100 best things Conchita has done since her 2014 Eurovision win — numbers 100-91
I was watching something Austrian singer Conchita Wurst did last week, and got to thinking about the thousands of incredible things she has done in the just over three years since she won the Eurovision Song Contest.
Things that include performances, song covers, photographs, YouTube videos, magazine shoots, Instagram posts and a whole slew of others that, when you look back on all the phenomenal opportunities she has had, so many must have been almost unimaginable to her before her Eurovision victory.
Some of these things are opportunities that came her way without her asking. Others are things she created herself. And even more are what I think are interesting little things the most hard-core fans noticed, but many others probably missed.
So I decided to spend some time going through everything I have in my ‘Conchita files‘, and choosing ‘100 best things Conchita has done since she won Eurovision‘. Then commenting on why I think they are so fabulous.
Take into account, these are my personal preferences only, and you probably have different ones. But I thought it would be an interesting exercise to see if I could choose just 100 best things Conchita has done, or, with the enormous number of things I love, would I have to cheat?
I will be publishing one of these ‘100 best things Conchita has done‘ articles every day for the next 10 days. (Yikes!) (Well, it is Gay Pride Month, and she is just about the thing I love the most about the gay community so…there you have it).
Kicking off with today’s, these are numbers 100-91. Enjoy!
100 — Conchita’s ‘I Don’t Need Diamonds’
This. I loved this from three seconds after she published it, and I’ve loved it ever since.
Because, come on, sultry and sensuous, yet with an innocence and sweetness about it as much as she’s trying to ‘sex it up’, and all all-girl. A stunning outfit. Those boots are to die for. Those thighs, I’d kill for. And have you checked out that ass in the mirror!
Because a lot of drag queens have nice rear ends simply because they’re wearing a fake one. Not Conchita. That ass is all hers and, after noticing it for the first time three years ago, as far as I’m concerned it’s still The Best Ass in Europe.
99 — Conchita’s first appearance on The Graham Norton Show
This happened a week after Conchita won the Eurovision Song Contest in 2014, and I think it’s worthy of a spot on the ‘100 best things Conchita has done‘ just because of how she is.
Sweet, flirty, with a knockout dress and a gorgeous wig, and still so bemused by what happened to her at Eurovision, and desperately trying to pretend she’s not just about jumping out of her skin she’s so thrilled to be on Graham’s show.
Plus, watch her when Dawn French tells her she’s ‘the heir to the Cher throne’, as she pauses for a cute little laugh of ‘WTF’.
And, come on, don’t you just sit there and grin the whole way through this, as she’s so delighted to be there and just so freaking funny and adorable?
I’ve watched it at least 50 times since 2014, and I still laugh out loud every time.
98 — The hair, the hair, oh the hair
Honestly, this is not my favorite thing and, unless I suddenly develop an entirely new personality, I doubt it ever will be.
The hairy chest, the hairy legs, the hair, the hair, it’s everywhere.
Because I loved who Conchita herself calls ‘Golden Conchita‘. The stunning designer dresses, the heels that accentuated those incredible legs, the flawless make-up and the supremely feminine Conchita.
To me, she was perfection, and gave Conchita Wurst a massive chance of making it as an international superstar. She really was that unique.
That being said, however, I have to include the hair on my best 100 list. Because of what it personifies.
Conchita or, in this case, her alter ego Tom Neuwirth, choosing to be who he wants to be regardless of what others think he should be.
And if that means she’s wearing eternal pants, flat shoes, less make-up (although I do like that), has a hairy chest, a bushier beard, the hairiest legs I’ve seen on a girl ever (!), and is decidedly more ‘masculine’, then so be it.
Because, as she has said on a few occasions, the person underneath all that is the same person she/he always was and, to me, as much as I will probably grumble on indefinitely about missing ‘Golden Conchita‘, I like her/him to be happy.
And, if this is what makes him happy, yeah, love, go for it.
Besides, she/he is f#cking gorgeous, no matter what she/he does!
97 — Conchita voicing her support for Alexander Van Der Bellen
As someone who has always thought Conchita should be far more political than she is, I was thrilled when she released a video outspokenly supporting Alexander Van der Bellen — one of the then two candidate’s for the Austrian federal presidential election.
Because the alternative was Austria’s version of Trump, a man who would have done nothing but work towards isolating Austria and, while he did so, engendering a helluva lot more hate.
Conchita, of course, was polite in her plea to Austrians to vote for the better choice (and, thank heavens, they did), and she came off as intelligent, thoughtful, open-minded and forward-thinking, and someone who really cared about her country and where it was going.
Yep, Conchita getting political was a lovely thing. And I hope she does more and more and more of it.
96 — Conchita and the MOMA New York exhibit
Conchita was featured in an exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York in 2015.
Called Ocean of Images: New Photography 2015”, Conchita’s part in the exhibit was essentially small. But, in typical Conchita style, it soon snowballed into being much bigger as her face appeared on posters promoting the exhibit all over New York City. She even got a mention in Vogue.
