Eurovision Song Contest is back with high camp, kooky antics and queer milestones

After 66 years of high camp and brazen queerness, you might think there’s not much left for performers to do at the Eurovision Song Contest that hasn’t already been done before.

You’d be wrong.

Even in the lead-up to Saturday’s 2022 Eurovision Grand Final in Turin, Italy, two queer milestones have already been marked this week. On Tuesday, when the Icelandic trio Systur learned that they’d made it through the first semifinal, they proudly waved the transgender flag alongside that of their country’s.

Then at the second semifinal on Thursday, San Marino’s singer Achille Lauro planted the first mid-Eurovision-performance male-male kiss squarely on his guitarist’s lips.

Achille Lauro and Boss Doms of San Marino kiss Thursday.Filippo Alfero / Getty Images

And that’s nothing to speak of the wacky stage gimmickry that’s the hallmark of Eurovision, which this year has already featured unexpected firsts like monk-supervised hand-washing (Serbia), donning wolf masks (Norway) and riding a mechanical bull (again, San Marino).

From Israel’s Dana International to Austria’s Conchita Wurst to the Netherlands’ Duncan Laurence, LGBTQ performers have always been warmly embraced at Eurovision. Last year, a record five acts in the grandfFinal consisted fully or in part of out queer performers — including winners Måneskin from Italy, with bisexual member Victoria De Angelis and “sexually free” member Ethan Torchio.

This year’s Eurovision Grand Final on Saturday will feature two out queer acts — Iceland’s aforementioned Systur and Australia’s Sheldon Riley — and performances from several other contestants will telegraph robust endorsements of queer sexuality.

Subwoolfer performs Tuesday on behalf of Norway.Marco Bertorello / AFP – Getty Images

Hosting the extravaganza will also be two beloved out gay stars: singer Mika, who’ll be live from Turin as an onsite host for the global audience, and Olympian turned NBC commentator Johnny Weir, who’ll emcee the exclusive American feed of the broadcast on Peacock. (NBC News and Peacock are owned by Comcast-NBCUniversal.)

Systur will mark another Eurovision Grand Final first on Saturday, as a group counting both a lesbian and the mother of a transgender child among its members. The band of sisters have been staunch advocates for trans children in their home country.

“I didn’t realize until my child came out as a trans individual that not everybody is open to that, because I accepted it and actually was happy that my child was able to break free from the chains that he had been living under,” Sigga Eyþórsdóttir told Australia’s JOYEurovision podcast. “I realized how many trans children and trans individuals are suffering from not being able to express their gender, and that really broke my heart.

She added, “I got in touch with the trans community in Iceland, and I asked, ‘How can I be your voice?’ And they said, ‘Just tell parents to do what you did: Accept your children and love them unconditionally.’”

Members of Systur from Iceland holding the transgender flag as they arrive for the opening ceremony of the Eurovision Song contest on Sunday. Marco Bertorello / AFP – Getty Images

Systur’s folk ballad Eurovision entry, “Með hækkandi sól” (“With the Rising Sun”), is an ode to the promise of the sun’s warmth and light overcoming the cold darkness of winter.

The lyrics of Australian contestant Sheldon Riley’s song, “Not the Same,” also celebrate light shining through a broken darkness — and have resonated so strongly with some LGBTQ fans that the song is being hailed as a gay anthem.

“I never really set out for it to be an anthem,” Riley told the Netherlands’ OUTtv. “For me, it was just a song that I wrote when I was 15.

“I was first diagnosed with Asperger’s at 6 but also grew up in a very religious and reserved family,” he explained. “So the idea of being gay and being all of those things that Eurovision is so proud of being wasn’t acceptable for me, it was just this thing that was constantly prayed over. ‘We pray that Sheldon will be a real man; we pray that Sheldon won’t be gay, will be straight, will have a wife, will have kids. We’ll just constantly keep praying to fix something about you.’”