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Conchita to star in Boylesque Festival

Staff reporter
Staff reporter - [email protected]
Conchita to star in Boylesque Festival
Detail from the Boylesque Festival poster.

Eurovision winner Conchita Wurst will perform at Vienna's first Boylesque cabaret festival, taking place on May 28 and 29. Wurst will appear as the final act and sing her song Rise Like a Phoenix.

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"A world-wide boylesque scene proves that men are as talented as women in swaying their hips and swirling the tassels," writes producer Jacques Patriaque, who also appears in public as Conchita's stage 'husband'. 

The festival will "celebrate two days of burlesque, boylesque, vaudeville, artistry and everything in between. This festival is the first of its kind in Europe and connects the flair of Imperialistic Vienna with a modern and open minded city," Patriaque added. 

Wurst, the drag persona of Austrian entertainer Thomas Neuwirth, has become an icon for Europe's gay and transsexual community and a flashpoint for Russia's debate over gay rights.

In an interview published today in the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter, Aleksandr Dugin, a Russian political scientist and ideologue thought to be shaping Putin's views of a Eurasian empire talks about what he sees as the collapse of traditional morals in Europe. 

"Take Conchita Wurst's victory in the Eurovision Song Contest for example. For Russians, that was absolute confirmation of the importance for Russia of invading Ukraine. It was a sort of final argument in [its] favour, since the EU is represented by this winner. The contrasts between Russia and Europe became clear."

Explaining what he thinks is wrong with someone like Conchita, he added: "For Russia, which still believes in the family and traditional relationships between men and women, Conchita Wurst is the devil personified. The devil has won in Europe. Even if he no longer exists for secular Europe, he does in Russia." 
 
Prior to Eurovision, Wurst had faced a barrage of homophobic attacks from within her own country and from other countries including Russia, Armenia and Belarus, who branded the contest a "hotbed of sodomy". 

 

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