Conchita Wurst to Rise Like A Phoenix on stage in Copenhagen

The Austrian entry for the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest was presented today – and many fans are in for a bit of a surprise as drag act Conchita Wurst will come to Copenhagen with the powerballad of the year. Their entry is titled Rise Like A Phoenix.

She was internally selected already back in September, but it wasn’t until after the deadline for submission to EBU that the song Conchita Wurst will be singing at the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest, was revealed. The late publication – and the entry itself – will make this what people are talking about in the world of Eurovision the next few weeks, at least.

As many will have noticed, quite a lot of countries have this year decided to go for a ballad, but among the lots the real strong powerballad was missing. It has been located – and in a perhaps unusual location: With drag act Conchita Wurst representing Austria. 

Rise Like A Phoenix will blow away a lot of listeners and in a radio competition Austria would now be the biggest favourite to take home the trophy. Question is what will it do to the viewers? In Russia and Belarus protests took place in the winther in favour of their broadcasters to cut the signal when Austria would perform. Should such a thing happen the broadcasters will be fined, and possible excluded from the Eurovision Song Contest, but it is widely known that drag acts just like homosexuality are subjects, which are not publicly acceptable in big parts of Eastern Europe, in particular in the Russian speaking countries.

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Source: Eurovision.tv, EuroVisionary
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