Europe! Start the countdown now!
Good evening Europe and good morning Australia! It’s almost that time of the year again. That 1 week that makes all the other 51 weeks bearable: The Eurovision Song Contest, containing 2 semi-finals, 1 grand final and lots of “professional” opinions by self-called Eurovision experts (including myself). Since we had to sit out 1 entire year without Eurovision, the European LGBTQ+ broadcaster OUTtv and the Belgian Eurovision website Songfestival.be came up with a brilliant idea to start the Eurovision vibe a little earlier this year. So when they called me and asked me if I wanted to host the “ESC Top 250” for 14 days prior to the real spectacle, I rose up like a phoenix, did several of my number one wild dances and let euphoria run through my veins. Of course I said “I wanna”!
Making a trip down memory lane with an Eurovision countdown list, put together by more than 6,000 diehard gay guys… I mean Eurovision fans: it’s a fairytale come true. Especially for a person of the male sex and proud member of the LGBTQ+ community. You will never hear me say that Eurovision is the biggest gay pride of Europe though. But it does happen to be one of the few events where you rarely or never have to stand in line to go to the ladies’ room.
OK, just by writing this, I know I’m pissing off some straight Eurovision lovers just by assuming that the LGBTQ+ community claims the Eurovision Song Contest. As if we would or even could “claim” the biggest family show on earth. Eurovision gets broadcasted in Eastern Europe too and if the 2020 Eurovision blockbuster taught us anything, is that there are no gay people living in Russia, right?! But really, it’s not my fault that the Eurovision Song Contest is extremely popular in the LGBTQ+ community and especially among gay men. That’s just reality.
A personal guess to explain this phenomenon could be that the campy character and the kitschy image of the contest. After all, Eurovision is a 3 hour parade of 3 very important D’s: divas, drama and danceable songs. And let that just happen to be 3 out of the 4 most favorite D-words of the average gay man. And even that 4th D-word starts to play a more important role over the last 10 years. We can easily take this theory to the test just by looking at the 2 most popular countries in the “ESC Top 250”: Sweden and Italy.
Whether you have a thing for Scandinavian Vikings or Southern European gods, the entries of both countries that have made it into this list serve us the hottest heroes, twinks, twunks, hunks, bears and other stop-and-stares. So if you’re drooling already or just can’t wait to relive your favourite Eurovision performances from the past 65 years, meet me from May 3rd, every working day at 10 PM on OUTtv for the countdown of the “ESC Top 250”.
I can’t wait to see you there.
Europe, start the countdown now!
Love, love, peace, peace.
Jens Geerts.
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