9/4/2023 0 Comments Crazy choppers![]() RAINBOW CITY Staging Eurovision can cost a host city between £8.5 million and £21 million. "Eurovision has really come to value its gay following – the visibility of the rainbow community is one of the things that makes it so special and diversity has become part of its brand." "That's when you started to notice gay fans on television," Vuletic said from Liverpool. Vuletic said the introduction of public voting and a new, commercial exploitation of the contest took its LGBTQ+ fan base out of the closet and onto prime-time screens, with 161 million viewers watching the final in 2022. "Eurovision has always been popular among the queer community – it just didn't come out until the 1990s," said Dean Vuletic, an academic expert on Eurovision. Conchita Wurst, the drag persona of singer Thomas Neuwirth, became the first openly gay winner for Austria in 2014. In 1961, Luxembourg's Jean-Claude Pascal won the contest with a song interpreted by many fans as a same-sex love song.ĭana International became the first openly LGBTQ+ and transgender winner, singing for Israel in 1998. For many LGBTQ+ fans, the contest has since become synonymous with an exuberant - and often camp - show of self-expression, gaining a global following.Ĭontestants have proved diverse, too. SAME-SEX SONGS? Eurovision began in 1956 in a bid to unite Europe after World War Two. ![]() "The opportunity to re-imagine the city as welcoming to all is huge." The noticeable element, the idea of coming together to celebrate, that was lost," said Jan Brown from Liverpool John Moores University. "During the pandemic, Liverpool's visitor economy shrank until near non-existence. Like other tourist hubs across Britain, the city is now struggling with slow growth and runaway inflation, making any boost to the hospitality industry welcome. ![]() It comes as Liverpool limps back from the pandemic, with income from inbound visitors crashing by 79% in 2020 as the country locked down and stayed home. Tickets to the live shows cost fans up to £380, while the price of staying over for the final on Saturday night has increased by as much as 300% in some hotels. Liverpool expects 100,000 visitors for Eurovision, roughly double the crowd that hit Turin, Italy, for last year's final. We had a Ukrainian girl who asked us to play a song from her hometown," McKenna said. With Liverpool's council vowing to make this year's event the most inclusive yet, LGBTQ+ venues in the former industrial dockland city are already experiencing a boost in takings. Liverpool was chosen to stage this year's contest - with competitors from 37 nations - on behalf of last year's winner Ukraine, whose war with Russia precluded it from hosting. "Eurovision is the campest thing in the world," 58-year-old McKenna told the Thomson Reuters Foundation from behind the ornate venue's bar, currently kitted out with mega screens for a jam-packed schedule of Eurovision-themed events. About 50,000 people come for Liverpool Pride and that's only one day (so this is) fantastic." McKenna is spending most of the run-up week to Saturday's grand final as his alter ego Lady Sian, a stalwart of the ever-popular Bar Lisbon. "Since Liverpool was announced, I've talked about it every time I DJ," said Shaun McKenna, a drag performer and DJ who works at one of the city's oldest gay bars. ![]() Liverpool - which gave the world The Beatles - has embraced the kitsch annual show with zeal and its Pride Quarter, with more than 10 LGBTQ+ bars and clubs, expects a big boost from a slew of international visitors who identify as LGBTQ+. Often called the campest competition in the world, the Eurovision Song Contest came to Liverpool this week, with tens of thousands of LGBTQ+ fans descending on the northern English city to spend big and play late. Reuters | Liverpool | Updated: 12-05-2023 17:12 IST | Created: 12-05-2023 17:01 IST Representative Image Image Credit: Wikipedia
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