EurovisionThe Scoop🇦🇺 Australia

Sheldon Riley wins inaugural “You’re A Vision” Award

Australia’s Sheldon Riley has won the inaugural “You’re A Vision Award” for his participation in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022. Formerly known as the Barbara Dex Award, the fan award formerly known for recognising the worst-dressed artist of the contest, has undergone a revamp. Instead, it seeks to commend the artist with the most striking and memorable outfit.

An end of the Barbara Dex era

Since 1997, the Barbara Dex fan award has recognised the contest’s worst dressed participant. The award received its name from 1993 Belgian participant, Barbara Dex. Take a look at Barbara’s performance in 1993 as well as a short interview with Barbara about the award below.

The Barbara Dex Award was designed to be a humourous and affectionate award. Nonetheless, it has received criticism due to the negative connotations that it carries. After all, taste is subjective. Eurovision should always be a place where one can be one’s true self and cherish their time to shine.

In fact, some of the previous Barbara Dex award winners have marked the most memorable moments of the contest. A couple of names include Ukraine’s very own Verka Serduchka, who won the award in 2007, singing “Dancing Lasha Tumbai”. Rona Nishliu from Albania, who sang “Suus” in 2012, also won that year. Both of these songs finished in the top 5.

Rona Nishliu – Image Source: EBU / Eurovision.tv

“You’re A Vision” – a new and revamped award

In April 2022, Belgian Eurovision site songfestival.be announced that the award would be renamed as the “You’re a Vision Award“. Its aims are to promote the positivity, creativity and diversity of the contest. Instead of recognising the worst-dressed outfit, it instead commends the artist with the most striking outfit.

Last week, songfestival.be reported that Australia’s Sheldon Riley won the inaugural award. His striking white, starry and feathery gown weighed a remarkable 40 kilograms. His outstanding fashion statement and visually stunning performance on the Turin stage clearly won Eurovision fans over. Revisit his memorable performance below.

The results

According to songfestival.be, Sheldon won by a steady margin, with Spain’s Chanel and Norway’s Subwoolfer taking out 2nd and 3rd place respectively. San Marino’s Achille Lauro narrowly missed out on a place on the podium, scoring 4th place.

The change in direction of this award is arguably a breath of fresh air in the Eurovision fandom, and will arguably continue to celebrate dashing fashion choices and support the creativity and diversity of our artists and their teams.

What do you think of the new award? Were you happy with the winner? Let us know! Be sure to stay updated by following @ESCXTRA on Twitter@escxtra on Instagram and liking our Facebook page for the latest updates! Also, be sure to follow us on Spotify for the latest music from your favourite Eurovision acts, as well as YouTube to see our reactions to the news in the run up to the 2022 contest in Turin!

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