Call the fashion police: Voting is now open for the annual Barbara Dex Award, bestowed each year upon the act with the most unfortunate outfit on the Eurovision Song Contest stage. As every year, 2015 has provided us with plenty of fashion faux pas — but who will emerge victorious?
Those of y’all not in the know: The award is named after Barbara Dex, who represented Belgium in the 1993 contest. She seems to have aimed to be at the top of the worst dressed list even from the postcard!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WShutEpxu5Y
Past winners include Lithuania’s Vilija Mataciunaite in 2014, Albania’s Rona Nishliu in 2012, Ukraine’s Verka Serduchka in 2007 and Germany’s Guildo Horn in 1998.
Team Wiwi’s Barbara Dex Choices
The Netherlands
This year, one of the most discussed acts is Trijntje Oosterhuis from the Netherlands. Even after deciding against the now infamous “slutty widow” dress (which she passed on to Edsilia for the voting), the outfit Trijntje eventually came up with was perhaps an even more unfortunate choice. The black and very unflattering jumpsuit was compared with a trash bag by the Dutch media – seriously, y’all, this one was bad…
Moldova
Eduard Romanyuta took a cue from last year’s Polish act and tried to out-sleaze the milkmaids. The execution, however, was much more tacky. The policemen looked more like extras from an Amsterdam gay bar (circa 1998), the policewoman looked like a cheap stripper and we never warmed up to Eduard’s 90s ‘do. Moreover, the overall look of the act contrasted with the harmless love message of the song. This was some hot mess on scaffolding, y’all.
United Kingdom
Let’s forget for a moment about the train crash that was “Still In Love With You”. The outfits Electro Velvet wore were even more cringe-worthy than the song. It all seemed to be going okay and we kinda felt the Great Gatsby vibe…until the lights went off and the utterly atrocious neons turned on. While the idea looked acceptable in the video, in the blue hue of the Eurovision stage it looked like a cheap trick. Worst of all, they didn’t even work all the time, particularly failing in the jury final. It wasn’t electro-cute.
Romania
Although they dumped the white, bartender uniforms they initially showed up in at rehearsals, Voltaj’s second choice, the all-black outfits, weren’t much better. Besides making the Romanian staging look like a funeral on a railway platform, the lead singer’s cheap-looking brooch distracted the viewers from the serious message of the song. Too bad, because otherwise the performance was flawless.
Albania
Elhaida Dani looked AMAZE at the semi-final. Her hair was sleek and her outfit felt very sophisticated, yet right for Eurovision. Unfortunately, for the Grand Final her delegation inexplicably chose to fix one of the things that was not broken by squeezing Elhaida in to a hugely unflattering gown, particularly from the waist down. Her hair looked half-done and viewers surely didn’t know what to make of it all.
Our worst dressed list doesn’t stop here. Vaidas’s baby blue suit, Daniel Kajmakoski’s raincoat and trash-bad tie, Marjetka and Raay’s pointless headphones, Nina’s dead bird feathers, Aminata’s explosion under the knees and Maria Olaf’s painted feet…well, we could go on, but our eyes would start to hurt. Did we miss anything? Who do you think should win the Barbara Dex Award this year and why? Sound off below or on our Twitter!
And don’t forget to vote here! The winner will be announced on Sunday, the 7th of June, so y’all have plenty of time to decide.
Photos: Andres Putting, Thomas Hanses, Elena Volotova (EBU)
For me:
Serbia
Moldova
Netherlands
UK
Israel
Romania
Portuguese Leonore, Serbian Bojana but my winner would be Nina from Georgia, who looked as a raven to me 🙂
Equipo wiwi para cuando el next top model femenino se ve que este año hay competencia.Yo ya tengo mi ganadora and the whiner is la señora que dio los votos de AUSTRALIA.Miedito me da
Para mi Georgia era un cuadro,parecia la prima harmana de Lordi y mira que la chica es guapa pero Nina como se te ocurre presentarte como si fueras la concuvina DRACULA y ese numerito del humo casi me ahogo,lo pase fatal GLAMUR 0 points
My vote is for Israel, even though I know the Netherlands have won it. How is no one mentioning Israel, with that hideous golden footwear?
Greece and Hungary were impeccable.
Worst dressed on stage goes to the Netherlands.
Worst dress spokesperson goes to Australia. That woman was scary!
Hard to pick? As much shade was cast on Trinjhe from The Netherlands… And yalll have a hard time picking!?
The USA give 12 Point to the NETHERLANDS! Now, die b*tch! jk She’s lovely and I will check out her album.
Netherlands: A def win!
Moldova: If it’s just the police suit, then yes, it was horrible
UK: No, it matched the theme of the song!
Romania: No, it’s just very plain
Albania: Just the semi,nit the finals
I hate to say it, but I must go with Trijntje for her Missy Elliott flashback outfit.
I thought Electro Velvet looked rather dashing. Definitely the Netherlands in my opinion, but also Iceland and Israel…His feet looked like they were growing fungus.
Trijntje’s dress! Hands down the worst most unflattering ESC wear this year!
Serbia for sure.
They had to know grey doesn’t reduce, unless you’re standing in front of a marine ship!
The Baraba Dex Award is so stupid… It’s Eurovision SONG contest NOT Eurovision FASHION contest!
