Conchita Wurst Is a Total Show Stopper at the Golden Globes

Conchita Wurst at the Golden Globes. Photo: Getty Images

When Conchita Wurst hit the red carpet a moment ago in a belted green velvet gown with exposed lingerie, there was a moment of pause among our editors. After all, she is not your average-looking starlet. However our market editor, a born and bred Brit, knew right away. “She won the Eurovision Song Contest!,” she yelled from across the room.

Last May, Conchita (born Tom Neuwirth) captivated all of the EU when she belted out the James Bond theme song, “Rise Like a Phoenix,” amid a stage exploding with glitter and took home top prize at the European music contest. (The drag star represented Austria.) Since then she has become a bit of a fashion obsession. She has already been photographed in her lingerie by Karl Lagerfeld for CR Fashion Book, and also walked in Jean Paul Gaultier’s autumn/winter couture show.

In CR, she talked about identity and the challenges faced when embracing drag versus becoming transgendered. “[Being transgender] is very serious business; it’s a life within itself, so you mustn’t confuse the two. I always get the question, why the beard? And I think the beard, for me, has so many reasons and so many meanings, but at the end of the day, I want to show that you can achieve anything, that you can have a beautiful life with any kind of look, because the way you look isn’t the most important thing in life. It doesn’t matter.”

We’re happy to see Conchita hit Hollywood. We can only imagine this means we’ll be seeing a lot more of her very soon!