Call to arms

I’m usually not given to getting sentimental or weepy over power ballads, but I can’t describe how Austrian performer Conchita Wurst’s “Rise Like a Phoenix” got to me.

I can say that this is officially going to be my Pride anthem this year, and given the story that’s developing around the bearded Shirley Bassey of our generation, it is certainly fitting.

Pink News reports that Wurst was selected to represent Austria in Eurovision, an annual Europe-wide song contest. The controversy started in November, when a group of hateful conservative European killjoys started calling for Wurst to be censored or removed from the international competition, which included the work of this Belarusian.

“The popular international competition that our children will be watching has become a hotbed of sodomy at the initiation of the European liberals,” a translation of one petition apparently reads, although I wasn’t able to find the original petitions online. “Russia is one of the only European countries that has managed to maintain normal and healthy family values based on love and mutual support between MEN and WOMEN.”

Hilariously, of course, the calls to censor Wurst means she’s given more international attention.

The semi-finals and finals of Eurovision will be taking place over the next few weeks, and I know I’ll be cheering for Wurst to represent the better side of Europe.

RISE LIKE A PHOENIX

by Conchita Wurst

Waking in the rubble
Walking over glass
Neighbours say we’re trouble
Well, that time has passed

Peering from the mirror
No, that isn’t me
Stranger getting nearer
Who can this person be

You wouldn’t know me at all today
From the fading light I fly

Rise like a phoenix
Out of the ashes
Seeking rather than vengeance
Retribution
You were warned
Once I’m transformed
Once I’m reborn
You know I will rise like a phoenix
But you’re my flame

Go about your business
Act as if you’re free
No one could have witnessed
What you did to me

’Cause you wouldn’t know me today
And you have got to see
To believe
From the fading light I fly

Rise like a phoenix
Out of the ashes
Seeking rather than vengeance
Retribution
You were warned
Once I’m transformed
Once I’m reborn

I rise up to the sky
You threw me down
But I’m gonna fly

And rise like a phoenix
Out of the ashes
Seeking rather than vengeance
Retribution
You were warned
Once I’m transformed
Once I’m reborn
You know I will rise like a phoenix
But you’re my flame