Who’s Thomas Neuwith, the person behind Conchita Wurst, invited to Eurovision

50 years in the past ABBA received Eurovision with their legendary ‘Waterloo’. This version, the group needed to pay tribute to the Swedish group, since their native nation is the host of the pageant. On stage the This 12 months’s favorites like Eire or Croatiabut in addition acquainted faces such because the unmistakable Conchita Wurst who, along with Charlotte Perrelli and Carola, will sing a medley of ABBA hits.

Wurst got here into the lives of Eurofans in 2014, when he took over the crystal microphone due to the music ‘Rise Like a Phoenix’. He led Austria to the highest, whose final victory was in 1966 with Udo Jürgens. However it’s fascinating to say that the interpreter He was born solely three years earlier..

Conchita Wurst, Charlotte Perrelli and Carola, within the Eurovision 2024 rehearsal. (Reuters)

The Austrian singer is the alter ego of Thomas Neuwirth, though it’s not recognized the place one begins and the opposite ends. He was born in 2011, when he was provided to do a burlesque present in Vienna, however he didn’t wish to do away with his beard. So at that second he started to experiment with the character of Conchita and have become a “bushy drag.”

He invented the artist as a press release of tolerance and acceptance. His creation transcended geographic and social boundaries to turn into an icon of range and self-expression.

The singer Conchita Wurst, throughout her efficiency on the 2022 Alan Turing Awards gala. (EFE)

The dangerous information got here in 2018. Neuwirth assured the media that he had grown bored with Conchita. “There was a second in my profession when it exhausted me to all the time be that good younger girl along with her impeccable picture,” she defined in ‘El Mundo’.

So he shaved and invented WURST, a completely totally different and rather more masculine character. He has now returned to his origins and this 12 months he returns to the home that noticed him take off as a world artist.

Conchita Wurst, at some awards in Germany. (Reuters)

His story is marked by his bravery when it got here to problem stereotypes and prejudices, but in addition for the eagerness for artwork. Neuwirth was born on November 6, 1988 in Gmunden, Austria, because the son of two innkeepers. From an early age he demonstrated an innate expertise for singing and appearing.

In 2006 he stepped on his first tv contest, ‘Starmania’, the place he got here second. The following 12 months He joined the boyband Jetzt anders!though it was short-lived because it dissolved earlier than its first anniversary.

A star has been born

It was in 2011 when Conchita Wurst emerged as a star. Her participation within the expertise present ‘Die große Probability’ in Austria marked the start of her rise to fame. Her classification in this system allowed her to run for the Austria preselection for Eurovision 2012.

Conchita Wurst, in a efficiency in Austria in 2016. (Reuters)

Along with his distinctive beard and highly effective voice, the singer challenged leisure trade conventions and captured the general public’s creativeness. Nevertheless, his path to self-acceptance was not straightforward.

In a society the place range continues to be punished, Neuwirth fought in opposition to harassment and discrimination because of their sexual orientation and gender expression. Even by these near him. In April 2018 confessed that he was HIV constructivefollowing holding it a secret for a few years to keep away from blackmail from an ex-boyfriend.

Conchita Wurst, throughout her efficiency within the 2019 Eurovision last. (Reuters)

After his failed try and go to Eurovision, in 2013 he participated in dos realitiy-shows, though that they had little to do with music. One was ‘Austria’s Hardest Jobs’, the place labored in a fish farm. The opposite, ‘Wild Ladies’, a program by which she needed to survive within the deserts of Namibia.

However the artist didn’t hand over within the face of adversity. It was at Eurovision 2014, in Copenhagen, the place Conchita Wurst established herself as a icultural cone, however not earlier than being attacked. The choice of the interpreter sparked controversy in Austria.

4 days following his election by state tv, a Fb web page referred to as Anti-Wurst with greater than 31,000 followers. Nevertheless, the complaints didn’t come solely from residents.

In October, the Ministry of Data of Belarus obtained a request for the BTRC radio station to didn’t broadcast his efficiency as a result of Eurovision would turn into “a hotbed of sodomy.” Two months later, Russia joined the bandwagon of homophobic feedback.

Conchita Wurst, at a Eurovision gala in 2015. (EFE)

Regardless of all of the opposite voices, on Might 10, 2014 he went on stage and carried out the emotional ballad ‘Rise Like a Phoenix’. Along with her Japanese straightening, waterproof mascara, dizzying neckline and really excessive heels, she conquered hundreds of thousands of viewers. He rose with the crystal microphone and have become a logo of tolerance and variety inside and past European borders.

Upon accumulating the trophy he assured: “We’re unstoppable.” And it has been like that ever since. In 2015 she launched her first album, titled ‘Conchita’, and since then she hasn’t stopped obtain worldwide success.

The voice of a collective

Her Eurovision victory catapulted Conchita Wurst onto the world stage, the place she has used her standing to advocate for LGTBI rights. He has participated in a number of Pleasure marches and even sang within the European Parliament to ask for respect for folks no matter “their pores and skin shade or sexual orientation.”

The singer Conchita Wurst, throughout a press convention in Tel Aviv for the Pleasure parade in 2015. (EFE)

By means of her music and her activism, Conchita has challenged gender stereotypes and impressed a technology. However off stage, Thomas Neuwirth has confronted their very own inner battles to seek for his id.

Alongside along with his debut album he launched a biography the place he tells how he went from being a homosexual teenager who was bullied by a celebrity. In an interview, Neuwirth shared: “Conchita is my superhero, my instrument to do good on this planet.”

Conchita Wurst, in 2023. (Reuters)

His presence has not solely been consecrated in music, but in addition has executed it in style. Her distinctive fashion has made her a mode icon and a supply of inspiration for designers all over the world like Karl Lagerfeld. However she additionally needed to discover herself.

A so long greater than a goodbye

In 2015, the singer’s look adjustments. He begins to put on shorter wigs and, a number of years later, stops sporting them to exit along with his personal hair dyed silver. He even modified a image as attribute as his beard. He ended up delete Conchita’s images from her Instagram.

“I acquired bored of Conchita. I received loads with it following which I did not know what I had left to do,” he said in ‘El Mundo’. Nevertheless, she continued to carry out all over the world, from the Sydney Opera Home to London Palladium.

Regardless of the specter of ending the character, Conchita Wurst is extra alive than ever. The artist continues to defy expectations and break limitations along with her music and activism. Moreover, her legacy will final ceaselessly. Or a minimum of till take away his wax determine from Madame Tussauds in Vienna.