Culture

NikkieTutorials makes Eurovision history as first-ever out trans host: ‘It’s an amazing honour’

May 19 2021
Written by Maggie Baska

Nikkie de Jager (NikkieTutorials) during the ‘GLOW – The Beauty Convention’ at Westfalenhalle on 10 March 2018 in Dortmund, Germany. (Photo by Tristar Media/Getty Images)

Nikkie de Jager – also known as NikkieTutorials – has opened up about the “amazing honour” of being the first trans host of Eurovision.

The makeup guru, who came out as trans in January 2020, made her debut as one of the hosts of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest during the first semi-final on Tuesday (18 May).

She’ll also appear in the second semi as well as the grand finale, interviewing each of the contestants for the Eurovision YouTube channel.

Nikkie told SBS Dutch that hosting the Eurovision contest is her first big television job. She said there is added pressure on her because she’s a huge fan of the show, as well as the first openly trans host of the contest.

“I think it’s an amazing honour that I’ve been able to get this platform and inspire around the world,” Nikkie said.

“And I think there are a lot of people out there taking information from me by seeing it’s OK to live your truth, to be yourself and still be able to do awesome things in life as hosting Eurovision is.”

The Eurovision Song Contest is staging a grand return after being forced to cancel last year due to the pandemic.

Only six countries are guaranteed a slot in the grand final on Saturday (22 May) – the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and The Netherlands.

The rest must battle it out in two semi-finals: the one on Tuesday and a second to be broadcast on Thursday (20 April).

Nikkie has garnered over 13.8 million subscribers since started her NikkieTutorials YouTube channel at the age of 14. The influencer has collaborated with several LGBT+ icons for videos including Drag Race‘s Gottmik, Lady Gaga and Patrick Starr.

Nikkie joked that she “totally bluffed myself” into the hosting role after she tweeted in 2019 that she wanted to host Eurovision. She admitted that she thought she “set the bar a bit too high” for herself, but she still “got the call” for the job.

The YouTube icon told SBS Dutch that she was a bit nervous and excited to take on the job because she would be on television before “millions of people”. She said: “But what I find exciting is that the countdown you hear in your ear and when the red light goes on, you have to make it happen.”

Nikkie’s career has been closely linked to the international singing competition. She retweeted a post from a fan who pointed out that she went from “using Eurovision music in her first ever video” as NikkieTutorials to becoming its host.

The influencer simply responded: “VERY THAT!”