2014: "Rise like a Phoenix" — Conchita Wurst

Rise Like a Phoenix received points from all over Europe. There was a significant discrepancy between the points awarded by the expert jury and by the public vote in Germany, Russia and Hungary, among others. In these countries, the experts ranked Conchita Wurst’s entry significantly lower than the public did. Overall, Wurst won both the public and jury votes. If only the public had voted, her victory would have been even more decisive.

The queer history of the Song Contest goes back a long way. Jean Claude Pascal won in 1961 with a song about a love story between two men, a fact that went largely unnoticed. Queer entries became more frequent from the mid-1990s onwards. In 1997, Iceland’s Paul Oscar was the first openly gay man to compete in the ESC, finishing in 20th place. That year’s winner was the band Katrina and the Waves—singer Katrina Leskanich married her female manager in 2008. In 1998, Israel’s Dana International was the first transgender person to win the contest.

Austria was a latecomer when it came to queer performances at the ESC but then won first time, writing itself into Song Contest history. Wurst’s statement when presented with the trophy—“We are unity and we are unstoppable!”—is now iconic.