presenter, Author and Eurovision commentator

William lee Adams

I’m a Vietnamese-American broadcaster at the BBC World Service in London. My two-part documentary Vietnam: Return to Banana Garden Market premieres on The Travel Show on BBC iPlayer and the BBC News Channel on 5 and 12 October.

I also present podcasts and radio documentaries, and have appeared on BBC programmes including The Arts Hour, BBC Breakfast, Front Row, Newsday, PM and BBC OS, as well as the BBC News Channel and World TV. Previously I was a London-based correspondent for Time, the American news magazine, and have written for Billboard, ELLE, Esquire, Newsweek, the Financial Times and the New York Times, among other publications.

I’m also the founder and face of Wiwibloggs, the world’s most-followed independent Eurovision blog and YouTube channel. My memoir Wild Dances: My Queer and Curious Journey to Eurovision was published last year.

I have a B.A. in Psychology from Harvard and an M.A. in Southeast Asian Studies and Vietnamese from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.

TV & Radio

The Travel Show

What in the World podcast

BBC Radio

book

As a boy, William Lee Adams spent his days taking care of his quadriplegic brother, while worrying about his undiagnosed bipolar Vietnamese mother, and steering clear of his openly racist and homophobic father. Too shy and anxious to even speak until he was six years old, it seemed unlikely William would ever leave small-town Georgia. He passed the time alone in his room, studying maps and reading encyclopedias, dreaming of distant places where he might one day feel free.

In time, William discovered that learning was both a refuge and a ticket out. So even as he struggled to understand and to get others to accept both his sexuality and his biracial identity, William focused on his schoolwork, his extracurricular activities, and building community with the students and teachers who embraced him for who he truly was. Though his scholarship to Harvard parachuted him into a whole new world, he still carried a lifetime of secrets and unanswered questions that would haunt him no matter how far he traveled.

Years later, as a journalist in London, William discovered the Eurovision Song Contest—an annual competition known for its extravagant performers and cutthroat politics. Initially just a fan, he started blogging about the contest, ultimately becoming the most sought-after expert on the subject. From Albania, Finland, and Ukraine, to Israel, Sweden, and Russia, William was soon jetting across the Continent to meet divas, drag queens, and aspiring singers, who welcomed him to their beautiful, if dysfunctional, family of choice.

An uplifting memoir about glitz, glamour, geopolitics, and finding your people, no matter how far you must travel, Wild Dances celebrates the power of pop music to help us heal and forgive.

Praise for WILD DANCES

"A page-turning, tragicomic memoir . . . By ingeniously weaving improbable and conflicting forces that make up his personal history, Adams affirms a resilient idea of home that yearns to transcend space and time."

— Thúy Đinh, NPR

"A breathtaking and beautifully written book: it’s lodged itself in my heart. It’s about so much more than Eurovision – and I say that as someone who loves Eurovision!"

— Nigella Lawson

“This book is a treasure…he transformed the sorrow he inherited into joy.”

— Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai, author of The Mountains Sing

"An amazing true story more fascinating than fiction. Adams works through problems most of us couldn’t even imagine—all the while, he’s grappling with being gay in a world where his identity subjects him to abuse. Adams used reading as his refuge from despair. With a scholarship to Harvard and an unlimited imagination, he fights his way to the top by turning a hobby into a hugely successful career. But like all of us from difficult backgrounds, Adams is constantly plagued with family issues. How he handles his life’s outrageous challenges—with dignity and courage—will lift your heart. A courageous story well told."

— David Crow, author of The Pale-Faced Lie

RECENT PRESS

“The invisible child who now shines at Eurovision, Part 1,” Lives Less Ordinary (BBC World Service), September 3, 2023

“The invisible child who now shines at Eurovision, Part 2,” Lives Less Ordinary (BBC World Service), September 10, 2023

“I Was an Extra In Oasis's Strangest Music Video. It Changed My Life,” Esquire, July 17, 2023

“Excavating Memory: My Playlist for Wild Dances,” Powell’s Books, June 12, 2023

Interview on Forum with Mina Kim, KQED San Francisco, May 11, 2023

‘Wild Dances’ puts consequences of a long-ago, faraway conflict at center, NPR, May 9, 2023

What Drag Taught Me About My Power As a Child, ELLE USA, May 9, 2023

Interview on The Stack, Monocle 24, May 6, 2023

Interview on Town Square with Ernie Manouse, Houston Public Radio, May 4, 2023

‘My Parents Met in the Vietnam War, Dad Couldn’t Accept That I’m Biracial,’ Newsweek, March 29, 2023

“A revealing memoir about surviving childhood trauma to embrace the prismatic rainbow of chosen family,” Kirkus Reviews, March 24, 2023

The best books about surviving dysfunctional families, Shepherd Books

Eurovision

I’m the founder and editor of Wiwibloggs — the world’s most-followed independent Eurovision web site and YouTube channel, which has amassed nearly 200 million views. Described by Dutch media as “the world’s most influential Eurovision viewer,” I’ve visited 30 countries — from Albania and Armenia to Moldova and Russia — interviewing aspiring and established pop stars and judging primetime song contests. I previously won Arts & Culture Blogger of the Year at the UK National Blog Awards. More recently, I appeared as myself in the Will Ferrell Netflix comedy Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga.

My adventures through the world of Euro-pop have been featured in The New York Times, VICE, The Guardian, Billboard and countless other publications, and I’ve been a talking head on the BBC, CNN, CBS, CNBC and other major networks. I was also one of five central characters in the 2017 ARTE documentary Eurovisions, and had my own segment on Swedish television’s three-part Eurovision pre-show in 2016. I’ve spoken about Eurovision at the European Union headquarters in Vienna and was the only blogger to speak at the European Broadcasting Union’s Eurovision Song Contest: 60th Anniversary Conference at BAFTA in London. Some of these experiences became part of my memoir “Wild Dances: My Queer and Curious Journey to Eurovision.”

As a Eurovision influencer I’ve collaborated with major brands including ABSOLUT, MyHeritage and VisitHolland.

Writing

From 2007 to 2012 I was a London-based correspondent for Time. I crisscrossed the continent reporting on everything from the spread of HIV in Romanian slums to Norway’s progressive prison system. I also profiled celebrities like Christian Louboutin, Maria Sharapova and Doris Lessing, and covered major events like the London riots, the royal wedding and the 2012 Summer Olympics. My writing has also been published in Newsweek, The New York Times, The Financial Times, Bloomberg, Vice, New Scientist, InStyle, MailOnline, Psychology Today, Monocle, the Sydney Morning Herald, Attitude, Spear’s Wealth Management, Lonely Planet, Condé Nast Traveller, CNN.com, where I was the lead writer for the launch of CNN Style, and Billboard, where I wrote one of the magazine’s first profiles of Dua Lipa. I collaborated with John Browne, the former chief executive of BP, on the 2014 book, The Glass Closet: Why Coming Out is Good for Business. It was long-listed for FT Business Book of the Year.