Season 2 of Interview With the Vampire is here!
Why do queer people love horror? The thrill of the genre is universal. People from all over the world, of all genders and sexualities and races, love to watch horror films. But there’s something to the genre that specifically lures in LGBTQ+ folks.
There is a rush in getting scared, in wrapping one’s head around the unimaginable, and looking fear in the eye behind the safety of a screen. It’s escapism and emotional waterboarding combined, a mirror reflecting the darkest desires of humanity — and ourselves. And it’s fun. Why else would the Babadook be a gay icon?
Vampires are queerer than most monsters. They seduce us, quite literally, for our blood, and don’t typically discriminate on gender. Look at Dracula, the Queen of the Damned, Edward Cullen, What We Do in the Shadows, or even the outlandishly homoerotic Interview With the Vampire film starring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt. Heterosexual? Uh, sure. But there’s just something so queer about them.
Eurovision 2024 was full of drama, queer icons & naked guys
The motto for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö, Sweden was “United by Music” but after a week of drama and scandals “We have a situation” might have been the better pick. Let’s give it a quick rundown. First things first tho: Congrats to Eurovision’s first non-binary winner, Swiss contestant Nemo 💜
Nemo (Switzerland)
To say that Eurovision week started bumpy would be an understatement. Tensions were already beyond high after the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the organiser of the contest, decided to let Israel compete despite an appeal from other artists to have them sit out this year in light of the war going on in the Middle East.
Bambie Thug (Ireland)
Israel’s delegation didn’t help matters by allegedly harassing and antagonising artists from Spain, Portugal. Ireland and the Netherlands. Ireland’s contestant Bambie Thug shared on Instagram that they filed a complaint with EBU about Israel’s broadcaster openly asking fans to harass them. But despite EBU agreeing that this is a rule velation no further action was taken.
Joost Klein (Netherlands)
Turns out this drama would pale in comparison to what was still to come. Dutch contestant Joost Klein, one of this year’s favourites to win the contest, was disqualified Friday over what to seems to be a whole lot of nothing.
According to an official statement by the Dutch broadcaster AVROTROS a Eurovision camerawoman filmed Joost after his performance in the semi-finals on his way to his greenroom despite an agreement between him and EBU that he would not be filmed at that time.
After indicating several times that he does not want to be filmed right now and the camerawoman ignoring his requests he allegedly made a threatening gesture towards her which EBU decided was reason enough to disqualify the Netherlands from the contest, shattering Joost’s childhood dream of performing at Eurovision. His song was a tribute to his dead parents.
Despite one of the favourites being out of the contest, the finals were stacked with quality acts making it one of the best lineups Eurovision has seen in years. A bittersweet fact in the face of the music being overshadowed by the scandals.
One of the saving graces this Saturday night was how queer the contest was once more. Non-binary winner Nemo stunned the audience with tbeir amazing voice and the fact that they can do all that on a stage while performing live. Definitely check out their entry below!
A highlight of the evening was another non-binary icon, Irish entry Bambie Thug who, sorry, I don’t know how else to put it, fucking ATE on stage. What an incredible performance from an absolute sweetheart who seemed almost as happy as Nemo themselves over their win and didn’t hesitate to take off their crown to place it on Nemo’s head.
Croatia was the bookies’ favourite by a looong shot to take home the crown after Joost’s disqualification and you can easily see why in their performance below. Banger of a song, amazing costumes, fantastic staging and so much energy. They might have ended up “only” coming in second but still, this is how you do Eurovision.
Curious about the naked guys I mentioned in the headline? Check out Spain’s and Finland’s performances ;) Sweden is worth a look too if you’re into cute twinks. Personally I think Ireland would have been an amazing winner but I’m quite happy with the top 2 as they turned out as well.
My biggest disappointment was how badly Norway’s amazing song was received by both juries and the public. The UK’s Olly Alexander, another queer contestant, also didn’t deserve to get 0 points from the public but at least we can rest assured that he doesn’t have to rely on the ESC for his career to bloom.
ESC 2024 results
Last but not least a big shoutout to Australia for having a jury with great taste, it’s still a mystery to me how the Aussies didn’t make it to the finals. That’s about it for now. See you all next year in Switzerland, the drama is already cooking! ;)
Matthew Sato
Matthew Sato in High School Musical 4
Fag
Seventeen-year-old Thomas is attracted to Esteban, a fellow student. After a drunken kiss at a party, the rumour about Thomas’ homosexuality quickly spreads around school, and he soon faces judgement and discrimination…
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