Whether stemming from insecurity, jealousy or mean-spiritedness, trolls have a habit of jumping on those who stand out. It’s something FiK 59 artist Mirud understands. In recent days he’s come under attack after sharing footage of rehearsals for his fan favourite entry “Nëse vdes”. Some social media users haven’t simply been offering opinion and commentary. Some have actually been on the offensive to offend.
The footage shows him wearing a black, matador-style body suit lined with gold embellishments. The tight clothing works well with his precise choreography, celebrating the human form. His six backing dancers wear tighter costumes. However, owing to prevailing gender norms commenters overlook their looks to direct all the shade to the FEST 59 star, who many will remember for his performance of “Nënë” a few years ago.
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Mirud fires back
Well, now Mirud is firing back. Writing on Instagram he dug into his detractors, pointing out that he’s living his best life while they’re hiding behind their computers throwing shade. It’s far easier to try and take others down with your keyboard than it is to stand centre stage and slay. Much of this hate, he says, has come from within his own LGBT community.
“People who degrade others often end up degrading themselves. It’s funny how nasty comments question whether I’m a man or woman because an outfit that I wore last night at Fik 59’ was not directed to a bunch of straight men…”
“These comments don’t bother me cause I’ve heard all of that sh*t before. I’m a MAN and I’m an ARTSIT and doing better than most of y’all who are sitting behind a computer all day spreading hate towards someone who’s actually trying to make positive change so that the next time y’all walk in the street, you don’t have to worry about getting killed or beaten up for being you. I put myself at risk to travel during this time and do this show for the LGBT community in Albania and it saddens me that there’s so much hate in our community itself. I put myself at risk by even wearing what I wore and I am proud for doing that.”
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“Your death threats, y’all telling me to go hang myself don’t really bother me either. So tell me how can a change be made if we already hate one another? How can we expect others to respect us when we don’t respect ourselves? I’ll always be myself whether you think I look like a woman or a man. And at the end of the day I look better than all of you little birds.”
Festivali i Këngës 59 begins on Monday 21 December with the grand final on Wednesday 23 December.
What do you think about Mirud’s response? Do you admire him for pursuing his artistic vision despite the naysayers? Are you hoping that he will dance his way to Eurovision 2021? And are you loving those plumes of smoke from his dancers? Shout out your comments below!
I’m not surprised by this at all. Albania is a conservative country. He’s really brave for doing this and I admire him. On a different note, I think his performance is messy.
He is so right it hurts from an all understanding point of view. Being part of the LGBTQIA+ community myself and surrounding myself with others from the same communities as the people I mainly interact with, we always feel this frustration at our other fellow LGBTQIA+ folks who try to undermine what we experience by trying to “conform” to societal standards and insulting other queer folk as a way to be “accepted” by the cis heteronormative people in the world. Thinking that if we hide ourselves we’ll be more accepted. The way Mirud strikes back at it couldn’t be explained… Read more »
At this time, sending death threats because of your choice of clothing is just too far and way beyond the line ESPECIALLY assuming somebody whether he or she is a Man or a Woman.
The festival has already happened on 16-17-18 and will be aired next week. However the entire process, including the results, has already taken place.
You mean, the entire process, including the results, will take place live, right?
No, everything has been taped already, it’s just going to be aired a week later so it’s closer to Christmas. But everything was taped during the past three days.
So, there’s already a winner, or what?
The news said that the entire show will be taped this week and aired next week, so unless they are coming back next week just to reveal the winner live, chances are they already taped the results portion also and there is already a winner.
As far as I know, the semi finals have already been recorded. Not sure about the final, but the results will definitely be given live. Otherwise, it wouldn’t really make since.
So they’ll go back to freezing conditions in a midnight just to reveal who won? I don’t think so, I think they are hiding who won from us.
Did he stop working out?
So what if he did? He’s still looking hot.
He said it so right, it’s always the jealous sad lonely ones who mock you when you are living your best life, they want what you got but confined in their small narrow minded boxes.
I mean, the suit is horrendous but he has all the rights to wear it. Btw I’m not going to bother commenting on why he wears that matador-style suit (called “traje de luces” in Spanish). I can’t stand bullfighting and I find this both ridiculous and distasteful.
The song per se is my 2nd fav though. I would just change the moves and the clothing.
I don’t see this being chosen by the jury tbh.
I have to wonder at this point if the homophobia is prevalent enough to block his victory if the jurors share the mindset of these trolls?
