The Pride flags were out in force on Tuesday night during Russia’s performance at the first Eurovision semi-final
The Pride flags were out in force on Tuesday night during Russia’s performance at the Eurovision semi-final.
At last year’s Eurovision final, Russian act the Tolmachevy Sisters received a less than enthusiastic reception. This year however, the audience appeared to be generally enthusiastic during Polina Gagarina’s performance of “A Million Voices”.
Rob Watts, who was at the semi-final co-hosted by Conchita Wurst in Vienna, told BuzzFeed that he noticed many more pride flags in the audience during Russia’s song than in any other performance. “We were all told to be nice to all the countries ‘no matter who is in charge.’ We were asked not to boo anyone.”
His friend Laura Cress said “there seemed to be much less resistance [and] apart from the extra flags everyone around us actually really liked the Russian entry.”
Gagarina is likely a shoe-in to win but with Australia performing and voting for the first time anything could happen especially as Moldova’s ridiculous but brilliant entry “I Want Your Love” (right) and the Netherlands' old-school entry didn’t even qualify for the finals.
Watch “A Million Voices”, “I Want Your Love” and the Netherlands' entry, AFTER THE JUMP…
The second semi-final takes place tonight followed by the grand final on Saturday.
