,000th entry/song)	Ireland	10/24
2006	Andreas Lundstedt (six4one)	Switzerland	16/24
2006	Azis (backing singer for Mariana Popova)	Bulgaria	-
2007	Ola Salo (The Ark)	Sweden	18/24
2007	Marija Seriforic	Serbia	1/24
2007	Peter Andersen (DQ) (1st solo drag entrant)	Denmark	-
2009	Gordon Heukeroth (The Toppers)	Netherlands	-
2009	Alex Panayi (backing singer for Sakis Rouvas)	Greece	7/25
2011	Duncan James (Blue)	UK	11/25
2011	Dana International	Israel	-
2012	Alex Panayi (backing singer for Litesound)	Belarus	-
2013	Ryan Dolan	Ireland	26/26
2014	Conchita	Austria	1/26