Gus G. defends Eurovision Song Contest appearance: 'Music should know no boundaries'
Former Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Gus G. has defended his appearance on the Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday night (18th May) saying "music should know no boundaries."
The 38-year-old rocker – real name Konstantinos Karamitroudis - revealed the voting scores for his home country Greece during the event and used the opportunity to play some eighties style shreds.
Reacting to criticism from some quarters for featuring on a predominately pop-orientated event, Gus told his Instagram followers “music should know no boundaries, and we should all respect that, regardless of our tastes.”
Gus added he was glad he managed to bring “the rock spirit for a few seconds inside the homes of tens of millions of people.”
His full post reads: “OK, so I know a lot of you were shocked (whether it was in a good way or not) to see yours truly on Eurovision last night. When the Greek national television asked me to be the official spokesperson, I was somewhat hesitant for the obvious reason that ‘a metalhead like me doesn’t belong in a pop culture type of show’. But music should know no boundaries, and We should all respect that, regardless of our musical tastes. After all, there’s been plenty of collaborations between rock/metal artists and pop artists over time.
> GREECE PULLING FOCUS #EUROVISION pic.twitter.com/mQ1n71yoOW > > — BBC Eurovision🇬🇧 (@bbceurovision) May 18, 2019
“For the record, I look at Eurovision Song Contest as a huge televised musical event production and as entertainment. Under no circumstances, I look at this from a political angle and I’m sorry for those that mixed it all up.
“I’m glad I got to shred “80s style” and bring the Rock spirit for a few seconds inside the homes of tens of millions of people. If you were entertained last night, then we did good. I certainly had fun doing it.
“Thanks to ERT for the opportunity & thanks to you all for your encouraging and positive feedback.”
Despite being rooted in pop music, there have been a number of rock and metal performances on Eurovision over the decades.
Finnish monster metallers Lordi, of course, won the contest back in 2006 with ‘Hard Rock Hallelujah’, and the following year their fellow Finland natives Apocalyptica featured as an interval act when Helsinki hosted the event.
Hungarian metal and post-hardcore band AWS recently represented their country at the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 in Lisbon, Portugal, with their song ‘Viszlát nyár’.
Other rock acts who have performed over the years include Norwegian glam rockers Wig Wam in 2005, the Bon Jovi-esque Slovakian Max Jason Mai in 2009 and Finland’s Teräsbetoni (which translates as 'steel concrete') in 2008.
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