Eurovision 2008 - Number 8 - Cristal Snow - "Can't Save Me"
By 2008, there had already been a few drag artists appearing on Eurovision, but none quite like Cristal Snow. The spikiness, the edge, the eighties-ness. They are Blitz-era clubbing androgyny, mixed with a little bit of Bowie, and a little bit of the New York drag scene which Cristal Snow had been a part of while studying in the city.
Since returning to Finland in 2006, Cristal (there's no 'Y' in Cristal, only an 'I') had not only won the Finnish Ms Drag Queen competition and embarked on their musical career with the launch of their first single in 2007. By the time of the 2008 of Euroviisut, they were three singles deep into their career and two of these had hit the top ten of the Finnish charts.
Euroviisut, and by extension, Eurovision were certainly where Cristal wanted to be. To that end, the fourth single of their career was written by Heikki Liimatainen and Jimi Constantine - the producer and main song-writer of much of their soon to be published first album as well as those three singles.
Can't Save Me is a synthful song from someone who doesn't want to be rescued. Someone who is intent on plunging even further headlong into whatever situation they're making of their life. You may not approve, but if you want to interfere and offer your opinion on them, it's very much not welcome.
In other words, it's a song that outlines Cristal's response to all those confused and slightly disapproving questions they've been asked about why they do what they do. The times they've been asked to back down and conform. Nope. Cristal is not having that. In the bridge they use their open-mic time to assert that Cristal is their identity - not just the name, but their very being.
Finland is as ever, an open-minded country and the electronic synthwave jaggedness of the song as well as its message earned it a place in the final, and then onto the super-final. That was where the journey ended as Finland (again) reached for the rock and metal.
No matter though, Cristal Snow's career went from strength to strength. The album came out later in the year, then more music followed in 2009. But music was only the tip of the iceberg. Cristal diversified into DJing, then started producing parody videos on YouTube with other drag artists. Then a move into actual TV work, including presenting reality shows. Visual work has always been a big part of their work, especially music videos. All of their singles came with a music video and Cristal later became a music video director themselves.
Then there's the writing, the screenplays, the podcasts and the theatre work and of course, drag performances. There is no stopping Cristal. As recently as 2024, they appeared on the Finnish incarnation of the Traitors.
There was still time for some music and even a second Finnish national final appearance in 2016.
This is the music video from Cristal's 2010 single Venom
