LIST: Trick or treat! 9 Halloween costume ideas from Eurovision

It’s October 31 and that means tonight is Halloween, the time when ghosts and ghouls emerge… and people get out their craziest costumes. If you haven’t sorted out your costume for tonight, never fear. The Eurovision Song Contest is full of inspiration. Here are nine Halloween costume ideas from recent Eurovision acts.

1. Sennek – “A Matter of Time” (Belgium, 2018)

Sennek knows subtle gothic. Long dramatic hair, black eyeliner, a pale face, and a costume that alludes to bondage straps. It’s a way of keeping elegant but still fitting in with the ghoulish goings on of Halloween. Those wishing to take it to another level can replicate the ashen grey Corpse Bride make-up Sennek experimented with in the first rehearsal.

2. Dihaj – “Skeletons” (Azerbaijan, 2017)

This performance offers two costume ideas. There’s Dihaj, looking cool with her slicked-back hair, grey silk trench coat and edgy black lipstick. But there’s also the manhorse. His costume is simple but effective: just get a black suit, order a horse head from Amazon and you’re good to go.

3. Slavko – “Space” (Montenegro, 2017)

The Slavko costume is easy to put together. Just get a mesh top, a blue duvet cover, and a pair of jeans covered in glitter. But you’ll need to accessorise with the hair. Go along to your local party store and buy up all the hippy wigs. Plait them together into one mega braid and affix with super glue. Bonus feature: if the Halloween party gets boring, you can use the braid like a helicopter and make a quick exit.

4. Alekseev – “Forever” (Belarus, 2018)

At first glance, it looks like the costume of a romantic hero. A billowy white shirt worn with black trousers, just right to set up a modern Mr Darcy. But do a 180 and everything changes. The back of the shirt is ripped open, exposing a dozen red roses embedded in the back of said hero. It’s gruesome and weird and just perfect for Halloween!

5. JOWST – “Grab the Moment” (Norway, 2017)

Do you want to wear a cool Halloween costume but you’re a bit shy? The answer can be found with JOWST’s “Grab the Moment” stage gear. Grab yourself a black hoodie and make a light-up mask using last year’s Christmas lights. Even more effective if you have a black desk to lurk behind. Can be turned into a duo costume if you have a friend with a hat.

6. Electro Velvet – “Still in Love with You” (United Kingdom, 2015)

Picture this: you and your bae turn up to a Halloween party in matching costumes, serving 2015-meets-1925 electro-swing realness. That cool, but when the lights turn out, the party really starts. Your costumes will light up, with bold neon strips. You can’t do anything while the lighting is on, and both costumes come with bulky battery packs, but it will look totally amazing.

7. Julia Samoylova – “I Won’t Break” (Russia, 2018)

Sometimes you’ve just got to think big. Julia Samoylova turned up on stage in 2018 dressed as a giant mountain. It was a talking point of the performance and would make a captivating Halloween costume. You’d need a couple of friends on hand to push you in and pass drinks and snacks up to you, but just think — you’d be a mountain! Better get started on the papier-mâché!

8. Jacques Houdek – “My Friend” (Croatia, 2017)

Half-and-half costumes have long been a staple of the best Halloween parties, but here Jacques Houdek shows us how to do it with style. The key is in his jacket. The left side is an elegant dinner jacket, symbolising the refined opera vocals. The right side is an on-trend moto jacket, letting Jacques express his pop vocals and being a little rebellious with his genre mash-up. Just a word of caution: please ask permission before you go cutting up a biker’s leather jacket to recreate this costume.

9. Melovin – “Under the Ladder” (Ukraine, 2018)

There’s a reason they called Melovin the Porcelain Vampire — his name even deliberately rhymes with Halloween. From the opening bars of “Under the Ladder”, he delivered high gothic drama. His costume can easily be duplicated at home: just take a stylish black jacket, add one novelty contact lens and accessorise with a grand piano that converts into a coffin. Everyone has one of those lying around at home, right?

What do you think? What Eurovision act would you dress up as? Tell us what you think below — and have a ghoulishly great Halloween!

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