In his song, sung alternately in English and French, Bilal Hassani promotes acceptance. "When I dream, I'm a king," it says. But since the 19-year-old won the ESC preliminary round with "Roi" (König) at the weekend, France's candidate for the European Song Contest (ESC) faces massive hostility.

Bilal Hassani wears platinum blonde hair, a pair of nickel glasses - and is homosexual. Now the musician with Moroccan roots as a "pedophile" or as a "disgrace" for France or Islam berated, said his lawyer according to the AFP news agency. The singer has therefore reported against Unknown refunded.

Conchita as a role model

According to Bayerischer Rundfunk, Hassanis supporters already count more than 1,500 "insulting and discriminatory" tweets. There are calls for violence or even murder, according to lawyer AFP. He had therefore turned to the law enforcement authorities for "insulting, incitement to hatred and violence and homophobic threats".

Check out this post on Instagram

Me voilà aujourd'hui entouré de 17 artistes extrêmement talentueux, à me battre pour cette place à l '@eurovisionfrance. Je suis en train de vivre un rêve de pour et encore plus en étant entouré par de tels talents de ouf! Je suis chanceux d'avoir rencontré @madamemonsieur et d'avoir pu écrire le titre "Roi", a chanson qui porte un message important pour moi: celui de l'acceptation de soi. Je vous aime plus que tout au monde, sans vous je ne suis ❤ On se retrouve bientôt pour vous faire découvrir «Roi»

A post shared by Bilal Hassani (@iambilalhassani) on Dec 12, 2018 at 8:38 PST

Artistically - and perhaps also in dealing with such insults - has Hassani according to BR a role model: the Austrian ESC star Conchita. With the cover version of "Rise Like a Phoenix" of the cult figure, Hassani first became known in the program "The Voice Kids". Hundreds of thousands follow him on YouTube and in social media.

Hassani also receives support from the organization Urgence Homophobie, which campaigns for the rights of homosexuals. Based on the song title she tweeted among other things: "You are a king."