Conchita Wurst may not be a house hold name in Australia just yet, but in Europe she is a mega star. Last year she was crowned the winner of Eurovision thanks to her powerful rendition of Rise Like a Phoenix, thus making her the first gender fluid performer to take home the title.
Woman’s Day sat down with the songstress during her recent trip to Sydney, where she opened up about Australia’s chance of winning the prestigious contest as Malaysian-born Australian singer Guy Sebastian prepares to perform at the contest in Vienna, Austria.
“He is a mega star, he knows how this game works” the 26-year-old said about our former Australian Idol.
“He knows how to perform, he looks good and has a great voice,” the Austrian singer added.
Since touching down in Vienna, Guy and his wife Jules have been blown away with the outpouring of support from locals.
“When we rocked up coming from the car to here, all these people were running up to Guy and I’m like ‘what’s going on?’ Fans, they’ve got photos of Guy even, and they are taking photos as well, I wasn’t expecting that when we first got here,” Jules told News.com.au.
And this reception doesn’t surprise Conchita in the slightest! “Everyone is embracing him anywhere he appears,” she told us.
Conchinta – who says she isn’t transgender and instead a drag queen – also explained that the Battle Scars hitmaker could “probably” win this year’s competition.
This would be historic for Australia who have been long-time super fans of the popular song contest.
Earlier this year our passion for the weird and wonderful world of Eurovision was offically recognised when we were invited to participate as a wild card entry, firing us straight into the grand finale.
Guy Sebastian is the talk of Europe at the moment with the thousands of media outlets who cover the event unable to stop discussing the “Aussie Invasion.”
Guy Sebastian will bemaking history by competing for Australia at the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest
The Eurovision Song Contest sees 40 countries compete for the esteemed title and the opportunity to host next year’s competition, and as a result inject billions into their economies.
Due to time differences, if Australia were to win we wouldn’t host Eurovision next year, but instead get to select a country of our choice to hold the event.
SBS journalist and comic genius Lee Lin Chin was announced yesterday as Australia’s Eurovision spokesperson, she’ll be among the likes of Nigella Lawson representing the UK, and will be responsible of revealing Australia’s voting decisions – pivotal in deciding the winner.
Last year’s winner Conchita, whose debut self-titled album has recently been released, explained that if Guy wins the world renowned song contest, he can expect big things to happen.
“It changed my life in every way you can imagine honestly, I’m basically living my dream,” she told Woman’s Day.
The Eurovision finale will air on SBS Sunday May 24
