Who is Conchita Wurst?
By now the whole world should be familiar with the name Conchita Wurst. She took the world by storm and became an instant singing sensation when she won Eurovision 2014 with an astounding performance of Rise Like A Phoenix.
What many do not know is that the bearded drag performer walked a road with twists and turns along the way to the fame and recognition she has today. We’ve seen her in magazines, TV shows, interviews and fashion shows but who is the real Conchita Wurst?
Well that’s a pretty easy question to answer really, Tom Neuwirth invented Conchita Wurst. He once said in an interview: "Conchita is a fictional character, Tom Neuwirth’s alter ego." Neuwirth’s brush with fame came when he appeared on Starmania as a teenager. He has corrected many people who have assumed that just because he enjoys wearing women’s close when he is Conchita, he must identify as transsexual, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Neuwirth identifies as a gay man who happens to have a drag alter ego like Ru Paul, Evita Bezuidehout and many other drag performers.
But Conchita Wurst was first spotted in 2011 after Tom Neuwirth’s boy band Jetzt Anders was no more. They had formed a group after appearing on Starmania, a talent contest in Austria but things didn’t exactly work out. So in 2011, Neuwirth first unveiled Conchita on an Austrian talent show called Die Große Chance (The Big Chance). She was fierce, bearded and bedazzling.
On the show she performed Celine Dion’s My Heart Will Go On, which stunned audiences but she didn’t win. So in 2012 she tried to become Austria’s Eurovision entry but that failed, she only came second. The winners were apparently a short-lived hip-hop duo called Trackshittaz, whose song was titled Woki mit deim Popo (Waggle your ass) and didn’t even make it to the 2013 Eurovision final.
Wurst didn’t give up, if she wasn’t giving make-up tips on Youtube, she was appearing in reality TV shows such as Wild Girls, a show on German TV about a group of women who had to survive in the Namibian desert. She also did another show where she worked in a fish factory but we’ll try and forget that this happened. Here’s a clip from her first attempt at being Austria’s representative for Eurovision 2012:
The next phase of Wurst’s life would be unforgettable and career defining but not without challenges. In September 2013, the singing sensation was chosen by ORF, the Austrian public broadcaster to represent Austria in the 2014 Eurovision and this time around they didn’t use public vote and went ahead to sign her up.
Things turned a little sour when audiences began a Facebook group titled “No to Conchita Wurst at the Song Contest”. It quickly got ten thousand likes and became a space for people to vent their homophobic statements under the disguise of fighting for “lack of public vote”. Wurst responded with a statement of her own, saying there had not been any backlash when ORF chose another performer in 2007. She called for tolerance. There was obviously outrage but also positive feedback in the form of a movement in Austria called “Knit for tolerance”, in which people wore knitted beards in support of Conchita.
So once the dust had settled (not really) Wurst participated in the show and won with this amazing performance:
Her star rocketed and she became an instant queer icon receiving invites to perform at various pride parades a swell as speaking at the European Parliament and the United Nations Office in Vienna, Austria’s capital. She also received flowers from Sir Elton John and got recognised for her fashion sense aswell by designers like Jean Paul Gaultier. On 9 July 2014 she made her modelling debut on the catwalk at fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier’s Couture show in Paris.
Some fun facts about Conchita:
She was born in the highlands of Colombia, her father a theatre director called Alfred Knack von Wurst
She is married and has a French husband called Jacques Patriaque.
Her performance of Rise Like A Phoenix didn’t just win Eurovision 2014 but it is rated as one of the most popular acts in the contest’s history.
She received points from across Europe even getting five points from Russia, go girl!
This year she attended The Golden Globes and stunned. So there you have it, there is no longer any excuses to not know who global superstar Conchita Wurst is when her famous name comes up in conversation, class is dismissed.