Plus, just watch that video the artist taped. How gorgeous is she?
No wonder there were New Yorkers simply stopping and staring, they had never seen anyone as stunning and unique before.
95 — Conchita performs at ‘Sabat Czarownic‘ concert in Kielce, Poland
This will forever be on my list of ‘best performances Conchita has ever given’, even if I live to 120 and she’s still performing in her 90s.
Because it was Conchita’s first performance in Poland, and an appearance that, when it was announced, was marred with not only abuse from many Poles who absolutely did not want her there, but also quite a bit of violence threatened.
To the point where the festival banned the audience from bringing bottles or metal objects to the show for the first time in the show’s history. They really were that worried about what might get thrown at her.
But even though it was obvious she was incredibly nervous when she walked on stage (and, hell, who wouldn’t be!), that girl pulled off one of the strongest performances she’s ever given. As if to say “You don’t want me? Then watch this. Because I’ll make you want me”.
And, yep, she did.
Related: Conchita Wurst slays ‘River Deep, Mountain High‘ at ‘Sabat Czarownic‘
And so I’ve loved another thing about Conchita ever since her ‘Sabat Czarownic‘ performance, because I have huge balls when it comes to shoving myself out there, but that girl has bigger balls than I will ever have.
Watch her above and, if you like, read what I wrote at the time about her performance. Because it explains point by point why I think she was so very spectacular.
94 — “Google Is Great” — Conchita’s ‘Conchita Answers‘ videos
Conchita used to create videos called ‘Conchita’s Answers‘, which I always thought were lovely as they were short but interesting looks into her world, as well as into that weird place she calls her brain.
And some of them are the funniest things you’ll see. Like this one, for instance. A video about how much she weighs and how tall she is.
Because it’s not just that we get some more personal information about her in her usual sweet way, but it’s also that point where she suddenly realizes she has no idea how much 172 centimeters is in inches, finds out nobody else on set knows either, and dissolves into giggles as she tells everyone to “Google it” — and ending with the announcement “Google is great”.
Adorable beyond belief.
93 — Conchita’s ‘Rondo’ photo shoot
There was a stunningly beautiful photo shoot Conchita did for Der Standard’s ‘Rondo‘ magazine back in late 2014. And it especially stood out for me as one of the ‘100 best things Conchita has done‘, as it was just so opulently Austrian.
What with the gorgeous locations it was shot in — rooms you would only get somewhere like Vienna with its empire past — the lush costumes and jewels, and the way it seemed so elegant on the surface, but then had that ‘kink’ Austria seems to have so much in its underneath.
Because, for me, it’s one of the many things I love about Austria, and it’s something Conchita embodies in this photo shoot perfectly. The idea that elegance, opulence and supreme politeness are all perfectly normal and necessary things to the outside, but it’s what goes on behind closed doors that is ultimately far more interesting.
Related: Conchita’s ‘Rondo’ shoot is exquisitely beautiful
92 — Conchita takes the underground to the ‘Eurovision Grand Final’
Yes, this was a publicity stunt, yes, this got her a lot of attention while standing on Vienna’s U-bahn station platforms waiting for the train, and yes, she was far more nervous than she came off on the video. Even surrounded by as many bodyguards and staff as could fit around her.
But I thought this was an interesting look into how she behaves with fans and with the general public, and how easily she ‘snaps into place’ when it comes to speaking to a fan or posing for photographs.
Besides, it made me think about those hundreds of hours Tom Neuwirth must have spent posing in front of the mirror pretending to be famous. And how now, you can see those poses being put into reality right there on the screen.
Plus, she’s cute — and teeny freaking tiny!
91 — Conchita sings live at ‘Voices for Refugees’
To some extent, this is a purely personal choice in my ‘100 best things Conchita has done‘ list, as it’s the first time I ever saw Conchita sing live after a year and a half of writing articles about her.
But it is also on my list as I think her choosing to be involved in the ‘Voices for Refugees‘ concert and, thus, putting her name and face out there as being supportive of the refugees streaming over Austria’s borders at that time, was important.
It showed she not only ‘talked the talk’, but also ‘walked the walk’ and was willing to stand up and say “Everyone should be treated the same and, if it was you and your family that were suddenly forced to be refugees through no fault of your own, you would want another country to take you in and care for you as well”.
Related: Conchita sings live at ‘Voices for Refugees’ and she is spectacular
As for her performance that night, she was stunning.
Particularly because, even though she was standing in front of a crowd of 100,000 people, and could quite easily have used that time to further her own career, instead she gave a gorgeous performance, a quick speech and then walked off stage.
With no drama, no trying to drag the spotlight onto herself. Just a quiet and calm insistence that the spotlight should be on the refugees and what they were currently going through.
So, that is numbers 100-91 of the ‘100 best things Conchita has done since her Eurovision win‘.
I’ll be back tomorrow with 10 more.