He’s the silky grasshopper who sang about destroying his mobile phone while his man-on-the-other-line served death drop after death drop.
And while Conan Osíris may not have passed through to the grand final of Eurovision 2019, he has won a certain claim to fame (or infamy, depending on your perspective). He was won the infamous Barbara Dex Award, which honours Eurovision’s worst-dressed contestant.
The long-running prize pays homage to Belgium’s 1993 contestant, who famously made the mistake of sewing her own costume and ended up looking like a lampshade. The award is handed out by Eurovision website Songfestival.be.
Conan’s outfit was definitely out there – serving a silky grass satin look and a thicker embellished black beard cover. Looking almost like our very own livestream MyHeritree, his gown was frilly, oversized and flowy. Perched in front of a red floral backdrop, it shouted Portugese colours all over. It was more high class and couture than Barbara Dex’s handmade outfit – that’s for sure. But someone has to win the prize. And we applaud Conan was daring, or dreaming, to be different.
In shocking news, Cyprus’ Tamta was the runner up for this year’s Barbara Dex Award, a decision which leaves us scratching our heads – especially as she was wearing almost nothing at all.
The Georgian-born queen appeared in a high-fashion pleather look: her black pleather boots snaked all the way up her thighs, leading to a translucent bustier hidden beneath a black pleather jacket. Mid way through her performance, her outfit was ripped off by her dancers, showcasing even more enviable skin.
Rounding out the top five was Belarus’ Zena and her youthful hip-hop inspired look, Belgium’s Eliot and his kimono-bomber-jacket fusion, and North Macedonia (and jury winner) Tamara Todevska’s billowy satin green dress.
Eurovision’s Worst Dressed: The wiwibloggs poll
Separate to the official Barbara Dex Award, we ran a poll to see who our readers thought was was the biggest fashion disaster of the year.
We received more than 13,000 votes, with our readers also appearing to agree with Conan deserving to win the Barbara Dex Award. You placed the Portugese vocalist first in our poll of the most deserved worst-dressed winner, winning 13.97% of the votes.
Croatia’s Roko and his angel wings were a distant second, with 7.41% of the votes, while Tamta placed third with 6.91% of the votes.
[polldaddy poll=10326749]Do you think that Conan deserved to win the award? Would you have placed Tamta and Zena in the Top 3? Let us know in the comments box below.
portugese?!
: portuguese.
The NK Award is an annual fan award for the most experimental, avant garde and original outfit in the Eurovision Song Contest.
It is named after Nina Kraljic, who represented Croatia in the 2016 contest.
This year’s NK Award has been won by Roko from Croatia.
This should not be a surprise to anyone.
North Macedonia’s dress looked cheap and tacky. Total 1991 prom dress. Tamta looked like she was swaddled in plastic wrap. Conan’s was brilliant – it was made with intent and purpose. I did love the Festival de Cancao outfits, and I would have liked to see them, but I also like people who take risks.
Is there a rule Eurovision contestants only allowed to wear black or white this year?
I thought Portugal’s outfit matched the song. Anyway, it’s clear Croatia should have won Barbara Dex Awards, those wings are super tacky!
These so called fans are just blind. His outfit was hardly the worst one. But i bet it was because of the sneakers.
But the sneakers make it! The old and the new.
Voted for Tamta… She looked terrible… 🙁
What hurts me the most was the jury vote… I still can’t understand it…
I hated Croatia’s tacky wings. Even that bland and basic white outfit wasn’t able to dilute it. But despite all of that, I still think the UK should have won. Michael looked as if he didn’t even change after visiting a local supermarket. Ill fitted, cheap and don’t get me started on those sneakers!
sorry but Tamta’s dress was awfull
Conan looked like that triangular chocolate from the Quality Street Tin. It HAD to be him for the award this year.
