‘All Kinds of Everything’? Queer Visibility in Online and Offline Eurovision Fandom

Abstract

The annual televisual spectacle, the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) is an international media event that is a nexus around which questions surrounding identity surface. This paper focuses specifically on the contest's active promotion of queer visibility, that intersects through national stage performances and its international fan base. It untangles the relationship between the contest and its problematic construction as a `gay event' and how fans are increasingly using social media platforms to legitimise their fan and queer identities. Mainstream social media platforms, such as Twitter are an important site where issues surrounding queer visibility may be expressed and constructed. These ESC fan practices are contextualised in relation to literature surrounding male same-sex hook-up apps which can inform our ideas surrounding queer code/space. It also suggests that fans self-regulate who or how they `come out' as ESC fans which establishes an ESC closet because the ESC is prone to stigmatisation in some national contexts.