Spectator’s Fraser Nelson says he didn’t call Eurovision ‘too gay’

Editor and unlikely Eurovision fan accused of suggesting it isn’t ‘family viewing’

Last year's Eurovision winner Conchita Wurst (BBC)

The Eurovision Song Contest is nothing if not dramatic and with three weeks to go before the competition kicks off there is already an element of histrionics – but not among the contestants.

Spectator editor Fraser Nelson, 41, has come under fire after remarks he made at the Eurovision conference last week were interpreted as implying the competition was “too gay”.

“[In the UK Eurovision is] reduced to the level of a musical gay pride march. I prefer it in Sweden, where it’s seen more as a family show, an entertainment extravaganza,” Fraser said.

New Statesman commentator Eleanor Margolis responded to Nelson’s remarks by writing: “The idea that Eurovision’s wonderful campness renders it unsuitable family viewing is, to me, as perplexing as it is insidious.”

But Nelson, previously a business writer for The Times and political commentator for the News of the World, told The Independent he didn’t say Eurovision was “too gay” and said that he finds the idea of such a view “repugnant”.

Fraser Nelson is the editor of The Spectator (Getty)

He said the “unfortunate phrase” was used by the panel’s moderator who later apologised for it when an audience-member complained about it.

“I didn't say it was ‘too gay’ - nor would I ever make such a daft remark,” Fraser said. “I was talking about how Eurovision is portrayed in the UK. The idea of Eurovision being ‘too camp’ to be a family show is, to me, not just bizarre, but repugnant.”

He added: “As I said at the Eurovision panel, one of the contest’s great strengths is that it embodies the values of tolerance and it exports those values in a vivid way to places where they are still to be accepted."

Nelson has asked the New Statesman to issue a correction.

The Eurovision song contest, which for the first time will also allow Australia to compete this year, was won in 2014 by Austria’s bearded Conchita Wurst for ‘Rise Like a Phoenix’.

The UK broadcast is hosted by Graham Norton and this year’s competition final will take place on 23 May.