Yes ! every male singer in eurovision should wear black t-shirt with black trousers or White suit . Female singers should wear White dress or Black gown. ;b
Well at least Portugal won something. 🙂
I actually like the outfit and I generally love Conan’s style. In my opinion the outfit was not bad, just different. I think that Barbara Dex award should rather go to someone who actually looks bad in their outfit. Conan’s outfit was weird on purpose.
wtf tamta’s outfit was the best, she was serving britney spears meets beyoncé. the gays have truly lost their taste.
Think he should have worn what he worn in Portuguese final: The mask and Freddie Kreuger claws. At least it would have been interesting to watch .
If KEiiNO HADN’T come last in the poll I would’ve lost hope in the fandom
Was it ever in doubt? Conan and his sidekick should have worn the outfits they wore at the Festival da Cançao. He quite probably would have sent Zena packing and qualified.
Same outfit, different colour.
A well deserved award! Portuguese can be happy now, they got a trophee 😀 More seriously, poor Conan. Completely misunderstood. I didn’t like his song, I didn’t want him in final but he is a great ARTist. I took pleasure to see him on stage but 3 minutes were more than enough. Conclusion: thx Portugal for those amazing artists with great universe but you can’t win every year by sending an alien. Go for more actual songs! Something entertaining. Last time you sent an up-tempo song was in 2014 with Suzy (and the song wasn’t really good… still Suzy is… Read more »
honey…where did you left your spaceship???
I don’t think that Conan was the worst dressed one, but I can see that people found his style the most jarring one. For people who don’t speak Portuguese, this might have seemed just as a man dressed in unusual green cloth singing off key. Such a shame. The positive aspect of this might be Portugal getting *something*, hence staying more relevant to general audiences.
I’ve been saying this every year. I’m gonna say it again. This “award” needs to be canceled. It’s disrespectful in so many ways, and it’s not even funny.
Agree 100%
It’s such a shame, really. In the end, it probably comes down to Telemóveis being rather inaccessible on the first listen. Too complex, too many details, and too far from familiar concepts.
I feel exactly the same, i really believe if he had made it to the final it would have been his moment to shine and i honestly think that for people who only watch the final Europe would have fallen in love with this fantastic artist. And totally unrelated to the song but i only wish people who hated the song would have atleast taken the time to listen to his interviews, the man is so charismatic , so funny and humble its impossible not to love him.
Barbara Dexter award promotes everything but tolerance. This hate award is ridiculous. I agree with many people who stated that the should award the best dressed artists rather than picking on someone for the way they look, which is bullying.
To be fair, they’re not picking on someone for their looks, but for the clothes they wore on the ESC stage. Still not a friendly concept, I agree with you. Even though I am almost 100% certain Conan does not mind winning this award, I feel so bad for how awry his Eurovision journey went. From being one of the early fan favourites to non-qualifier to… this. He did nothing wrong and he totally deserved better.
Calm down, it’s not meant to be serious. Barbara Dex herself laughs at her outfit , to this day. It’s not an actual award, just a fun thing. If you can’t laugh at yourself then Whats the point of having these awards
@Denis
Finally someone with some brain in this comment section.
Sorry but Dana Internationals Lime Green / Yellowish Opening act dress was not the most tasteful.
I feel like Jean Paul Gaultier used rest materials for that dress.. Unfortunately, cuz Dana Deserves More!!!
Why nobody’s mentioning Belgium? Eliot’s jacket was horrible.
A Little Youthful 🙂
I personally voted for Cyprus/Tamta: that outfit looked ridiculous. Somebody should have told her she was supposed to dress for Eurovision, not to become a slu tty lion tamer.
“dress for Eurovision”??? Have you seen outfits in the past? This looked stunning on camera, Conan Osiris and his dancer looked silly but they were nothing in comparison to others.
I really enjoyed Conan’s outfit because of how daring and unusual it is, and also how when combined with the performance it was representative of Portugal. Greece should defo be on the list for me, while daring, artistic and bold…successful it was not. Otherwise everyone else on the list I can agree with. Wasn’t a fan of Tamara’s dress at first because of the netting on the arms and shoulders but I’ve come to be okay with it so would would take her off along with Conon
https://youtu.be/Qk93aWUurNg
It’s wonderful! Have you heard it?
