Conchita Wurst

Today we return to Europe, right to the center of it, in Austria. We shall talk about a new artist, who has only made one album so far. Yet he's well known around the world. Some know him as Tom Neuwirth but most know her as Conchita Wurst.

The use of pronouns is according to the artist's wishes: Neuwirth uses masculine pronouns when referring to himself but feminine pronouns to describe Wurst.

Tom was born in Gmunden, Austria, on 6 November 1988, but raised in the small town of Bad Mitterndorf, in the Styrian countryside. He has stated that the mountainous area was a wonderful place to grow up, but that he faced prejudice for being homosexual: "Being a teenager, a gay teenager, in such a small village is not that much fun. I am part of the gay community and most gays have a similar story to mine."

From an early age he recognised that he was different from other children, initially believing that this was because there was "something wrong" with him. He occasionally wore a skirt to kindergarten and then school, although subsequently felt that he could only be happy doing so in the attic of his home.

Neuwirth moved to Graz to do his matura exam with a focus on fashion, before embarking on a singing career through the 2007 casting show Starmania. He subsequently became a founding member of the short-lived boy band Jetzt Anders! (Now Something Different!). Their song Dieser Moment (This Moment) did make the Austrian Top 10, peaking at #7:

Immer und Ewig (Forever and Ever) was a smaller hit, peaking at #32:

The group disbanded within a year. It was after this that Neuwirth developed the persona of Conchita Wurst, a bearded woman. In the German language, "Wurst" means "sausage", although Neuwirth relates the choice of last name to the common German expression "Das ist mir doch alles Wurst", which translates as "it's all the same to me", and "I don't care", stating that the name emerged from the first meaning of that expression. The name "Conchita" meanwhile had been adopted from a Cuban friend of his. In an interview he also explained that conchita is Spanish slang for vagina and Wurst is German slang for penis.

Neuwirth asserted that the inclusion of the beard as part of the Wurst character was "a statement to say that you can achieve anything, no matter who you are or how you look." The inclusion of a beard as part of the drag look was not unique, having been pioneered in the 1970s by The Cockettes in San Francisco and the Bloolips in London.

Wurst's first appearance was on ORF's show Die große Chance in 2011, where she achieved 6th place. In 2012, she competed in the Austrian National Final for the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 and came second. Wurst then appeared in the ORF show The Hardest Jobs of Austria, working in a fish processing plant, and in Wild Girls, in which a group of candidates had to survive in the deserts of Namibia together with native tribes.

From 2011, here she is covering My Heart Will Go On for the show Die große Chance:

From 2012, here she is in her first attempt to conquer Eurovision, with the song That's What I Am:

On 10 September 2013, Austrian national broadcaster ORF announced that it had selected Wurst to represent Austria at the Eurovision Song Contest 2014, to be held in Copenhagen, Denmark, in May 2014. In March 2014, Wurst's song was revealed as Rise Like a Phoenix, with bookmakers placing her entry as one of the ten favourites to win. Despite Eurovision's reputation for campness, Wurst's performance was designed to be serious and in good taste, and she was one of just a few performers to appear onstage alone. Although individuals who identified as LGBT had appeared on Eurovision before – most notably Israel's Dana International, who won in 1998 – Wurst's appearance was described by the New Statesman as the "most genderqueer yet".

Wurst's selection proved controversial and attracted criticism from conservative groups, particularly in Eastern Europe, thus highlighting the continent's regional divide between east and west on the issue of homosexuality. Petitions emerged in Russia and Belarus calling for their respective national broadcasters to edit out Wurst's performance from the televised contest; the Russian petition asserted that Eurovision had become "a hotbed of sodomy, at the initiation of European liberals".

Reacting to these sentiments, the New Statesman commented that "a vote for Wurst is another vote against Russian homophobia and transphobia, and a win would send out a strong message of defiance eastwards", while the International Business Times called on readers to vote for Wurst to upset homophobes.

At the finals held in Copenhagen on 10 May 2014, she won the competition with 290 points. This was Austria's first Eurovision win since Eurovision 1966. Here's her performance in the semi-finals:

Following her victory, Wurst became an icon for Europe's LGBT community. Vienna's tourist board hoped to use Wurst to encourage more gay holidaymakers to visit the city, using her image on the Facebook page "Gayfriendly Vienna". The Week stated that she had become "a serious figure of hope" for some LGBT people living "under the shadow of officially-sanctioned intolerance" in various European countries, while British trans activist Paris Lees commented that across Europe she inspired "millions of people" and stood up for "everyone who has ever been made to feel ashamed or afraid for being different.

In Russia, Rise Like a Phoenix topped the internet download chart two days after the competition. Fans of Wurst and LGBT rights activists applied to hold a Conchita Wurst March of Bearded Women and Men through Moscow, Russia, on 27 May, a date commemorating the 21st anniversary since the legalisation of same-sex sexual activity in the country. Officials from the city's security department rejected the request, citing a wish to "respect morality in the education of the younger generation" and to prevent violent clashes between marchers and anti-gay demonstrators.

On 9 July, she made her modelling debut on the catwalk at fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier's Couture show in Paris, where she took the final spot, which is usually reserved for Gaultier's favourite model. In August she modeled Givenchy clothing for Karl Lagerfeld's fashion editorial, "The New Normal". She was invited to attend the 2015 Golden Globe Awards in Los Angeles as part of the Austrian delegation supporting nominee Christoph Waltz.

On 3 November, she performed at the United Nations Office at Vienna in front of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. A spokesperson for Ban described Wurst as a "cultural icon" and asserted that "Everyone is entitled to enjoy the same basic rights and live a life of worth and dignity without discrimination. This fundamental principle is embedded in the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Conchita is a symbol in that sense and I think it's good for them to meet. [The meeting allows us] to reassert his support for LGBT people and for them to ensure that they enjoy the same human rights and protection that we all do." Wurst proceeded to state that she would like to spend a week with Russian President Putin in order to better understand him and his government's stance on LGBT rights.

 Wurst proceeded to begin work on an album influenced by artists like Cher, Shirley Bassey, and Tina Turner. Her first post-Eurovision single, Heroes, was released on 8 November 2014.

Wurst's debut album Conchita was released on 15 May 2015. It was preceded by her second single after winning the Eurovision Song Contest, You Are Unstoppable, which was released on 5 March 2015.

Firestorm and Colours of Your Love, two tracks from the debut album, were released as a double A-side single on 7 August 2015. Here's Firestorm:

... And here's Colours of Your Love, which I rather like:

Perhaps my favorite song from this album is Put That Fire Out:

Neuwirth has stated that he does not identify as a trans woman, but as a man. He is gay, and he also described himself as a drag queen. He created a fictional back story for the Wurst character, claiming that she was born in the mountains of Colombia and is married to the French burlesque dancer Jacques Patriaque, a real individual who is a friend of Neuwirth's. He compared the use of the character to American singer Beyoncé's adoption of the Sasha Fierce alter ego, or singer Lady Gaga's use of various costumes, being a way to protect Neuwirth's own private life.

Today's artist's career is just beginning. Hopefully we'll hear more of him, as Tom Neuwirth, or of her, as Conchita Wurst. What we have for the moment is a good start.