Iceland's First Openly Gay Eurovision Performance

MAY 15 1997 · 12:10

Paul Oscar · "Minn hinsti dans" · Iceland · 1997 Placement: 20 · Score: 18 · Language: Icelandic · Composers: Páll Óskar Hjálmtýsson · Venue: Point Depot · Host: Dublin, Ireland · Type: political statement · Broadcast: digital hd Paul Oscar — Páll Óskar Hjálmtýsson, 27, Iceland's most openly gay pop performer — takes the Dublin Point Depot stage in black leather with four female dancers in similarly sexualized PVC outfits. 'My Last Dance' is an explicit camp disco-pop number, and the staging leaves no doubt about its queer intent. 18 points for 20th place. Katrina and the Waves win for the UK with 'Love Shine a Light'. Context Paul Oscar had come out as gay publicly in Iceland years before Eurovision. RÚV's selection of his entry was considered provocative. The explicitly leather-and-PVC staging predated Conchita 2014 by 17 years and was among the most visibly queer performances in Eurovision's first 40 years. Legacy Paul Oscar's 1997 card is now cited in LGBTQ+ Eurovision scholarship as the first fully out queer Eurovision performance. He continued as Iceland's most prominent gay pop artist through the 2020s. The performance's staging choices became reference points for subsequent Eurovision queer visibility — Dana International 1998, Conchita 2014, Nemo 2024.