The Eurovision Song Contest

++ Original May 2009, revised May 2014

The Eurovision Song Contest has a a good track record of including both transsexuals and drag composers and performers:



Wally Stott, the future Angela Morley, in 1962 and 1963 arranged and conducted the UK entries for the Eurovision Song Contest, ‘Ring-A-Ding Girl’ and ‘Say Wonderful Things’, both sung by Ronnie Carroll.

Cris Owen came second in the competition to represent Finland in 1989, and  wrote the Finnish Eurovision entries in 1992 and 1993.





Sharon Cohen, under her stage name of Dana International, came second in the Israeli selection contest in 1995; in 1998 she won with her song Diva, despite not getting the full support of her country. Orthodox Rabbis and the Shas Party tried to have her selection cancelled.  In 1999 she sang during the interval and presented the awards. In 2011 she represented Israel again, and reached the semi-finals.

In 2000, Gloria Gray performed at the German national final for Eurovision.








In 2002, the Slovenian drag trio Sestra came 13th.







In 2004, the Swedish drag act, After Dark, competed to be the Swedish entry with the song “La dolce vita” but came only third. They tried again in 2007 with “(Åh) när ni tar saken i egna händer” (which has masturbation suggestions), and they came fifth in the Swedish competition.




In 2007, the Danish entry was by the drag persona DQ of Peter Anderson. The song came 19th in the semi-finals.





Also in 2007, the Ukrainian entry by Verka Serduchka, the drag persona of Andriy Danylko, singing “Dancing Lasha Tumbai” came second. Verka Serduchka came second. A nationwide radio station and some members of Parliament objected to Verka’s selection which they saw as “grotesque and vulgar”. “Lasho Tumbai” is a somewhat made-up expression that Verka says sounds like the Mongolian for ‘milkshake’, but this was denied in Mongolia. To Russians it sounded like “Russia Goodbye” which caused offense.

Conchita Wurst, bearded and in drag, the Austrian entry, won in 2014 .  Russia, Belarus and Armenia had protested and threatened to block the broadcast. 

• “A Tranny Guide to the European Song Contest”. Vicky’s Vault. www.mf2fm.com/cellar/eurovision.php

Carl-Philip Öfverström (1960 - ) musician.

Öfverström was born in Stockholm. At age 17 using the name Cris Owen, Öfverström had a breakthrough album, Here I Am, and went on to a career – largely in Finland – as songwriter, arranger, producer, and performer. Owen was the manager and producer for major Finnish artists such as Miisa and Janina Fry.

In 1989 Cris came second in in the competition to represent Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest, and wrote the Finnish Eurovision entries in 1992 and 1993.

In 2002 Owen's autobiography Valheellinen elämäni.(My Life, A Lie) created quite a stir in the Finnish media. He completed transition with surgery in Sweden in 2005. In 2008, Cris expressed some regrets such as starting transition so late in life, and it was twisted in the press that he regretted transition.

Cris' EN.WIKIPEDIA page was deleted in 2008.

• Cris Owen. Valheellinen elämäni.(My Life, A Lie) Turku: Lady Madeleine, 2002.
  
• "Lehti: Cris Owen katuu sukupuolenvaihdostaan". MTV.fi, 14.11.2008. www.mtv.fi/viihde/muut.shtml/lehti-cris-owen-katuu-sukupuolenvaihdostaan/2008/11/749471.
  
• Ilka. "Cris Owen regrets sex change". Life After Helsinki 2007, November 14, 2008. http://ilkar.blogspot.ca/2008/11/cris-owen-regrets-sex-change.html.
  
• "Cris Owen". Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. No longer available. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Cris_Owen.
  

FI.WIKIPEDIA   IMDB   EurovisionWiki   Discogs

Gloria Gray (1970–) performer.

Gloria Gray is the stage name of a trans woman born in Zwiesel, Bavaria, child of a long-distance lorry driver and a restaurateur. She is a graduate of the Deutsche Schauspielakademie in Munich, and had surgery in 1992 with the support of her parents.

She became famous in 1993 in the television comedy Halli Galli. And then appeared in variety shows and moderated dinner shows working with celebrity chefs. She worked with Cliff Richard, Marianne Sägebrecht and Amanda Lear, and played Mae West in the film Marlene, 2000. The same year she performed at the German national final for the Eurovision Song Contest.

She has won several court cases for slander regarding her past, including one against a Munich newspaper that had claimed that she is a transvestite.

In 2004 and 2005 she was a presenter and singer on Spanish television for the gay pride broadcasts, and premiered her show, Lieder im Mieder, at Munich's 2006 Christopher Street festival.

In 2007 she was featured in the Magie der Vielfalt photography exhibition.

Her autobiography, Mit allem, was ich bin, (With Everything that I Am), was released in 2009.

