Mr Gay Europe has often been described as Eurovision for gay men, where the counties compete but instead of songs competing it’s gay men representing their countries on the international stage, so when Eurovison came to Mr Gay Europe, you can imagine how excited we all were.
Hanne Krogh, Norwegian entrant who won in 1985 with her band Bobbysocks is royalty here in Sweden and when Managing Director, Stuart Hatton bumped into her in the Clarion hotel lobby, she wanted to know everything about Mr Gay Europe and how she could be involved.
Today the delegates were treat to a surprise seminar with Hanne. To say that this lady has a warming presence is an understatement, from first impressions and throughout her seminar Hanne radiated positive energy and kindness to a room full of strangers who couldn’t help but be drawn into every word she had to say.
She spoke to the delegates about working hard for your dreams and that if you ‘do not succeed’ on one path in life then you have to breakaway and create your own path to follow. She advised the delegates not to ‘be seen’ but instead to say to the people they meet in life that ‘I see you’ and that it is more empowering to embrace each other and connect o each other than to try and stand out from the crowd.
After a fond farewell to Hanne and a group photo with the Queen of Eurovision it was time for the 60 seconds challenge where the delegates had to pull a topic out of a hat and talk for 60 seconds on a chosen subject matter from understanding HIV, to Gay Icons to Grindr.
Finishing off the morning was Mr Congeniality, where the delegates had to chose their own winner who they felt would be a good Mr Gay Europe winner and the delegates chose Mr Gay Wales as their Mr Congeniality 2017.