Over time, the Eurovision Song Contest has become a mecca for queer people all over the globe. For many of us, Eurovision has always represented community, belonging, and representation. Queer people have found a safe space in this special, magical, and spectacular music competition that has always made us feel at home every year. This year to celebrate Pride Month, Eurovision Fam wants to take a journey down memory lane and review some of the stories of queer folks in the space we’ve called home since its inception in 1956.
Based on the data we have been able to collect, during the contest’s first 42 editions (from 1956 though 1997), only 14 known LGBTQ+ participants took part at some point during that period. Most of them came out following their stint at Eurovision, because, as we all know, things for queer people between the 1950s and the 1990s weren’t the same as in 2024.
There has been queer representation at the contest from the very beginning, albeit with the restrictions from 1950s society. Dany Dauberson (pictured above), one of the first two French representatives at Eurovision 1956, was a lesbian who had to leave Lyon for Paris when her affair with an actress came to light.
Back in the day, as Eurovision evolved in shape and form, most acts in the early days delved between chansons, ballads, and more classical styles of music. Meanwhile, campiness got its space in the contest by the 1970s as quirky acts such as Germany’s 1979 “Dschingis Khan” or Luxembourg’s 1980 “Papa Pingouin” paved the way for creativity and fun at the contest.
The BBC reports that in 1986 we had our very first queer-coded performance at Eurovision, as that year’s host entrant Ketil Stokkan from Norway, performed “Romeo”, together with members of a drag troupe.
We didn’t see more extravagant (and therefore kind of queer-coded) performances until pretty much the 1990s, as technology and stage proportions allowed for more creativity to flow for each participating country. A good example of such extravaganza was Gina G’s pop anthem “Ooh.. Ahh.. Just a little bit” which finished 8th for the United Kingdom in 1996.
Two Eurovision winners from the early years of the Contest were openly queer: Luxembourg’s Jean-Claude Pascal, who won in 1961 with the song “Nous les amoureux“, and came out as a gay man later on in his life. A fact about his winning entry is that its lyrics have ambiguously identified characters, and could be interpreted as having any gender and expressing attraction for any gender. It is alleged that his winning song, “Nous les amoureux”, talks about a former male lover of his.
The other queer winner of the classic Eurovision era is Katrina and the Waves’ lead vocalist, Katrina Leskanich, who came out as a lesbian sometime during the 2000s, years after their historic victory in 1997 for the United Kingdom.
Also in 1997, a big breakout happened during that year’s contest: our first openly gay contestant hit the stage: Iceland’s Paul Oscar. His entry “Minn hinsti dans” broke the mold, as its staging was very seductive and provocative, and showcased a lot of queer-coded choreography on the ESC stage for pretty much the very first time.
Other notable contestants from the early days of Eurovision who came out as LGBTQ+ following their respective participants at the contest include: Sweden’s 1992 entrant Christer Bjorkman, Portugal’s Sara Tavares (1994), and Belgium’s Bob Benny (1959 & 1961).
Come back next week for our historical review of everything queer that has happened at Eurovision since 1998.