I do hope that all of you loyal ESC Insight readers have picked up on our partnership with the Eurovision Wars podcast, with its first season currently being released through our website and podcast feed.
Eurovision Wars discusses the subject of politics within the Eurovision Song Contest. Yes, Eurovision is a proudly non-political event but you don’t need me to tell you how political agendas, soft power and nation branding constantly leave their mark on the broadcast we all love.
I am sure all of our readers have also seen the brutal images from Israel and Palestine, resulting in thousands horrifically killed in the region. This adds to the increasing amount of pain, bloodshed and risks of impending violence threatening millions among our Eurovision nations.
September 2023 saw over 100,000 ethnic Armenians evacuate their native Nagorno-Karabakh as Azerbaijan tightened their claim on the territory. We have a Serbian army basing increasing numbers of troops around the Kosovan border. We are now entering the third Eurovision season overshadowed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with no end in sight.
While the Eurovision Song Contest pales in significance to these geopolitical conflicts, I won’t be the first this season to speculate about what this means for their participation in Malmö. In the days that followed Hamas’ attacks on civilians in Israel, Eurovision betting markets saw movements taking Israel to favourites to win, overtaking Ukraine in the process. No potential song has been heard from Israel, and they have “suspended indefinitely” their Rising Star selection format on the declaration of war. Nevertheless, some gamblers are linking the outcome of the Song Contest next May to what horror is happening on our planet today.
Eurovision cannot escape crossing over into the world of geopolitics even if it tried.
Even away from inter-country conflict, the issues that the Contest brings up through its musical history still make the headlines in late 2023. Madame Monsieur sang about the refugee crisis in the Mediterranean, yet the waves of people risking it all on that difficult journey are increasing, as EU countries agree to a new crisis mechanism. Ryan O’Shaughnessy’s choice of two male dancers for ‘Together‘ was one of many artistic choices lifting gay rights on the ESC stage, yet the freedom of Europe’s LGBTQ communities is arguably increasingly divisive today from Portsmouth to Poland. Georgia’s clear sentiment with ‘We Don’t Wanna Put In‘ still appeals to the nation today, as Russia plans to build a naval base in Abkhazia, a territory that most of the world recognizes should be part of the Tbilisi-run government.
In a world decreasingly united, one can imagine our next artists and songwriters are increasingly likely to put pen to paper with messages to make people think and reflect on today’s world.
And you may look at Malmö, isolated in the middle of Scandinavia from all this bloodshed, as the perfect host city in this time of global geopolitical crisis.
While that may be true, the Sweden of today is not immune from turmoil of its own. The nation’s terror level has been raised to high as gang conflicts have escalated to new heights, with the head of Sweden’s Armed Forces discussing with government and the police what role they can play going forward. Sweden is still awaiting approval to become a member of NATO, which Türkiye has vetoed so far. And in this sensitive environment, SVT must produce a Eurovision Song Contest at a time when pressure is on it to change direction to cover more educational content and less entertainment, with the public service broadcasters receiving a below-inflation budget increase last year.
Politics has been and will always be a part of what makes the Eurovision Song Contest, on and beyond the scoreboard. What the community is speculating over today is that the upcoming competition in Sweden may end up being the most politically sensitive in years, if not the Contest’s history.
Before that, we have Junior Eurovision in a month’s time, a competition arguably even more politically neutral in design, but one where children often echo the political messages of their broadcasters across Europe. The climate changed-themed show of 2019 comes particularly to mind.
It will have been in these last few weeks that most of the children (and the adults helping them) will have been putting the finishing touches to their competing entries. As those entries are starting to be released it will be fascinating to hear the creations they compose in the backdrop of today’s news of devastation, disagreement and destruction.