Actually the people who give this award now call it the award for the most notable outfit not the worst, saying something like everybody should be comfortable in what they wear and this outfit won for being the most notable. So whether you think its good or bad, well done to Conan for bringing something unique to himself.
Bloody boring world we live in. Let’s all wear suits and do our hair neat. applaud individually and not mock it.
Maybe awarding the best dressed or outfit reflecting the song?
Denmark and Ireland. Are you serious. They dressed to accompany the song. People who voted for Iceland were totally missing the point. I voted for Belarus. That outfit did absolutely nothing for her.
Quick Question, is there any award for best dressed for the night? Then my awards got to Netherlands, Sweden, Italy & Australia <3
Sweden? He literally wore a black shirt and black trousers… not saying he looked bad but the BEST dressed??
Laburnum Maybe She meant The Mamas.. cuz they slayed fashionwise with Lundvik
What I don’t like about Barbara Dex Award is that they pic people that actually have their own style. Maybe it’s not sticking to the normal office fashion but at least they feel their own.
Conan stated in the orange carpet that they only use clothes they can feel 100% their own. Which isn’t always easy to show the world…
I mean what if people only weared fashionable dresses or a expensive black suit? Then We wouldn’t have Verka Serduchka, Slavko or Eldrine!
Actually Denmark, Russia, Estonia or UK would have this price because their style are a bit generic…
There is another voting scandal going on, Italy has published the semi finals results and they are different from the ones published by EBU and guess what! LITHUANIA GETS MORE POINTS AND THEY WOULD QUALIFY INSTEAD OF DENMARK.
Dear Jon Ola Sand, time to go home. Now.
What is this bafoonery smh
Ha, ha, bafoonery, Conans favourite word.
WTF people
How Croatia and Finland aren’t here over Belarus North Macedonia and Cyprus amazes me. I don’t agree with Portugal first but I see why he’s there.
Both in sound and vision, a complete disaster. Deserving worst dressed winner and non-qualifier.
poor darling you´re full of hate….lol
I mean seriously?
Look at Austria first then make decisions and vote !
Cyprus and Portugal for me were the best dressed and unique artists also Belarus which was very street style and funky
The most deserved Eurovision victory this year.
I can’ understand.
I want to ask Songfestival.be ,the organizer. Is it fun to give this award?
It’s not funny, award itself has a bad taste .
Maybe a little joke in old times. Now it’s just insensitive.
It is much better to talk about clothes on the orange carpet.
You gotta be kidding.. Tamta finishes 3rd and Tulia aren’t even in top 5? God give them taste in fashion please
But didn’t Tulia wear traditional clothing? Imo people who come on stage in traditional outfits shouldn’t even be counted as candidates because then you’ll just have people just straight-up mocking an aspect of someone’s culture, which is what traditional clothing is. Part of culture.
Roko not being in the official top 5 of this top is a CRIME.
why are people so triggered and obsessed by this wings? The guy wore only white pants, shoes , white shirt and a white jacket…so the plain, boring, inoffensive combination for 2/3 of the performance…so no, he shouldn’t be in the top 5 cause some people wore much worse combinations and for the full performance…
I agree, but the wings being there is a fashion crime that deserves the top 5 alone.
This outfit/costume destroyed his chances. It distracted from the song and his vocals. And everyone told him before. The white clothing is horrible and the wings are just CRINGE
I love Conan’s outfit 🙂
I’m so sorry for Conan…the only thing I can say to comfort him are some wise words that one great guy from the final once said:
“Just be strong and look at me
Hear me when I say
Who cares that you’re out of love?
It happens every day”
Tamara and Zena in the Top 5, but those leathered jeans from Finland out? At least the winner was deserved.
What they didn’t mention here is that they’ve changed the description of the prize. They’re now saying it’s for the most “notable” outfit of the year, rather than the worst.