100 best things Conchita has done since she won Eurovision, 2014-2017 (#90-81)
One of the things I love about the many amazing things Conchita has done in the last three years is how much she has changed and grown as she has done them. In a direction I sometimes feel I may not agree with but, if I’m honest with myself, I actually do.
Because, even if individual appearances, clothes, hair styles and photographs may not always be to my own personal taste, they have all come together to make her the person she is today.
Richer, a helluva lot more genuine and real and…, for want of a better word, more solid.
A person who seems to be even happier and more comfortable with herself and who she is and, because I think she is a truly lovely person, I have to admit that just makes me happy.
Numbers 90-81 on the list of the ‘100 best things Conchita has done’ run the gamut from things she did right after Eurovision to others that have happened in the last few months. All of them, however, have had an impact on who Conchita now is, even if some of them now seem so far removed from the girl we know today.
90 — Conchita closes Jean Paul Gaultier show at Paris Fashion Week
No list of the fabulous things Conchita has done is complete without a look at some of the fashion events she has been involved in. The first one was soon after Eurovision, when she was chosen to close Jean Paul Gaultier’s couture show at Paris Fashion Week.
The show was full of Gaultier’s usual fabulously flamboyant style but, to me, the black dress she wore to close the show was the most stunning. (And JPG, one of the most gorgeous dresses I have seen — period).
What was even more interesting, however, was how nervous she was as she started to walk down the runway. Not surprising when model Catherine Loewe had fallen on the same slippery runway four times during the opening of the show (video), nor that being chosen to appear in Gaultier’s show was an enormous honor.
Yet Conchita strode out, head held high and walked down that runway as regally as if she was a queen. And when newspapers and fashion magazines around the world reported on the show, Conchita was the main thing they were talking about.
89 — Conchita and Jean Paul Gaultier film ‘Durch die Nacht‘ in Vienna
One thing I love about Conchita is she has always stayed so proudly Viennese, as Vienna is a city she obviously loves and one she always tries to show off to its best advantage.
In late 2014, she appeared with Jean Paul Gaultier in ‘Durch die Nacht‘, a 50-odd minute program that followed the two of them around Vienna, with Conchita showing Gaultier some of the places she loves.
It was obvious to me watching her body language during the show that as much as she adores Gaultier, she was also quite intimidated by him. But she did her damndest not to show it. The result?
While he comes off as a thoroughly lovely man, it was Conchita who was shining like a star. Because it’s just one of those things about her — the camera loves her and, no matter who she is standing next to, it cannot take its eye off her.
The show was interesting too.
88 — Conchita performs ‘Blue Bloom‘ with the Janoska Ensemble
Late last year, I was at the Wider Die Gewalt benefit concert at Ronacher in Vienna. I primarily went to it because Conchita was performing and, as it turned out, it was one of the best performances of hers I saw all year.
Simply because, not only did she surprise everyone by co-hosting the entire show, but she also sang her new self-written song ‘Blue Bloom‘.
But not just a simple performance of ‘Blue Bloom‘ as, let’s face it, if it was she wouldn’t be Conchita — who really does love to do a twist on the ordinary, and adores surprising her fans.
Instead it was a performance of ‘Blue Bloom‘ with the Janoska Ensemble, a group of classically-trained musicians, and it was gorgeous.
In fact, to this day, it is one of my favorite performances of hers. Not only for the song, which is beautiful, but also for the touching look on her face when she had finished. A look she occasionally gets when she is completely overwhelmed by an audience’s reaction and about to cry.
01 Conchita Wurst – You Are Unstobbable @ CSD… von cocosheart
87 — Conchita performs at Cologne Pride dressed in latex
Absolutely one of the best performances Conchita has ever given, at least when it comes to proving she is a consummate professional, is when she stood on the stage at Cologne Pride in 2015, dressed in the tightest green latex outfit you have ever seen, and absolutely dripping sweat and lube.
Well, hell, it was over 40 degrees on that stage.
Yet there she stood, sweat pouring off her in absolute buckets, and she still looked drop dead gorgeous and as if she was having the best time!
86 — Life Ball photo shoot, 2017
Yep, we’re back to hairy legs, hairy chest and a ‘girl’ wearing high heels and sexy lingerie for the Life Ball photo shoot, 2017.
But, come on, have you ever seen anyone more gorgeous and more completely comfortable with who she is and how she looks?
And don’t you now get why Tom Neuwirth decided to go the ‘hairy route’? Because Jesusf*ck, if I had to shave those legs every day just to look like a girl is supposed to look, I would have thrown away my razor years ago as well.
85 — Conchita supports Vangardist magazine’s ‘blood of HIV positive people’ issue
I always like it when Conchita gets political, and I like it even more when she is outspoken about issues that tend to freak a lot of people out.
HIV/AIDS, for instance. Still a topic there are taboos around, and still one half the planet is ignorant about.
