{"id":41526,"date":"2026-05-14T06:01:44","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T06:01:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/41526\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T06:01:44","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T06:01:44","slug":"boy-george-speaks-out-after-his-eurovision-performance-with-san-marino-fails-to-make-the-final-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/41526\/","title":{"rendered":"Boy George speaks out after his Eurovision performance with San Marino fails to make the final"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Boy George<\/a> might not have made it through to the Eurovision final <\/a>with San Marino<\/a>, but still had a \u201cfabulous\u201d time making his somewhat surreal appearance on one of the world\u2019s biggest stages.<\/p>\n

The Culture Club star <\/a>joined the country\u2019s 2026 entry SENHIT onstage in Vienna, Austria, during the first semi-final,<\/a> where they performed her song \u201cSuperstar\u201d together. <\/p>\n

Fans might have been surprised to see the \u201cKarma Chameleon\u201d singer onstage at Eurovision on Tuesday night (12 May), however, he was confirmed as part of San Marino\u2019s entry months earlier. <\/p>\n

\"BoyBoy George with San Marino contestant SENHIT (AP)<\/p>\n

Technically, he was not representing the country, but as the Eurovision rules state, artists are not required to be a national of the country they perform on behalf of.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, San Marino failed to make it to the final, as just 10 countries were able to be voted through. <\/p>\n

Posting to X, Boy George admitted he was \u201csad\u201d not to be competing in the final on Saturday (16 May), but had still enjoyed his time in the contest.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you voted for us, thank you so much, I was sad we didn’t get through to the final but my[Eurovision] experience has been fabulous,\u201d he wrote. <\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn’t take a minute of it back. Thanks toSENHIT and the entire San Marino delegation. What a fun bunch.\u201d <\/p>\n

Boy George also revealed that he and SENHIT would be performing together again in Milan, in July, as part of his Culture Club show.<\/p>\n

SENHIT has previously brought in big names for San Marino, most recently with US rapper Flo Rida, who joined her in 2021 for her entry \u201cAdrenalina\u201d.<\/p>\n

Boy George, 64, made his appearance towards the end of the song, where he delivers the lyrics: \u201cAll the boys at the bar sipping cool champagne\/ All the girls on the dance floor freaking insane\/ You\u2019re a superstar.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pop singer wore a version of his signature high-crowned bowler hats with a mirror mosaic design, matched with glittering blue eyeshadow. <\/p>\n

\"BoyBoy George performing with SENHIT during a Eurovision dress rehearsal (Getty)<\/p>\n

Speaking to Eurovisionfun in April, SENHIT confirmed that Boy George would be joining her onstage: \u201cThis is something that was discussed with Boy George,\u201d she said. \u201cHe\u2019s in America touring right now. I will go to him next week to start talking about staging and all the things.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said absolutely I will be involved with you, and I will be on stage with you. So yeah, you will see him for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most of Eurovision\u2019s first semi-final in Vienna went ahead without incident, with the exception of Israel<\/a>\u2019s entry, Noam Bettan. <\/p>\n

As the 28-year-old singer began his performance of \u201cMichelle\u201d, an audience member could be heard repeatedly shouting \u201cstop the genocide\u201d.<\/p>\n

Significant controversy has loomed over this year\u2019s song contest due to Israel\u2019s <\/a>participation in the ongoing conflict in Gaza<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\"Israel\u2019sIsrael\u2019s contestant Noam Bettan made it through to the 2026 Eurovision final (Getty)<\/p>\n

Five countries, including Spain, Italy, Ireland, Slovenia and the Netherlands, withdrew from the 2026 event in protest<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Despite the interruption, however, Israel was voted through and will compete in the final on Saturday. <\/p>\n

Other countries to make it through include Finland with Linda Lampenius and Pete Parkkonen, who are the current favourites to win this year, and Greece\u2019s popular entry, Akylas, with his energetic song \u201cFerto\u201d. <\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s semi-final will see countries such as Romania, Cyprus, Ukraine and Bulgaria competing, along with performances from the UK, France and host country Austria. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40461,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20858],"tags":[24621,25857,21049,1452,21217,25856,7236,26598,20859,20863,20860,26597,2721,6477,184,13744,21230,26596,24620,22960],"class_list":{"0":"post-41526","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eurovision","8":"tag-70th-anniversary","9":"tag-70th-eurovision-song-contest","10":"tag-arts-culture-and-entertainment","11":"tag-austria","12":"tag-boy-george","13":"tag-celebrities","14":"tag-color-image","15":"tag-dress-rehearsal","16":"tag-eurovision","17":"tag-eurovision-song-contest","18":"tag-eurovision-song-contest-2026","19":"tag-four-people","20":"tag-horizontal","21":"tag-music","22":"tag-people","23":"tag-photography","24":"tag-senhit","25":"tag-three-quarter-length","26":"tag-vienna-austria","27":"tag-wiener-stadthalle"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}