How gay is Eurovision
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Just How Gay Is Eurovision?
- New Study: Global homo-league table of Eurovision's most ardent
gay fans released.
- Ireland tops the gay leader-board.
LONDON, UK (OUTNOW) -- MAY 8, 2011 -- A new research study called
LGBT2020 from Out Now - the global gay and lesbian
marketing and research company - reveals for the first time the gay
impact of Eurovision in 19 diverse countries, spread right across
the world.
The most ardent gay supporters of Eurovision hail from Ireland -
where a much higher proportion of gays and lesbians than in any
other country say they always tune in to catch the Eurovision Song
Contest.
Thanks to this latest research from Out Now Global, we now know
which countries give a big gay 'douze points' to Eurovision, and
which gay communities look set to stay firmly in the 'null points'
camp - when Eurovision kicks off on 10 May 2011.
With comparative data-sets from 19 countries, the 'Out Now Global
LGBT2020 Study' gives the first researched insight as to
the support for the competitively camp Eurovision Song Contest from
amongst lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities
right around the globe.
The research shows a few upsets: LGBT people in Japan for example
are more than twice as likely to watch than LGBT people from five
times winner France!
Despite a recent run of bad form for the UK in the contest -
including a score of zero in 2003 - support remains high for the
competition with over 1 in 5 LGBT Brits saying that they will watch
this year's event.
Australia also makes a surprise non-EU entry into the Top Ten - in
at number 6, with 14% of the LGBT population Down Under rating
Eurovision as 'must-see' TV.
Top of the gay Eurovision league though is also the competition's
most prolific winner - Ireland, who have won an impressive 7 times
- with an astonishing 24% of the LGBT community saying they will
tune in next weekend to watch the event.
"There have long been inferences that gays and lesbians share an
affinity with the camp pastiche that is the Eurovision Song
Contest," says Ian Johnson, CEO of Out Now. "Now, with the release
of this LGBT2020 research we now know to what extent local
gay and lesbian communities feel an affinity with Eurovision.
Interestingly, some countries not traditionally connected to
Eurovision - such as Japan and Australia - have LGBT communities
that are ardent supporters of this event."
From humble beginnings in 1956, with just seven countries
competing, the Eurovision Song Contest has now grown into the
largest celebration of camp and kitsch on the planet! This year the
German city of Düsseldorf will be hosting the event, and the
entries from 43 countries will battle it out for the prestigious
title of Eurovision champion.
Those familiar with Eurovision know that it has been responsible
for songs that really do range from the sublime - to the
ridiculous. But of course it isn't just the music that makes this
contest so entertaining and popular with a global audience of up to
600 million people.
Tactical voting, outrageous costumes, bizarre behaviour, regional
cliques and pithy commentary have all made Eurovision a must-see
event for many LGBT communities from right across the world - and
now we know just which nations are home to the biggest gay fans of
the campest show on Earth.
A full list of the Eurovision results from the survey are listed
below.
For full reports from the LGBT2020 Study contact Out
Now info@OutNowConsulting.com
FURTHER INFORMATION:
The 'Out Now Global LGBT2020 Study' is a ten year program
of research and is the world's most comprehensive LGBT research
project.
In 2011 the study is sampling gays, lesbians, bisexuals and
transgender people in 10 languages from 25 countries on 6
continents on many aspects of their lives. From LGBT travel and
tourism patterns, lifestyle habits, consumer expenditure, incomes,
spending, harassment, discrimination, employment and entertainment
preferences - the LGBT2020 project is a groundbreaking
project from Out Now.
In 2010 almost 40,000 respondents from around the world
participated in the LGBT2020 study.
More information is available at http://www.LGBT2020.com and
http://www.OutNowConsulting.com
| Country | % of LGBT respondents who watch Eurovision |
| Argentina | 3% |
| Australia | 14% |
| Austria | 21% |
| Brazil | 3% |
| Canada | 4% |
| Chile | 1% |
| Germany | 19% |
| Ecuador | 4% |
| Eire - Ireland | 24% |
| España - Spain | 15% |
| France | 5% |
| Japan | 12% |
| Mexico | 4% |
| Netherlands | 13% |
| Peru | 5% |
| Poland | 12% |
| UK | 21% |
| USA | 2% |
| Uruguay | 5% |
Out Now is a global LGBT marketing agency that has for two decades been relied upon by the world's leading organisations to better understand the lives and concerns of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Clients include IBM, Toyota, Lufthansa, Qantas, German National Tourist Office, Barclays Bank, National Australia Bank, Lloyds TSB Banking Group and Citibank.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Ian Johnson, CEO, Out Now Global
info@outnowconsulting.com
Telephone
UK: +44-(0)20-8123 5288
US: +1-310-878 4878
Australia: +61-(0)2-8003 5253
MORE INFORMATION ON EUROVISION SONG
CONTEST:
Eurovision has launched the careers (and of course sunk a few too)
of some of the most successful pop acts of all time. The most
famous of course being ABBA, who were catapulted to fame, and
fortune, in 1974 as Sweden's entry with their song "Waterloo".
ABBA's career spanned a decade from 1972 to '82 when they sold more
than 375 million albums world-wide.
Another artist who used Eurovision as a platform for world-wide success was French Canadian singer, Céline Dion, Switzerland's winning entry in 1988 with the song "Ne partez pas sans moi".
Some more memorable acts from Eurovision past include - ("Poupée de cire, poupée de son", Luxembourg 1965), Dana ("All Kinds of Everything", Ireland 1970), Vicky Leandros ("Après toi", Luxembourg 1972), Brotherhood of Man ("Save Your Kisses for Me", United Kingdom 1976), Marie Myriam ("L'oiseau et l'enfant", France 1977), Johnny Logan (who won twice for Ireland; with "What's Another Year?" in 1980, and "Hold Me Now" in 1987), Bucks Fizz ("Making Your Mind Up", United Kingdom 1981), Nicole ("Ein Bißchen Frieden", Germany 1982), and Herreys ("Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley", Sweden 1984).
The Eurovision Song Contest also launched into the global
spotlight Israel's Dana International - one of the most famous
transexual celebrities in the world. Her winning entry 'Diva' was
performed at the 1998 competition, hosted at the Birmingham Indoor
Arena in the UK. Being the first openly transexual contestant ever
to perform in the contest she received much media attention and won
in the year that featured mass tele-voting for the very first
time.
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