UnNews:Eurovision won by joke drag queen

This article is part of UnNews, your source for up-to-the-picosecond misinformation.

11 May 2014

Gehard in his more typical garb.

And Gehard last night, transformed.

The Eurovision Song Contest, the most important singing competition in all the world, has been won by an Austrian comedian posing as a drag queen.

Comedian Brüno Gehard is hardly known around the world, but in his native Austria he is big business. On a recent episode of his comedy show Oopsen Daisen he was challenged by celebrity guest Heidi Klum to grow a beard, adopt an amusing name - and run for Eurovision as a woman.

Gehard accepted, choosing the rather provocative name Conchita Wurst. Conchita means "little pussy" in Spanish, while "Wurst" is of course a type of sausage - a rather crude joke that no one at Eurovision seemed to sniff out.

Even more bizarrely, well-meaning, non-Austrian LGBT groups actually welcomed Gehard's inclusion in the contest as a sign of diversity, and a publicity campaign began building even before the competition started.

This all culminated last night, when Gehard - who looked admittedly stunning in a sequinned dress - took to the stage to sing Rise Like a Phoenix, complete with background dancers raising phallic symbols.

The song stormed to victory, with 290 points. Gehard was notably emotional, making an impromptu speech about tolerance, apparently affected by the response he got.

The evening was unusually tense, elsewhere, due to recent events surrounding Russia and Ukraine.

Russia, despite a hostile reaction from the home crowd, finished seventh, while Ukraine finished sixth, and Ukrainian forces duly camped out in front of the leaderboard in case the Russian military made any attempt to change places with them.

Sources

• Leverage, "Conchita Wurst wins Eurovision Song Contest" BBC, May 10, 2014