My heart is a firestorm! ❤️ Thank you #theunstoppables for watching @lifeball! I’ll have a drink now! Cheers! pic.twitter.com/pyI1tiof1o
— Conchita Wurst (@ConchitaWurst) May 16, 2015
Since Eurovision 2014, Austrian singer and Eurovision winner Conchita Wurst has become the biggest superstar that tiny country has ever seen.
Lauded all over Europe for her talent, beauty, grace, and charming personality, people will travel hundreds if not thousands of miles for one glimpse, one handshake, one hug from this tiny person who has captured the hearts of millions.
Last night at Vienna’s Life Ball 2015, Conchita Wurst solidified her superstardom just that little bit more, with two live performances on stage (‘You Are Unstoppable‘ and her new single ‘Firestorm‘ from her debut album Conchita).
@ConchitaWurst is in da House @lifeball pic.twitter.com/f2AhxOjfHK — king b (@AFbeaulogh) May 16, 2015
But more than the live performances, one thing captured my attention about Conchita Wurst at Life Ball 2015. One thing I think is telling about this extraordinary person, and who she is and what her life will be like for her.
That thing is the way social media lit up the minute Conchita Wurst appeared on the Life Ball red carpet, with everyone within 500 feet of her desperate to post their photographs proving that they saw her.
Look who I met @lifeball: @ConchitaWurst sang just before I came on the red carpet. Very charming, charismatic& sweet pic.twitter.com/iIafGkPfWw — Kristine Opolais (@KristineOpolais) May 17, 2015
Even huge celebrities, people who you would think have seen everything, done everything, met everyone. Getting a selfie with Conchita Wurst completes their evening. Now just think about the enormity of that.
People like Jean Paul Gaultier, Kelly Osbourne, and Graham Norton — people who are icons in their own right, and yet who rush to greet and to worship at the feet of Conchita (Jean Paul, down on bended knee, literally, and Kelly Osbourne so in love she wrote on Conchita’s mirror backstage – “Dear Conchita, I fucking adore you”), because if they don’t get to speak to her or have a photograph taken with her their life is suddenly lesser.
But it’s not just the selfies that are telling about Conchita Wurst. It’s also that, if you look closely at videos and photographs taken all over Life Ball, if she is anywhere in the shot, the people around her can’t take their eyes off her. And they’re always smiling.
Because, as young as she is, Conchita Wurst figured out the secret to being loved. A secret it took me far longer to learn. And that is, leave the house with a smile on your face, always be respectful and kind, treat everyone like they are important and, no matter what goes wrong, leave the temper tantrums to the divas that don’t deserve that title anyway, and go on as if nothing happened.
It is for this reason why I have always been convinced Conchita Wurst will never experience the crash and burn syndrome many celebrities do. Lauded one minute, and annihilated the next by a vicious press and disappointed fans.
And that is because, no matter what happens to her, no matter what mistakes she makes, or which people try to take her down, there are millions of people around the world who, in the purest way possible, and because of who she is, simply love her. And those people will stand up for her and protect her. No matter what.