Austrian drag queen Conchita Wurst has been crowned winner of this year's Eurovision Song Contest.
The singer, dubbed 'the bearded lady', was awarded a staggering 290 points for her performance of Rise Like a Phoenix in Copenhagen tonight.
Sporting a full beard and gold embellished fishtail gown, she took to the stage in front of a smokey backdrop, before giving a powerful performance of the song.
When the results of the votes started coming in from across the continent, it soon became clear that this was, as the odds had predicted, a fight between Conchita Wurst, Sweden's Sanna Nielsen and The Netherlands' The Common Linnets.
As the voting came to a close, Conchita was in tears, mouthing 'thank you, thank you' to the camera as she raced ahead of the other entries and ended up with 290 points.
The Netherlands, in second place, finished with 238 points and Sweden won third with 218 points.
Praise for Conchita's win took over Twitter, with many highlighting the significance of the Eurovision winner being genderneutral and representing the LGBTQ community in the wake of Russia's recent homophobic laws and persecutions.
Winner Conchita identifies as gender neutral but prefers to use female pronouns where this is needed.
Prior to her performance, Wurst had faced a barrage of homophobic and transphobic attacks from within her own country and from other countries including Russia, Armenia and Belarus, who branded the contest a 'hotbed of sodomy', the BBC reported.
'I can only say thank you for your attention. If this is only about me and my person, I can live with it', Wurst previously said about her critics in emails.
'You know, I have a very thick skin. It's just strange that a little facial hair causes that much excitement.'
As she took the stage for a second time tonight - after being crowned winner - the transgender singer had tears in her eyes as she said: 'Thank you, thank you so much.'
This year's Song Contest was hosted by last year's winners, Denmark, with Eurovision 2015 to be held in Austria's capital Vienna.
The singer, dubbed 'the bearded lady', was awarded a staggering 290 points for her performance of Rise Like a Phoenix in Copenhagen tonight.
Sporting a full beard and gold embellished fishtail gown, she took to the stage in front of a smokey backdrop, before giving a powerful performance of the song.
When the results of the votes started coming in from across the continent, it soon became clear that this was, as the odds had predicted, a fight between Conchita Wurst, Sweden's Sanna Nielsen and The Netherlands' The Common Linnets.
As the voting came to a close, Conchita was in tears, mouthing 'thank you, thank you' to the camera as she raced ahead of the other entries and ended up with 290 points.
The Netherlands, in second place, finished with 238 points and Sweden won third with 218 points.
Praise for Conchita's win took over Twitter, with many highlighting the significance of the Eurovision winner being genderneutral and representing the LGBTQ community in the wake of Russia's recent homophobic laws and persecutions.
Winner Conchita identifies as gender neutral but prefers to use female pronouns where this is needed.
Prior to her performance, Wurst had faced a barrage of homophobic and transphobic attacks from within her own country and from other countries including Russia, Armenia and Belarus, who branded the contest a 'hotbed of sodomy', the BBC reported.
'I can only say thank you for your attention. If this is only about me and my person, I can live with it', Wurst previously said about her critics in emails.
'You know, I have a very thick skin. It's just strange that a little facial hair causes that much excitement.'
As she took the stage for a second time tonight - after being crowned winner - the transgender singer had tears in her eyes as she said: 'Thank you, thank you so much.'
This year's Song Contest was hosted by last year's winners, Denmark, with Eurovision 2015 to be held in Austria's capital Vienna.
Source : DailyMail , BBC
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