In 2010 she opened a cafe named after herself in Zwiesel, and in 2011 attempted to run for the Green Party in the mayoral election there, but did not get enough signatures. In 2006 she announced her intention to marry her male lover of many years in a church wedding, but the Catholic Church refused, and it has not yet happened.


*Not the abortion activist in Alabama.

• Gloria Gray: Mit allem, was ich bin: Mein Leben. Nymphenburger Verlag, 2009.
• Maria Zsolnay. "Eine Schönheit aus Schmerzen geboren". TZ, 27.03.09. www.tz-online.de/aktuelles/stars/tz-eine-schoenheit-schmerzen-geboren-113539.html?cmp=defrss.
• Peter Wolf-Dieter interviews Gloria Gray. "Gloria Gray: Schauspielerin, Autorin und Künstlerin". Alpha-Forum von BR-Alpha am 7, Dezember 2009. Abgerufen am 16. August 2010. http://www.br-online.de/br-alpha/alpha-forum/alpha-forum-gloria-gray-gespraeche-ID1259067021972.xml.
• Von Max Hägler. "Mehr Glanz und Gloria". Sueddeutsche, 09.12.2010. http://www.sueddeutsche.de/bayern/travestiestar-kandidiert-fuer-buergermeisteramt-mehr-glanz-und-gloria-1.1033943.
• "Gloria Gray". Wikipedia, Die freie Enzyklopädia. de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloria_Gray.
• "Gloria Gray". Brianna Austin Photogalleries. www.briannaaustin.com/photogalleries/divas/GloriaGray/gloria.html.
• www.gloriagray.com.

Sharon Cohen : שרון כהן ( 1972 -) singer.

Yaron Cohen was born in Tel Aviv of Yemenite origins. At 13 he had told his family that he was transsexual. At 18 he was a drag performer, and had a hit with the single ‘Saida Sultana”.

Yaron transitioned to Sharon 1993 with surgery in London. She took the name Dana International from her first album, Danna International. She has been a recording artist since her transition. She has released 8 albums and 3 compilation albums.

In 1994 she won the Israeli award for Best Female Artist of the Year.

In 1995 she was second in the competition to be the Israeli contestant in that year’s Eurovision Song Contest.

In 1998 she was the Israeli contestant in The Eurovision Song Contest, which she then won with the song ‘Diva’. This was controversial in Israel where Orthodox Rabbis and the Shas Party tried to have her selection cancelled.

The next year she sang Stevie Wonder’s song ‘Free” during the Interval of The European Song Contest, presented the awards and fell over onstage in front of an estimated audience of over 1 billion.

In 2009 Sharon campaigned in the election for the Kadima party.

In 2011she represented Israel again, and reached the semi-finals of the Eurovision Song Contest with her song “Ding Dong”.

• Dana International Fansite. www.danainternational.com. 

  EN.WIKIPEDIA   HE.WIKIPEDIA   TRANS.ILGA   IMDB

Angela Morley (1924 - 2009) saxophonist, composer, arranger.

Wally Stott was born in Leeds, Yorkshire. He started in bands at age 15 as an alto-saxophonist, and with other musicians being conscripted with the start of the war, he was in demand. He also started writing arrangements. He was principal saxophonist with the Oscar Rabin Band and the Geraldo Orchestra from 1944, where he wrote swing, symphonic and choral arrangements for it.

He studied with the Hungarian composer, Matyas Seiber, who lived in London, and took a conducting course given by the German-born Walter Goehr. He was mentored by the Canadian composer, Robert Farnon, and became a light music composer best known for Rotten Row and A Canadian in Mayfair. An early LP by Wally was London Pride, 1958.

Wally also wrote the music for the seminal comedy program, Hancock’s Half Hour, and was the musical director for The Goon Show throughout the 1950s. In 1962 and 1963 he arranged and conducted the UK entries for the Eurovision Song Contest, ‘Ring-A-Ding Girl’ and ‘Say Wonderful Things’, both sung by Ronnie Carroll. He worked with Shirley Bassey and Dusty Springfield, and arranged the first three highly regarded LPs by Scott Walker.

++Stott, by 1970 was a widower, met a female singer and they married in May that year.  The second wife was a major support as Wally became Angela Morley with surgery from Dr Burou a few weeks after the marriage.

Wally came out as Angela in 1972. Then she moved to Los Angeles. She was nominated for an Oscar for orchestrating and arranging the music for the film The Little Prince, 1974 and The Slipper and the Rose, 1976. She scored many episodes of Dallas, Dynasty, Wonder Woman and many other series. She did most of the music for Watership Down, 1978. She earned 3 Emmy Awards for arranging.

She lived in Scottsdale, Arizona, until her death at 84.

*Not the horticulturist.

EN.WIKIPEDIA    www.angelamorley.com    AllMusic.