Eurovision Song Contest sets political statement

Yesterday Conchita Wurst from Austria won the Eurovision Song Contest, a huge music celebration in Europe. Once a year every country can send an artist to represent her country at the Song Contest. It gives everyone the chance to hear music they might never heard otherwise. Winning this competition in 1976 was huge for Abba, because afterwards they had an amazing and very successful career. Their songs are still heard and they are some sort of role models for everyone taking part these days.

We are like ballons - colorful and unique
and wanna be free.
pic by gwaar

But it is not only about the music anymore. Sure, music connects people. They can sing in their own language, and you don't have to understand every word to understand what they sing about. The Eurovision Song Contest unites Europe in the most positive way. And this year it also sets a political statement.

The winner comes from Austria and is a guy, dressed like a girl but having a beard. His actual name is Thomas Neuwirth, who is an Austrian singer and drag artist. What looks strange at first has a good reason why he does it like that. Because it doesn't matter the way you look or who you are, as long as you simply be yourself.

He has called himself Conchita Wurst, because there is a German saying that goes "es ist wurst" which means "it doesn't matter". So what does it mean that he/she won this? That it is okay to be you, and you will be loved for being who you are. There will always be people who try to put you down. But if there is anyone out there calling you ugly, she will be the ugly one. Because ugly is an attitude, it's someone who doesn't want to accept other people but are only self-centered.

Everyone is beautiful. Your beauty lies within you. 

When I ask people who they think is beautiful they always name girls like Heidi Klum or any other top model (I don't really know many models because i don't like that business that reduces everyone to her looks). Actually I always wonder why people mostly care about someone's eyes or body or whatever. It is when I read magazines or some forums on the internet and the same people discuss the same things over and over again. No matter what is on TV, it is mostly about how someone's dressed and looked instead of writing about what she said. That must be the reason some "celebrities" like the Kardashians exist in the media.

Why did we become people who mostly care about the hair, makeup, body, etc and also drive ourselves crazy by thinking we aren't perfect the way we are? Why do we reduce people to how they look? Imagine the show "The voice" was real life, and you only hear a person's voice, and then think about if you wanna get to know her or not, and after that decision you see her face, would you think differently about her than just seeing her? The character of a person is much more important. But no one sees anyone's character. The clothes you wear, gives strangers a first impression of who you might be. She then thinks of other guys she met who looked similar than you and so put you into some sort of box. It is based on our experience what we see in people. It is caused by evolution and good to prevent us from people who could harm us. But it also can let us being prejudiced against some people, when there is no reason to be. We only see what we wanna see and close our eyes for what is really there.

Have a look at the video below. Maybe close your eyes and just listen to Conchita's voice and then watch her. The eyes are the biggest liars, we can see more clearly with our heart. So back to her winning the ESC yesterday: Europe accepts people no matter what. And that is good. Because if there is one thing we all want, it's freedom. And how do we become free? When we get the chance to be who we are and being accepted for that. And this makes someone really beautiful: when she dares to be herself and also accepts and respects others for being who they are.