Barbara Dex Award

The Barbara Dex Award was a fan-voted accolade awarded annually to the worst-dressed contestant in the Eurovision Song Contest. The award was created by the fansite The House of Eurovision in 1997, which hosted it until the site's closure in 2016. Songfestival.be presented the award from 2017 onwards, changing its criterion to the "most striking look" in 2019. Ahead of the Eurovision Song Contest 2022, the award was succeeded by the You're a Vision Award, which was intended to carry a more positive connotation.

Barbara Dex Award
Awarded for	"Most striking look" in the Eurovision Song Contest
Country	Various participating countries
Presented by	The House of Eurovision (1997–2016) Songfestival.be (2017–2021)
First award	1997
Final award	2021
Website	Official website
Related	You're a Vision Award (succeeded it)

History

Map of Barbara Dex Award recipients

The Barbara Dex Award created by Edwin van Thillo and Rob Paardekam, the founders of the Dutch Eurovision fansite The House of Eurovision, in 1997.^[1][2] It was named after Belgian singer Barbara Dex, who represented Belgium in the Eurovision Song Contest 1993 wearing a self-made, semi-transparent dress, which William Lee Adams of Wiwibloggs described her "looking like a lampshade".^[2] The Barbara Dex Award was initially awarded to the worst-dressed contestants.^[3] Malta's Eurovision Song Contest 1997 entrant, Debbie Scerri, was the first recipient.^[4] After two years of deciding the recipient internally, The House of Eurovision opened the award to public voting in 1999.^[5]

The House of Eurovision shut down after the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 and handed the Barbara Dex Award to the Belgian website Songfestival.be and its founder, Jasper van Biesen. Van Biesen hoped that this transition would broaden the award's reach.^[2] Starting with the Eurovision Song Contest 2019, the award criterion was changed to the "most notable outfit", refined to "most striking look" for the 2021 contest.^[3][6] Songfestival.be noted that "this prize for the most striking outfit does not intend to say what is ugly and what is not and does not want to place the Song Contest in a bad light".^[3]

On 13 March 2022, Songfestival.be announced that it would be ending the Barbara Dex Award, citing the negative connotation associated with it. Instead, the website would organise a new, replacement award for the "most notable outfit".^[7] Following an online vote, Songfestival.be announced on 29 April that the new award would be named the "You're a Vision Award", adding that the new name would serve the purpose of promoting creativity, diversity and positivity in Eurovision onstage fashion.^[8] Australia's Eurovision Song Contest 2022 entrant, Sheldon Riley, was the first recipient of the new award.^[9]

Reception

In a January 2006 interview with ESCToday, Dex stated that there was "nothing wrong" with the Barbara Dex Award.^[10] A 2015 poll by Wiwibloggs found Guildo Horn, Germany's 1998 Eurovision act, to be considered the worst-dressed of the previous award recipients.^[11]

Award winners

Overview

Table key

2	Second place
3	Third place

House of Eurovision

Year	Country	Artist	Song	Place	Refs.
1997	Malta	Debbie Scerri	"Let Me Fly"	9	[11]
1998	Germany	Guildo Horn	"Guildo hat euch lieb!"	7	[11]
1999	Spain	Lydia	"No quiero escuchar"	23	[11]
2000	Belgium	Nathalie Sorce	"Envie de vivre"	24	[11]
2001	Poland	Piasek	"2 Long"	20	[11]
2002	Greece	Michalis Rakintzis	"S.A.G.A.P.O."	17	[11]
2003	Russia	t.A.T.u.	"Ne ver', ne boysia"	3	[11][12]
2004	Romania	Sanda Ladoși	"I Admit"	18	[11][13]
2005	Macedonia	Martin Vučić	"Make My Day"	17	[11][5]
2006	Portugal	Nonstop	"Coisas de nada"	19 SF	[11][14]
2007	Ukraine	Verka Serduchka	"Dancing Lasha Tumbai"	2	[11][15]
2008	Andorra	Gisela	"Casanova"	15 SF	[11][16]
2009	Hungary	Zoli Ádok	"Dance with Me"	15 SF	[11][17]
2010	Serbia	Milan Stanković	"Ovo je Balkan"	13	[11][18]
2011	Georgia	Eldrine	"One More Day"	9	[11][19]
2012	Albania	Rona Nishliu	"Suus"	5	[11][20]
2013	Serbia	Moje 3	"Ljubav je svuda"	11 SF	[11][21]
2014	Lithuania	Vilija Matačiūnaitė	"Attention"	11 SF	[11][22]
2015	Netherlands	Trijntje Oosterhuis	"Walk Along"	14 SF	[11][23]
2016	Croatia	Nina Kraljić	"Lighthouse"	23	[24]

Songfestival.be

Year	Country	Artist	Song	Place	Runner-up	Third place	Refs.
2017	Montenegro	Slavko Kalezić	"Space"	16 SF	Latvia	Czech Republic	[25]
2018	Macedonia	Eye Cue	"Lost and Found"	18 SF	Australia	Belgium	[26]
2019	Portugal	Conan Osíris	"Telemóveis"	15 SF	Cyprus	Belarus	[6]
2021	Norway	Tix	"Fallen Angel"	18	Romania	Croatia	[3]

By country

Wins	Country	Years
2	North Macedonia	2005 2018
	Portugal	2006 2019
	Serbia	2010 2013
1	Albania	2012
	Andorra	2008
	Belgium	2000
	Croatia	2016
	Georgia	2011
	Germany	1998
	Greece	2002
	Hungary	2009
	Lithuania	2014
	Malta	1997
	Montenegro	2017
	Netherlands	2015
	Norway	2021
	Poland	2001
	Romania	2004
	Russia	2003
	Spain	1999
	Ukraine	2007

See also

• List of fashion awards