First, she appears as a tiny figure on a huge stage, a slender form silhouetted by an array of spotlights and partly obscured by disco smoke. Slowly the camera moves in to reveal the gold-embroidered full-length gown, the Kate Middleton brunette waves and then a beard so thick and neat that it seems painted on. About 120 million people watched Conchita Wurst’s winning performance of her defiant power ballad “Rise Like a Phoenix” in the 2014 Eurovision finals. In a breathless acceptance speech, she dedicated the night to “everyone who believes in a future of peace and freedom. You know who you are. We are unity and we are unstoppable.” The crowd erupted and waved its flags. In Russian political circles, the reaction to her success was equally hysterical. “It’s the end of Europe!” warned a former deputy speaker of the Duma.
Conchita spent the following year performing at gay pride marches worldwide, giving speeches on equality and tolerance for the UN and the European Parliament and brushing shoulders with celebrities at fundraiser balls and parties. The fashion world fawned over her. She modelled for Karl Lagerfeld, posing in a slip and suspenders on the lap of a pregnant model, Ashleigh Good, for a series called “The New Normal”. And she worked on her autobiography, Being Conchita, which includes a foreword by the designer Jean Paul Gaultier, who says he voted for her 73 times and describes her as “a Wonder Woman in a man’s body”.
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