100 best things Conchita has done from 2014-2017 (#50-41)
Heading into the home stretch, today’s list of ‘100 best things Conchita has done‘ goes from 50 to 41, and includes her stunning style while on trips to Australia, getting that Madame Tussauds wax figure and representing the Vienna Tourist Board in promoting her much loved home town.
50 — Conchita’s ‘Rock/Hard‘ is honest and insightful
Conchita sat down with her social media manager, André Karsai last year and talked about how she felt about particular things going on in her life, and about where her career and Conchita are going.
Karsai then turned it into a beautifully edited mini-video series called ‘Rock/Hard‘.
In it, Conchita (or in this case, really it’s Tom), covered things like why Tom created Conchita, how he feels about what she has done so far, how and why he continues to develop her so he never gets bored, and feeling proud of herself (or not feeling proud, in her case).
He also talks about realizing Conchita is a brand and so, basically, he is stuck with her. Whether he likes it or not.
“But I’m aware of the fact that Conchita is a brand…a bearded lady. (And there are) certain expectations linked to this persona. So basically I can’t say okay that was fun and now I want to do something completely different…..
So now I’m in this process where I think that the peak was the golden dress, if you put it that way. And now I’m circling around, and trying out new things, and I don’t want to let her down basically.
Because I think, you know, I can bend her, and I can make it a little more edgy and I can be a little bit more rock and roll with it or whatever. And we’ll see – probably, I’m just doing this for the rest of my life. Creating a new version of Conchita.”
And it’s a lovely little series, because it really is Conchita being incredibly honest and reflective, so it gives such a nice insight into who she is and how she thinks.
49 — Conchita and ‘Oma’ in Lisbon
One of the things I have always loved about Conchita is that she loves her ‘Oma’ (grandmother) so much. So it was really sweet to see her take Oma to Lisbon, Portugal last year when she was booked for a gig down there.
The trip was especially meaningful as Oma (real name Maria Margareta Neuwirth) spent several years living in Portugal, and being brought up by a Portuguese family, when she was a child.
It was also nice to see Conchita being able to visit the places Oma had told her about since she (he) was a child, and for Oma to revisit them.
48 — Conchita’s Australian style
Conchita has made a couple of trips to Australia over the last three years to sing at the Sydney Opera House among other things. And, while there, I have to say she always looked amazing.
One of the trips to Australia was when she was still in her ‘golden Conchita’ phase, while another was during the time where Conchita really was beginning to embrace trousers suits and pants more than she was dresses, but absolutely every outfit she and her stylist, Thomas Reinberger, put together for any Australian trip was always wonderful.
She even managed to look chic and cool while meeting a very cuddly, and very heavy, Steven the koala.
In fact, I’m betting it was quite a while since the Aussies had seen someone that stylish visit.
47 — Conchita’s political interview in Stockholm
When Conchita visited Stockholm in August, 2014, she had made political statements about human rights and gay rights in the past. But an interview she gave in Stockholm caught my eye more than any other, as it was an interview crammed full of political statements.
The right to love who you want to love, her belief that everyone should be treated with respect, and about wanting to create a community of positive people who didn’t live their lives governed by hate or ignorance.
And what is especially nice about this particular interview is, even though she is insistent on having her views heard, she is still polite, respectful and with no intention to offend.
In the almost three years since, and as she has become even more famous, she has remained the same.
46 — Conchita’s Vienna Boylesque Festival appearance
Just two weeks after Conchita won the Eurovision Contest back in 2014, she gave a performance at the 1st Annual Vienna Boylesque Festival.
And what was just the nicest thing about this performance, other than the performance itself which was fabulous, was that at this point Conchita was one of the most in-demand artists in Europe.
Yet, she honored a commitment to sing at her friend Jacques Patriaque’s Boylesque Festival that she had made long before she won Eurovision, even though she probably had other offers by that point that were ‘bigger’.
And that showed me what type of a person she is — loyal to the people she loves no matter what.
45 — Conchita’s incredible interview skills
Even though I have now seen Conchita speak during several hundred press conferences and always admired her skills at handling the press, one of the ones I liked the most was a press conference she gave in August, 2014 in Finland, the day before she performed at the Serena Pop and Rock Festival.
Because it was not only how stylish she was, and she was utterly chic and gorgeous, but it was also how she dealt with the journalists in the room.
Charming, respectful, warm, funny and completely in control.
The goddess of the press conference. No lie.
44 — Conchita and the perfect photo
This one is a little bit of a cheat but, in my mind, a list of the ‘100 best things Conchita has done‘ would not be complete without this photograph.
A photograph taken by a Conchita fan, Elena Jurievna, during the Salzburg leg of Conchita’s two-month long first concert tour.
And a photograph that not only shows the boy and the girl ever present in that lovely person, but one that also shows both her incredible strength and her humility and vulnerability.
In all the thousands of photographs of Conchita I have seen over the last three years, this one stands out in my mind more than any other, as it truly is perfect.
43 — Conchita gets a wax figure at Madame Tussauds
Come on, this is every artist’s dream — to be given the honor of having a wax figure made of them and put in pride of place at the iconic Madame Tussauds.
Conchita got hers in May, 2015, and she now stands in Madame Tussauds in Vienna. Two years on, and I still think it’s fabulous.
42 — Conchita promotes Vienna with ‘My Perfect Day‘
Conchita got together with the Vienna Tourist Board to promote her home town right before the Eurovision Song Contest was held there in April, 2015, and she does the most wonderful job.
She is elegant, gorgeous, gracious and impeccably dressed, and takes the viewer on a short tour of the places in Vienna she loves the most.
In other words, she is the perfect spokesperson for one of the world’s most fabulous cities.
Watch her above. Just be sure to click the settings wheel, so you can read the English subtitles if you do not speak German.
41 — Conchita sings ‘Rise Like a Phoenix‘ at the Eurovision’s Greatest Hits
The Eurovision Song Contest put on a special concert in London back in early 2015, to commemorate the 60th year anniversary of the competition, and Conchita was invited to sing in it.
And, while her performance of her winning Eurovision song ‘Rise Like a Phoenix’ was superb, it was also the way she looked that captured my attention. Like an exotic 1960s Italian movie star.
That completes numbers 50 to 41 of the ‘100 best things Conchita has done‘ — back on Tuesday with 10 more.
Meanwhile, here are numbers 100 to 51:
100 best things Conchita has done #100-91
100 best things Conchita has done 90-81
100 best things Conchita has done #80-71