Queer to be kind: Exploring Western media discourses about the “Eastern bloc” during the 2007 and 2014 Eurovision Song Contests

This article examines the voting results and Western European media coverage of the 2007 and 2014 Eurovision Song Contests. The Austrian drag act Conchita Wurst (the alter ego of an openly gay man) won in 2014, whilst Serbian entrant Marija Šerifović, portrayed in Western European media as lesbian at the time, won in 2007. We first explore the extent to which there was an East-West voting divide in both contests. In 2014, while there was some elite hostility against Conchita in Eastern Europe, the popular support was on a similar level to that in Western Europe. In 2007, we find no significant geographic divide in support for Šerifović. However, when we examine mainstream UK and German media coverage during and after both contests, we find strong anti-Eastern European discourses that are at odds with the similarity in the public voting. We employ the concept of homonationalism to interrogate inconsistent Western media discourses: the East was depicted as a site of homophobia and the West as a site of tolerance in 2014, whilst the queer aesthetic / identity of Šerifović was largely overlooked in 2007.

Indraneel Sircar

Indraneel Sircar


Indraneel Sircar is a Postdoctoral Research Assistant at the School of Politics and International Relations at the Queen Mary University of London. His research focuses on Europeanization in the Western Balkans.

Alexej Ulbricht

Alexej Ulbricht


Alexej Ulbricht is a Teaching Fellow in the Department of Politics & International Studies at SOAS - University of London.

Koen Slootmaeckers

Koen Slootmaeckers


Koen Slootmaeckers is a PhD candidate at the School of Politics and International Relations at the Queen Mary University of London and a research affiliate at Leuven International and European Studies (LINES) at KU Leuven at the University of Leuven.



1. What is homonationalism and how does it relate to the concept of “the pink agenda”?
2. Do you think that Eurovision is a good lens to study wider political processes in Europe? What are possible limitations?
3. Why are “Western Europe” and “Eastern Europe” misleading concepts? How are they reinforced?
4. What do you think might be the purpose of the homonationalist discourse in the context of Eurovision? Do you think it is related to recent events, like the anti-propaganda laws in Russia?
5. Would you agree with the homonationalist discourses as presented in the UK and German media? Do you think "Western Europe" is indeed more LGBT-Friendly?

Ayoub, Phillip & David Paternotte (eds.). 2014. LGBT Activism and the Making of Europe: a rainbow Europe? Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Brown, Wendy. 2006. Regulating Aversion: tolerance in the age of identity and empire. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Fassin, Éric. 2010. National Identities and Transnational Intimacies: sexual democracy and the politics of immigration in Europe. Public Culture, 22(3), 507-529.
Fricker, Karen & Milija Gluhovic. 2013. Performing the “New” Europe: Identities, Feelings, and Politics in the Eurovision Song Contest, edited by Fricker, Karen and Milija Gluhovic. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
Puar, Jasbir K. 2013. Rethinking Homonationalism. International Journal of Middle East Studies, 45(2), 336-339.

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