ABSTRACT

Conchita Wurst rose to fame as the bearded drag queen who won the Eurovision Song Contest in 2014. Through Conchita, the artist Thomas Neuwirth found greater success in his career than he had achieved performing under his own name and non-drag image. Despite this, the specific image and persona of Conchita quickly became limiting for his own artistic expression and growth, leading Neuwirth to introduce a second persona, WURST. This article explores the construction and function of these personas for Neuwirth, arguing that the introduction of WURST has allowed Neuwirth to reconstruct ‘Conchita Wurst’ as a more versatile performance identity and artistic brand than achievable via the Conchita or WURST personas. It demonstrates how persona can be used strategically to disrupt and transform artistic careers, and how the celebrity of a persona can be leveraged into a form of brand recognition even after that persona is discarded.

摘要

康奇塔·沃斯特 (Conchita Wurst) 因赢得 2014 年欧洲歌唱大赛的大胡子变装皇后而声名鹊起。通过康奇塔，艺术家托马斯·纽沃斯 (Thomas Neuwirth) 在职业生涯中取得了比以自己的名义和非变装形象表演更大的成功。尽管如此，Conchita 的具体形象和角色很快就限制了他自己的艺术表达和成长，导致 Neuwirth 引入了第二个角色：WURST。本文探讨了 Neuwirth 这些角色的构建和功能，认为 WURST 的引入使 Neuwirth 能够将“Conchita Wurst”重建为比通过 Conchita 或 WURST 角色更通用的表演身份和艺术品牌。它展示了如何战略性地利用人物角色来颠覆和改变艺术事业，