So I loved it when Conchita supported the publication of an issue of Austrian magazine Vangardist. An issue that was printed with the blood of people who are HIV positive in an effort to educate other people about how difficult HIV is to catch when it is outside the body.
In other words, stop stigmatizing and being freaked out by those that have it! Because, if you are, you’re ignorant.
Along with Conchita’s support came a video, in which she opened a copy of the magazine, and announced she would personally be signing 10 copies of it to give away.
A video that was also lovely to watch as she is just so damned adorable. Especially when she gets to the bit about Vangardist ‘wanting to end the stigma that is clinked to HIV positive people”.
Because, even though her English abilities are absolutely bloody brilliant, she does occasionally get words mixed up and, at that point, she was going through a phase where she got confused between ‘linked’ and ‘clinked’. She said it several times on various videos and every time she did I died, because it is the cutest thing.
84 — Conchita wins 3 Amadeus Awards including ‘Female Singer of the Year’
To me, music awards don’t mean that much. Not when it comes to an artist being given an award while so many other equally worthy artists are ignored.
That being said, I was beyond thrilled when Conchita won three Amadeus Awards in 2015 — Best Video’ for Heroes, ‘Best Song’ for Rise Like a Phoenix and ‘Female Singer of the Year’.
And while she was undoubtedly ecstatic about all of them, and I was very happy she won one for a song from her debut album, the one I thought was the best was the award for ‘Female Singer of the Year’.
Because she was not only nominated in the category of ‘Female Singer’, but she actually won it. Ahead..of..actual…women.
And, while I am always supportive of women in the music industry, because so many get treatment men simply would not get, it was still nice to see Conchita as an art figure being taken so seriously.
As it meant she was being given a level of respect she had fought for just about her whole life. Respect she always deserved, but sadly didn’t always get.
Oh, and just in case you missed it, Conchita won the same award again in 2016 (and graciously dealt with a very drunk Dagmar Koller). Respect indeed.
83 — Conchita begins to ‘shock’
After Conchita won Eurovision, she was very much as we expected for about a year. Ultra feminine, absolutely lovely and always always always a woman without much hint of the man underneath.
Then, slowly, things began to change. And a photograph she released on her Instagram account in May, 2015, was one of the first signs we saw of it.
A photograph of Conchita standing in a shower, wearing a short wig, a corset and with outstretched hands covering her nipples. A photograph of Conchita as still ‘all-girl’ but oh so definitely all-boy.
It was a photograph that, to all intents and purposes, and as much as she said was ‘spontaneous’, was meant to shock. And shock it did.
And, although I wasn’t a ginormous fan of the photograph when I first saw it (my feelings have since changed), I have to say I have always enjoyed the way she plays with the general public and her fans, and how she loves to shock the people she knows will be the most shockable.
Because it shows she is always going to be exactly who she wants to be. Even if that means she pisses off half the people who see her.
Conchita at Music Station, Japan 10.07.2015 von rus-unstoppables
82 — Conchita appears on ‘Music Station’ in Japan
Having spent 14 years living in Asia (Thailand), I know just how ‘weird’ most Asian cultures can seem to westerners.
There is, however, no Asian culture more weird than Japan’s. Especially when it comes to the shows they have on TV, and how their artists are expected to perform.
So, when Conchita spent several days in Japan in mid-2015 as part of her promotion for her debut album, it pleased me no end to see her show up on a couple of decidedly odd Japanese TV shows, including the iconic ‘Music Station‘.
As here was Conchita wearing the most amazing ‘bell dress’, and standing among a group of Japanese artists and TV presenters who, quite frankly, didn’t really seem to know what to do with her.
Because as much as ‘weird’, ‘kinky’ and ‘bizarre’ are part of Japanese life, Conchita seemed to throw them for a bit of a loop. And that was awesome to see.
When it came to actually singing, of course, she gave a damn good performance as well. So much so her debut album Conchita was charting on Japan’s iTunes a few minutes later. An amazing feat in a country where most had had no clue who she was before the show aired.
81 — Conchita performs at ‘Pop Meets Opera‘ as part of Eurovision 2015 celebrations in Vienna
Conchita was not only one of the presenters when the Eurovision Song Contest came to Vienna in 2015, but she was also involved in several performances during the two-week event.
One of my favorites was when she performed at ‘Pop Meets Opera‘ at the Vienna State Opera with a chamber orchestra, and with a stunning slowed-down version of her Eurovision-winning song ‘Rise Like A Phoenix‘.
As here, for one of the first times, Conchita proved she is just as much at home with a classical music-style performance as she is with pop. And she gave a superb performance.
Since then, of course, she has given other performances with orchestras around the world that have been equally as wonderful. But this was one of the first times we really saw how versatile she is as well as, in retrospect, got a hint of one of the directions her career may start to go in.
Now, that is numbers 90-81 of ‘100 best things Conchita has done since she won Eurovision‘. There will be 10 more coming at you tomorrow.
Meanwhile, if you missed numbers 100-91, you can find those here.