Daniel (FYROM), Maria (Greece), Aminata (Latvia), Nina (Georgia), Eduard (Moldova), Trijntje (The Netherlands), Maria (Iceland), Leonor (Portugal).
Australian’s spokerperson
Iceland and Trinitia
@marinek She was totally stunning!! She deserved a higher place!! The designer of the dress was Dimitris Petrou.;)
@2015
Because Leonor is actually young and it suits her, while Trijntje looks so inappropriate for her age (same goes for her song ….. A 50 year old woman singing a Carly Ray Jepsen reject would only go viral on youtube and for all the wrong reasons) !
Albania and Romania? They were ok. Portugal is the winner. I’m surprised that eveybody forgot about them. Eventually the Netherlands, Georgia.
Para mi la persona que se equiboco con su atuendo en ESC 2016.Fue la señora que dio los votos de AUSTRALIA
Easy….Trisha of Holland…
Hands down…
LOL, The Netherlands, Moldova, Romania and Albania weren’t so bad…
Definitly United Kingdom had the worst clothes this year. The Dress of Trijntje and the Dress of Leonor both looked the same, so why isn’t she on this list Wiwi?
Romania was nothing special, Moldova’s clothes matched the song atleast. Whats wrong with the hair of the girl from Albania… All those gays have to care about the clothes, hair and fashion… United Kingdom was just a circus act costume, so was Serbia… and what about Finland? why are they not here…. because they’re not mentally OK.
I think Elhaida for sure
Trijntje, definitely.
one article and 23 comments and no mention of genealogy’s absurd ugly cult-esque monk uniforms? they were by far the worst
Some of these are not bad, specially Elhaida, I think she looked great in both outfits. Same for Voltaj, putting that brooch aside, the rest of the outfit was good, I think.
I think the problem here is just as Otna said, there weren’t many disastrous or very obvious ones this year, I think the only ones worth mentioning are The Netherlands and Moldova… and I would add Latvia, I loved Aminata but that dress and that hairdo werent very flattering for her.
Are you joking with Albania? She shouldn’t be on there! Now Greece, on the other hand…
I voted for Georgia.
Netherlands. End of.
ummm are you forgetting SERBIA??
i thought Elhaida looked amazing in the final especially her hair!
Is there also something like a “best dress award”? Who would be your favourites?
I didn’t even know this award existed :P. Not so proud to be Belgian when watching that video of Barbara Dex. Anyway, Trijntje’s uhm… dress was really ugly. Both the slutty widow as the bag one. I think she should “win” the award.
MY WORST OUTFIT=NETHERLANDS
MY BEST OUTFIT=GREECE.WHO IS THE DESIGNER?
Are you for real? Elhaida’s dress on the final was stunning.
Trijntje or bojana for me
I voted for Trinjte aha
UK hands down. And Trijntje. Elhaida’s outfit for The Final was much better than the one in the semi, imo
Most of the entrants wore black and white outfit anyway so only few of those mentioned qualified in this awarding. I would change Voltaj or Elhaida with Bojana if I were to choose.
Netherlands for sure. She should have worn that titacious dress instead (yes I just made up that word lol). Would’ve gave us something to look at other than the beads of sweat on her upper lip, in her rather static performance.
My vote went to Slovenia for the bad wedding dress with the headphones…
and i just have to say that once more this is the most ridiculous prize on ESC ever, i can understand a prize for worse vocals or even worst song but worst dressed? please, people should get a life.
i think you’re just choosing bad clothing for the sake of choosing because let’s be honest, Romania? Albania? Vaidas’ blue suit? Nina’s feathers? Marjetka and Raaya’s headphones? Aminata’s explosion under the knees? which i didn’t notice at all, by the way. you must be kidding, right?
anyway, i think Moldova should win this, those police uniforms were just plain ridiculous, Trjntje’s black jump suit may not have been the best choice out there but it wasn’t that bad, if you ask me.
There’s been so much fuss with Trijntje’s outfits (which were not that bad TBH) that I’m almost sure she will get it.
Anyway, I voted for the vulgar and tacky outfit (+ the ridiculous crown thingy) of Nina Sublatti.
Netherlands without a doubt
I lurve the Barbra Dex award and this year it’s almost impossible to pick a winner. Trintje’s trashbag confection is pretty much the only true crash and burn costuming mistake but even that isn’t completely hilariously dreadful as have been past winners. It’s quite the tricky issue this year!
I didn’t really think any of the dresses were bad enough to merit Barbara Dex Award this year… and even then, the award is pointless. Most of the acts that win have dresses that serve an actually useful purpose, like Lithuania 2014, or Albania 2012, or Georgia 2011. (Only Serbia 2013 was tacky beyond repair.) And Marjetka absolutely doesn’t deserve this award, please… just because you wouldn’t wear the headphones doesn’t mean that the style isn’t cool.
Haha who said Eurovision was all about positive vibes. I have to go with NL, they really struggled with the outfits this year
There is no one particularly outrageous this year – last year Vilija’s glamorous tutu was the obvious choice… I loved the slutty cops from Moldova, so I think it probably comes between Electro Velvet and Trijntje for me…
Also, Elhaida looked amazing in both outfits and I loved her hair in the final.