Calling all my high camp, pop-loving, theater kid energy gays! Eurovision 2023 — the longest-running original song competition in the world — kicks off today with part one of the semi-finals, and two of the contestants competing for international pop song glory are openly bisexual women!

The first is past champion Loreen, who is representing Sweden again after winning Eurovision in 2012. Loreen won 11 years ago with her song “Euphoria” and received what was, at the time, the second-highest number of points ever. While she wasn’t publicly out as queer at the time, she came out on Swedish television in 2017. This year, she’s competing with her new song “Tattoo,” which you can check out below:

Heading into Eurovision 2023, Loreen is already strongly favored to win. If she does, she’ll become only the second person to ever win Eurovision twice (Ireland’s Johnny Logan won in 1980 and 1987), and she’ll be the first woman to ever do so. Speaking to the Gay Times, Loreen touched on the LGBTQ community’s support of her first winning song “Euphoria” and on the creative freedom of the competition. “This was the community that accepted me for who I am,” she said in the interview.

Also competing this year is openly bisexual artist Alessandra, who will be representing Norway. The Norwegian-Italian singer most recently competed in the seventh season of Norway’s version of The Voice in 2022. She will be singing her song “Queen of Kings.” Check it out:

Another bop! When talking about the meaning behind her song with Eurovision-specific news site Eurovision Fun, Alessandra touched on her queerness, saying:

“This song shows the power of women, but also the power of all people, about how important it is to feel yourself. I am bisexual and when I lived in Italy I had to hide who I was because some of my friends and relatives would not approve it. So I think it’s important to accept who we are, without caring about the opinion of others, as well as to accept that there are also bad moments in life from which we become stronger!”

Other gay contestants this year include Serbia’s Luke Black and Belgium’s Gustaph. Luke Black will compete in today’s Semi-Final 1 alongside Loreen and Alessandra, while Gustaph will compete in Semi-Final 2 later this week.

The Eurovision Song Contest features artists representing countries by singing original songs for the globally televised event.  Eurovision 2023 is the 67th iteration of the global singing competition, which is being hosted in Liverpool, and 37 countries are competing. Points are determined by viewer voting, and for the first time ever, viewers located in non-participating countries are able to vote, which means U.S. viewers can cast votes this year. The hosts of Eurovision 2023 are Julia Sanina, Graham Norton, Alesha Dixon, and my Ted Lasso wife Hannah Waddingham.

Semi-Final 2 will air on May 11, and the final goes down on May 13. All three segments of Eurovision 2023 will be streaming on Peacock at 3 p.m. Eastern/noon Pacific on the respective days, starting today with Semi-Final 1, when you can catch bicons Alessandra and Loreen sing for glory.

Who are you rooting for this year?

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