An Xtra Happy Birthday; November 6th

After yesterday’s seven-birthday-bonanza, we return today with a mere four Eurostars to celebrate! However, they are quite an interesting mix; one winner, one bottom 10 result and two non-qualifiers. The Eurovision winner who celebrates her birthday today is perhaps the biggest fan favorite ever; we give you Conchita Wurst! 

Gerli Padar, 38

Gerli represented Estonia at the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest in Helsinki with the song “Partners in Crime”. She finished 22nd in the semi-final, thus not making it to the grand final. As we remember, 2007 was the year of the 28 song final, which was indeed the hardest year in which to qualify for the final. In contrast, six years prior to Gerli’s participation, her brother Tanel won the contest with “Everybody”.

Anri Jokhadze, 37

Anri represented Georgia at the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest in Baku, where he performed the song “I’m a Joker”. He finished 14th out of 18 songs in the second semi-final, meaning he did not qualify for the grand final. This was Anri’s second time on the Eurovision stage, as he was one of Diana Gurtskaya’s backing singers four years earlier. He is also the composer of the 2017 Georgian entry “Keep the Faith“.

Conchita Wurst, 1988

Conchita Wurst won the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest for Austria. On stage in Copenhagen she performed her huge, powerful ballad “Rise Like a Phoenix”. She won the second semifinal, almost 50 points ahead of the second place, thus qualifying for the final. In the grand final she went all the way to the top, beating second place with more than 50 points. Conchita was internally selected to represent Austria in 2014. Two years earlier, however, she participated in the Austrian national selection, where she finished in 2nd place with “That’s What I Am“.

Anja Nissen, 22

Anja represented Denmark at the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest in Kyiv. There she performed the song “Where I Am”. She qualified for the grand final, but there she finished in a rather disappointing 20th place.

All of us here at escXtra want to wish Conchita, Anja, Anri and Gerli the very best of birthdays!