Ireland’s self-described “queer witch” Eurovision contestant declared that the “queers are coming” after the victory of fellow “non-binary” performer Nemo from Switzerland.
In a tearful press conference following the Grand Finale of the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö, Sweden, Bambie Thug (real name Bambie Ray Robinson) declared a victory for the LGBTQIAP2S+- community, as Swiss “non-binary” rapper Nemo was crowned the winner of the contest on Saturday.
Thug, who claims to be “non-binary” and goes by “they/them” pronouns, said: “I’m so proud for Nemo for winning… I’m so proud that all of us are in the top 10 that have been fighting for this shit behind the scenes because it has been so hard and so horrible for us. I’m so proud of us.
“The world has spoken. The queers are coming. Non-binaries for the fucking win!”
The 31-year-old singer has been publicly at odds with the organisers of the Eurovision contest, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) over the involvement of Israel in this year’s competition and has logged a complaint with the EBU in the hopes of having Israel banned from next year’s Eurovision.
“We are what the Eurovision is. The EBU is not what the Eurovision is. Fuck the EBU. I don’t even care anymore. Fuck them. The thing that makes this is the contestants, the community behind it, the love and the power and the support of all of us is what is making change.”
Bambie Thug has accused Israeli broadcaster Kan of violating the rules of the contest and having “incited violence” against her after a commentator on the broadcaster warned viewers on Tuesday that Bambie Thug’s performance would be “the most scary” of the evening, and involve “a lot of spells and black magic and dark clothing, Satanic symbols, and voodoo dolls”.
The Kan commentator went on to say, according to the Daily Mail, that Bambie liked to “speak negatively about Israel… But we can talk about that later. Prepare your curses.”
“The broadcaster [Kan] has disobeyed the rules and I hope next year they won’t be able to compete because of that,” Bambie Thug said on Saturday evening.
“We brought it [rule break] up to the EBU. They said they would follow up,” the Irish singer continued per RTE. “They waited to the last minute, we still haven’t gotten a statement back to us, [they] allowed us to be scapegoats, allowed us to be the spokesperson for standing up for ourselves.”
Despite criticism from Bambie Thug and large-scale protests in the multicultural host city of Malmö against Israel’s participation in the pop competition, 20-year-old Jewish performer Eden Golan secured the second most votes from the public, only trailing behind Croatian singer-songwriter Baby Lasagna. Golan, who was booed multiple times during her performances, came in fifth place in the competition, besting Bambie Thug, who came in sixth place.
