Bearded lady Conchita Wurst has split the Eurovision community into two camps: those who love her drag persona and those who hate her.

The 25-year-old Austrian song contestant has received an outpouring of support from people who believe her drag queen alter ego hits at the vein of what makes the Eurovision Song Contest relevant today, a musical forum for cross-cultural unity and understanding. But Wurst, whose real name is Tom Neuwirth, has also been slammed with some of the contest's harshest ridicule and anti-LGBT (Lesbian Gay Bisexual & Transgender) rhetoric.

Vitaly Milonov, one of the driving forces behind Russia's anti-gay promotional laws, has called her "a sick person" and asked his country to boycott the entire broadcast if Ms. Wurst is allowed to perform. An anti-Wurst Facebook page, with more than 38,000 likes, has also called for her to be excluded from the contest. Ms. Wurst is due to take part in the semi-final on Thursday night to sing for a place in the final on Saturday.

"We are living in the 21st century and for me it is incomprehensible how one can say such things," Ms. Wurst said in an interview after dress rehearsals in Copenhagen.

"Sexuality and nationality are unimportant things […] and it also does not matter how one looks. That's why I created this character."