After 25 years, Songfestival.be has confirmed that the “Barbara Dex Award” ,the prize to the “most notable outfit” given after each edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, ceases to exist with that name. The reason, as has explained the site, has been the negative comments received during the last years due to the negative connotations associated with the award. The change from the initial “worst dressed” to the euphemistic “most notable outfit” in 2017, didn’t improve the criticisms.
Songfestival.de will create now a new prize to vote the “most notable outfit” of the next contest editions. The name of him will be chosen by the public, submitting ideas here until 31st March. After selecting twenty potential options, voting will start on 4th April to choose among them the new name.
Barbara Dex (Barbara Maria Karel Deckx) was the Belgian representative at the Eurovision Song Contest 1993. In the contest, she dressed an outfit designed by herself with a lack of taste. Edwin van Thillo y Rob Paardekam, founders of House of Eurovision, inspired by that outfit, created the prize under the title “Worst dressed” in 1997. Songfestival.be took the relay in 2017, changing the title to “most notable outfit”. The list of artists awarded with the prize is as follows:
- Debbie Scerrie (Malta 1997)
- Guildo Horn (Germany 1998)
- Lydia (Spain 1999)
- Nathalie Sorce (Belgium 2000)
- Piasek (Poland 2001)
- Michalis Rakintzis (Greece 2002)
- t. A. T. u. (Russia 2003)
- Sanda Ladoși (Romania 2004)
- Martin Vučić (North Macedonia 2005)
- Nonstop (Portugal 2006)
- Verka Serduchka (Ucrania 2007)
- Gisela (Andorra 2008)
- Zoli Ádok (Hungría 2009)
- Milan Stanković (Serbia 2010)
- Eldrine (Georgia 2011)
- Rona Nishliu (Albania 2012)
- Moje 3 (Serbia 2013)
- Vilija Matačiūnaitė (Lituania 2014)
- Trijntje Oosterhuis (Netherland 2015)
- Nina Kraljić (Croacia 2016)
- Slavko Kalezić (Montenegro 2017)
- Eye Cue (North Macedonia 2018)
- Conan Osiris (Portugal 2019)
- Tix (Norway 2021)
