Drag queen Conchita Wurst will take to the stage as Austria's contender for the Eurovision song contest in Copenhagen next month.

Sporting high heels, butterfly eyelashes and a full beard, Wurst - real name Tom Neuwirth - is an unlikely contestant for conservative Austria, which last won in 1966 with Udo Juergens's Merci, Cherie.

Wurst's entry has highlighted Europe's divisions on attitudes to homosexuality - petitions have been started in Belarus, Armenia and Russia to have him removed or edited out of their broadcasts.