6 Cringe Eurovision Performances That Made History

Conchita Wurst — Rise Like a Phoenix (Austria, 2014)

Imagine a stunning Bond girl in a golden fishtail gown, complete with butterfly eyelashes, long flowing hair, and a full, thick beard. That’s exactly what 180 million terrified viewers got when Austrian drag queen Conchita Wurst took the Eurovision stage. While her James Bond-style power ballad was actually pretty good, half of Europe had a full-blown meltdown over a “bearded lady,” with Russian politicians calling her a “mental illness of contemporary society.” Love it or hate it, she won the whole contest—proving that nothing confuses conservatives more than a woman in an evening gown who also needs a razor.