The outfit isn’t great but we’ve seen much worse in ESC and at national finals.
He’s right. Happy people don’t try to bring others down. Frustrated people do. The song sounds great, btw.
Asking someone to kill themselves because of their choice of clothes? 2020, ladies and gentlemen. We’ve come so far.
A costume is an artistic choice and people are allowed to criticize it. I mean, awards like Barbara Dex exist for that reason alone. However, what people are NOT allowed to do is questioning his gender or him as a person for wearing those clothes. And whoever is sending threats should be billed for hate speech. Personally, I don’t either strongly like or strongly dislike this particular costume in this context. I really like Mirud as an artist and his song, so I wish him best of luck in the semi.
Have everyone heard that Albania is only having studioversions and NOT live in semi and final? Very horrible choice.
they are live but singing with the studio version instead of the version with an live orchestra because of COVID19
oh sorry, wrong info on a page then
Have you heard about COVID-19 Linus ?
yeah i do:)
I’m sorry, but your costume looks awful and cringe, myb even ridiculous.
But yea, those who send such messages are idiots.
I like the song, but the staging is so jury unfriendly like Elvana’s staging was. :/ But I don’t fully hate it. Respect to all artists who spend hours rehearsing on such cold air outside and who participate at all amid these hard times.
What the hell, he looks absolutely edible in that costume anyway, I for one am DROOLING.
Good I’m not the only one, we need to go to Albania together Sam ;-D
Let’s do it 😉
I hope he wins! The costume alone deserves it, let alone the song!
The costume is just for Fik59. Not for the stage of Eurovision 2021
Too bad! xD
I usually don’t follow FiK at all, but I really like his song from what I heard from the clip. He could be a good winner
I’m sorry but the costume is absolutely awful and it would certainly win the Barbara Dex award if he wore that to eurovision. Its gross people are sending him death threats etc though.
Relax. The costume is just for Fik59. Not for the the stage of Eurovision 2021
I never said hes wearing that to eurovision, I said IF .
The costume is very distracting. The length of the bolero jacket makes him look shorter. More importantly the placement of the gold panels on the pantsuit makes his butt look huge. These things are easily fixed. The song is great,
I think, he’s got a beautiful body no matter in what costume. But I think a little shifting the gold panels on the sides of the suit will make his shape more easily recognizable for viewers in front of the screen.
It is not homophobia if you dislike the outfit. Let’s say it was worn by a woman, I would still think it is awful. But yeah it is just a costume, and although I wouldn’t wear that the song is great anyway and he has very good vocals too.
His vocals are on point though so how about people focus on that?
It’s hard to focus on the vocals when he is wearing that suit. No hate but it’s just very distracting and unnecessary.
It’s actually an okay outfit, had it not have that open bare chest.
Since I’m a fan of RPDR, I am not in the place to judge whether an outfit is cheap or not 😉 .
we lacked meaningful eurodrama this year, not gonna lie
To be honest, nobody has said anything about his outfit on his fake 200k instagram account or any media in albania, it just looks boring and cheap!
am I wrong, but do a lot of Albanian artists have a fake follower number, like how is it possible that Arilena Ara has 1.1 million followers in a country of 8 million, when for example big starts of Italy such as Maneskin, Gaia, Francesca, Arisa.. don’t even have a million in a country of 60 million? I just find it hard to believe.
Well, as far as I know, Elvana and Arilena are really famous in Albania.. especially Elvana. Plus, they are also known in some other Balkan countries.
However, in Mirud’s case, the 200k are quite questionable, considering his posts have barely a thousand likes.. sometimes even less.
Thus, the 200k don’t really seem that realistic.
Arilena also had some success in Russia, but I don’t know if that could factor to her follower number. It’s possible, but unlikely.
educate yourself. albanians are distributed in the balkans and with a great number in europe, americas and australia. albania has only 2.9 mio albanians and more than 10 mio are outside of their nation state albania!
He doesn’t deserve death threats over this
well feel sad for him he doesn’t deserve it. but still the staging and the dress sure are questionable (not saying that other fik competitors are doing any better – I like Inis’, but all other have cheap staging..)
The comments about his outfit are stupid indeed, but I’m still not really liking this staging.
It’s sad to hear how many people still hate themselves to the point where they have to bully others or create a hierarchy of who’s worth less judging on how the gay they act… #byefelicia
These internet trolls are disgusting. Don’t y’all have anything better to do than sending death threats?