Bambie Thug and Religious Symbolism
Ireland's 2024 Eurovision entry points to the ongoing rise of a new quasi-religion
Ireland’s entry to the Eurovision in 2024 is replete with religious symbolism, not least of which is the centrality of gender identity as symbolised in the form of the baby blue and baby pink of the trans flag in the bikini worn by Bambie Thug in the centre of the circle that is cast as a sacred space on the Eurovision stage. There are many other hints at religiosity of various sorts including Christianity, Paganism, and Witchcraft.
The name Bambie is a portmanteau of Bambi and Barbie - a cute deer popularised in a 1940s Disney movie, and the iconic plastic doll. The 1942 movie of Bambi was based on a 1923 book by an Austro-Hungarian writer named Felix Salten that was believed by many to be a parable about the treatment of Jews in Europe. The original version of the book was even banned in Nazi Germany.
Salten was Jewish by birth but he didn’t consider himself a Jew when he was a child and only began to identify as a Jew later in life when, in his twenties, he came to know Theodor Herzl, the father of the Zionist movement. In the 1930s, Salten’s books (including Bambi) were burned by Nazis.
The mix of the words ‘Bambie’ with ‘Thug’ exemplifies much of what happens in the song ‘Doomsday Blue’ which mixes light and shade by way of a raucous verse that breaks into a soft melodic chorus. The official video also features this mix of opposites with Bambie Thug casting a circle and using smudge sticks whilst dressed in dark colours and wearing long black hair singing the verse ‘I, I, I know you’re living a lie’. During the dark scenes, Bambie Thug acts as though possessed and holds what looks like a male voodoo doll. One scene in a bath possibly suggests self-harm? There is then the switch to the soft chorus where the hair is long and blond and piled on the head with bright blusher on the cheeks and fluffy bright pink and blue clothing.
There is lots of religious symbolism in Bambie Thug’s various performances including in the tattoos and drawings on the body, in the symbols on the stage and in the screen backdrop too.
Bambie Thug’s original stage performance on the Late Late Show on Irish television was preceded by Bambie Thug saying ‘you can’t put me in a box and if you do I will break out of the box or I will redesign the box’. The video then moves to a scene of Bambie Thug walking over a pedestrian bridge wearing a long black coat with the word ‘QUEER’ in big white letters on the back and then saying ‘as a non-binary person, I do represent a massive proportion of our country that is underrepresented.’
To be non-binary could be seen as a way of transcending opposites of male and female but of course to transcend opposites creates a new binary opposition. The quest of transcending opposites is found in many religious traditions.
In the Late Late Show performance, Bambie Thug has a Celtic Triquetra (three-cornered) Knot painted on the forehead. This symbolises the Holy Trinity of Christianity but also has links to pre-Christian times. In the pagan tradition this points to the triple moon goddess of maiden, mother, crone, as symbolised by the waxing, full and waning moon.
Other symbols visible in that Late Late Show performance mainly link to Celtic spirituality and include the triskelion, Celtic tree of life, Celtic cross, Dara knot (coming from the word Doire for oak), a Celtic symbol for love called the Serch Bythol which is made of two Celtic knots, and the Ailm symbol – an equal armed cross. There is also a pentacle – a five pointed star in a circle, the Flower of Life and symbols from runes. The two male dancers have horns thus indicating the male Pagan Celtic God Cernunnos with antlers symbolising regeneration.
Bambie Thug’s music has been referred to as Ouija-pop thus suggesting a link to occultism and the Ouija board or talking board that is used to communicate with the dead.
Many people have said the song is about Satanism and is demonic but I would suggest it is more rooted in paganism. Also just to note that Satan, by around the 3rd and 4th centuries was seen as king of the demons who were understood by some to be just the pre-Christian gods and goddesses and that the word ‘demon’ originated with the Greek word ‘daimon’ which simply meant a supernatural being or spirit.
The lyrics of the song ‘Doomsday Blue’ include a reference to hexes and to the phrase ‘Adava Kedavra’ that is known as the killing curse from the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling and is also linked to the incantation ‘abracedabra’ that is common in stage magic and was used in the past on amulets to ward off harm.
In the Eurovision semi-final, Bambie Thug wore a triskele on the forehead – again symbolising the triple moon goddess - and does cast a circle but does this by swiping one half first and then the other half rather than going around in a clockwise manner which would be the norm in a pagan ritual. Bambie Thug’s own hair is style as two horns and the male dancer has a horn-type protuberance on one side of his forehead which again points to pagan symbolism.
Bambie Thug performs in the centre of the circle of candles inside a five-pointed star or pentagram which was the symbol of the Greek mathematician Pythagorous and is also the symbol of Wiccans and Neo-Paganism. The five points of the star represent the five elements – earth, air, fire, water, and spirit.
There is also an open eye in the centre of the pentagram on the stage and this alludes to the Eye of Providence and is also associated with the eye of Big Brother. The symbol of an open eye has also been used in the past to represent God.
After the performance in the Eurovision semi-final Bambie Thug and the crew are seated in an area where Bambie Thug stands up holding a large trans flag and the male dancer holds the Progress Pride flag. This again indicates that what is on display here in terms of religion is the new rising belief in gender identity. One man is wearing what looks like a priest’s cassock with a cross on the front thus alluding to Christianity.
All in all, I think the key religious symbolism in Bambie Thug’s Doomsday Blues relates to the new sacred belief of gender identity. Like all religions, there tends to be a cross-over with older traditions and this is evident in the use of pagan symbolism as well as some pointers even to Christianity.
As you've written before, people who subscribe to gender identity ideology mostly reject the idea it's a religion (or an ideology) - to them it's simply The Truth, where The Truth is not necessarily what's literally, materially true, but rather what is true in a kind of higher, Platonic way. They often find the notion that it is a religion offensive.
So with that in mind, why do you think Bambie Thug chose to use religious imagery and why do you think this got a positive reception?
Was the religious imagery used more with ideas of authority and anti-authoritarianism in mind? I think that subconsciously, for many of these people religion is understood in quite a narrow sense as Christianity, specifically Catholicism, and moreover the Catholicism of Ireland when it was synonymous with the cultural establishment. Paganism is its opposite, rather than another iteration of it. To mock Catholic symbols and celebrate pagan ones is to say "We reject the oppressive, authoritarian establishment, we embrace what is wild and free and anarchic - and magic".
It's not surprising that magic appeals because the very essence of magic is that it's the unexplained, and the unexplained can be anything and mean anything. If gender identity was really an innate, measurable thing, I don't think it would hold the fascination it does. It would be one more fact that would exist whether the person it applied to liked it or not. The attraction of gender identity is that the person gets to choose which one applies to them. In the same way as a monster seen is never as frightening as the monster unseen, gender identity is enchanting because nobody is entirely sure what it is.
I think that's what Bambie Thug's performance is signalling - magic and anti-authoritarianism. (That I see gender identity ideology as authoritarian doesn't change that).