She felt like life had no meaning — so she started screaming like a gull
European Championship Gull Screeching winner says a personal loss taught her to ‘do what’s fun’
Life got you down? Try throwing your head back and screeching like a gull.
That's what Anna Brynald did. A personal loss a few years ago inspired the Danish woman to chase her dreams, no matter how silly. So she signed up for the 2025 European Championship Gull Screeching contest, and won gold.
"It was so refreshing to meet so many people that just like seagulls, like me," Brynald told As It Happens host Nil Kӧksal. "I like that the seagulls like fries, because I love fries, and they're just a bit misunderstood, like me. And they're cute."
Sunday's competition drew gull lovers from all over Europe to the Belgian coastal town of De Panne.
Dressed in gull costumes, 60 participants from 14 countries got on stage at the De Verloren Gernoare café and belched out their best gull imitations in three categories — adult, junior and colony. A jury awarded points based on sound and performance.
One contestant did her best gull impression by stopping between squawks to lunge her face into a bag of chips, drawing raucous applause from the crowd.
But Brynald — decked out in feathers, bright yellow lipstick and white face paint — squealed and squawked her way to victory in the adult contest.
Cooper Wallace, 10, of Chesterfield, England, won the junior category for the second year running, while an Italian group called Partisan Seagulls won the colony category.
"The seagull lives everywhere. The seagull can adjust and be resilient and stay in every environment," Italian victor Enrico Pittaluga said. "That should be the goal of humanity always."
Brynald says she prepared for the contest by practicing her shockingly high pitch at home, online and in the wild.
"I worked with the seagulls. I went to the beach and I looked at many seagulls, and I thought they looked nice. And I screeched at them, but they became scared of me," she said.
"Maybe I'm saying something wrong in seagull language. I don't know."
If there isn't any meaning in life, that means I can do literally everything I want. I can make seagull sounds, because I don't care.- Anna Brynald, champion gull screecher
If it sounds ludicrous, that's the point. Brynald says the loss of her best friend two and a half years ago taught her the importance of prioritizing frivolity and fun.
"He died, and I got an existential crisis. I couldn't see the meaning in life," she said.
"Then I remembered that's the beautiful [thing]. If there isn't any meaning in life, that means I can do literally everything I want. I can make seagull sounds, because I don't care. I [might not be] here tomorrow. I just want to do what's fun and not think about what other people think about me."
'More sympathy for the seagulls'
While the event encourages fun, it also has a more serious purpose.
Started by comedian Claude Willaert, the European Championship Gull Screeching contest partners with research and conservation organizations to help change the narrative about our fry-eating feathered friends.
While gulls may appear plentiful, their populations are, in fact, declining worldwide, driven by a loss of nesting habitats and food.
"Some people hate them. They see them like rats of the sea because they can peck open rubbish bags, because they screech a lot, they make a lot of noise, they breed on roofs, and they leave their droppings everywhere," said Jen Seys, president of the jury, and spokesperson for the Flanders Marine Institute.
"But the contrast is that these seagulls also belong to the coast. They are an essential part of the sea coast, and their sounds, their calls and their acrobatic behaviour, it's just part of the sea coast. So you need to balance that. We need some more sympathy for the seagulls."
Brynald, meanwhile, hopes to be back in Belgium again for next year's contest, if she can scrounge up the travel and hotel fare.
Despite her victory, she says she was a little under the weather on Sunday and didn't perform at her best.
"I think next year, if I participate next year I'll be even better," she said. "I'll, first of all, not be sick. And I think I'll need some more feathers."
With files from Reuters. Interview with Anna Brynald produced by Livia Dyring
