Adrian Kavanagh, 18th May 2012
While the Eurovision Song Contest portrays itself as avowedly apolitical, as previous posts have shown there are strong political dimensions running through the contest, a factor that is no doubt increased by the fact that the contest is one of the few occasions that (often little known) countries get to portray themselves on a European stage and to an audience of hundreds of millions. This post touches on another dimension of this, attempting to understand whether a link exists between the level of freedom/repression in a state and that state’s prospects of doing well in the Eurovision Song Contest, mindful of the controversies involved with the hosting of this year’s contest in Baku by Azerbaijan and the hosting of, or the lead up to, previous contests in Ukraine, Serbia and Russia. Hosting Eurovision can act as a means of encouraging more progressive elements within a state, as was evidenced with the 2008 contest in Belgrade and (temporarily) 2005 contest in Kyiv, as well as opening these states up to a European-wide audience (and helping in the process of European-ising a state) as was also the case with Estonia’s hosting of the 2002 contest in Taalin and Latvia’s hosting of the 2003 contest in Riga. By contrast, the hosting of the 2009 Moscow contest seems to have had no impact on internal politics within Russia or on how that state interacted with, and portrayed itself to, the rest of Europe. This also leads to the consideration of whether there may be a link between success at the Eurovision Song Contest and the level of democraticisation or freedom within a state. This post suggests that such a link exists and it is the countries with lower levels of political, civil and press liberties are the more likely to do well in Eurovision contests. Is this accidental or not? (more…)
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