“What we always do is try to create some sort of narrative for all the participants within the Eurovision family. some sort of direction, ambition and vision that can be implemented for the shows,” explains Christel Tholse Willers.
This year she is Executive Producer for communication, press, brand and event at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, part of the core leadership team for the show this year in Malmö. We are speaking at the end of April just days before the first of the first delegations arrive in the city, and our aim of our conversation is to find out more about what the direction, ambition and vision is of this year’s edition of the Song Contest.
Christel describes the process as trying to find “some sort of DNA code” for the show at the start of the creative process, which would include the values SVT have for the Contest and what parts the team want to take a stand with. This isn’t the “nitty-gritty” of the planning process, instead Chrisel describes this as “fluffy”, giving the team a red thread to work with through all of their creative processes over the last twelve months (the phrase ‘red thread’ is often used in Scandinavian English to show the thought process from original idea to end execution).
“The BBC Nailed It”
The start of the 2024 journey comes of course as soon as 2023 ends, and Liverpool no longer remains as the Eurovision host city.
“It starts from our perspective this year with that strong emotion that we thought the BBC nailed it with their slogan.
“Having that slogan, that boils it all down to what is all is, made it so clear to us that this is what it is all about.
“Instead of creating the narrative, and then finding the slogan that combines all we want to do, this year it was the other way around.”
The question of course from there is, what is the way that United By Music is symbolised in 2024? The key for SVT is the importance of the Eurovision Song Contest not just on being a live event, but an important live event, with a deeper meaning than even just the competing songs and their reactions can deliver.
“To talk about it gets really emotional. Knowing there are so many millions of people sharing the same show, watching, listening, feeling – it is really magical. It doesn’t happen so often. That’s why the idea to unite people during those nights with music, the heart, and music has its own language that we all can understand. It has such a power and we love that tagline, United By Music.”
Beyond the slogan for the Song Contest the production team thereafter have attached four different vision words for the show to help steer all of the decisions around this 2024 edition. Those words are as follows: entertain, rediscover, participate and celebrate.
Entertainment That Isn’t Just Light
“We mustn’t forget to mention the obvious,” begins Christel, when we talk about the greater meaning behind the word ‘entertain’ being part of the Song Contest vision for this year, adding that “we have to constantly remind ourselves of that.”
Part of this vision for ensuring that the Song Contest is entertaining is about creating what SVT describes as “wow moments”. They have a vision to ensure that the show is packed with a plethora of stunning pieces of technology or emotion or storytelling or brilliance that makes these shows memorable forever. The decision to give more power to Contest Producer Christer Björkman by allowing more freedom to produce the running order that aims to be “creating the best TV show possible.”
It also includes a phrase that often many of us are all too familiar with, the Eurovision bubble. Part of the broadcasting aim is that Eurovision has the power to “stop the world for a moment and be in this bubble and be entertained”. It should also show off what this bubble is, with a live audience that Christel describes as “the best in the world”, across living rooms across the continent.
Entertainment also means humour, and it’s been notable how humour has been a part of the Eurovision fabric whenever Swedish hands have had their hands on the Song Contest in recent times. Christel is aware that part of the way Sweden has been able to look and laugh about itself through the medium of Song Contest programming shows a level of separation that the country can have with its image to the wider world, stating “you need to have self-confidence to have self-distance.”
However, Christel is also keen to stress that entertainment does not just mean light entertainment. “Entertainment itself is important for people, to enjoy, to participate, to have fun,” she adds.
More People Feeling They Can Participate
There are numerous voting changes that we have already seen announced at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest that will change the structure of the competition compared to previous years. This includes the decision to vote in the Grand Final from the start of song one, and the ability for the Rest of the World vote to cast their votes before the Grand Final starts.
Time will tell if this does increase the number of people who participate in voting in the Song Contest, but Christel is clear that regardless “at least the feeling of” being able to participate is one that the team think will “create more engagement”. This is certainly the experience the team have from Melodifestivalen, where the increased use of the Melodifestivalen app and its voting method has made the show more accessible for more viewers, with around 20% of viewers now thought to be actively voting in that show each week.
Another avenue where the word participation is going to be clearly visible during this year’s show will be inside of Malmö Arena. With a mantra to try and bring the viewers at home closer to the live event, it is notable that the stage design for this year will ensure far more of the Eurovision audience will be visible during the show, as fans will be stationed 270 degrees around each of the competing acts.
This was not a deliberate decision, but a product of that fluffy visionary planning for what this Song Contest should look and feel like. The DNA code for this year’s Song Contest was sent to all the teams that were pitching for the production of this stage. This is a stage that allows for more fans in the arena to be a part of the show, but also for the audience at home to see them in full force.
A Song Contest that increases the number of people visible, and the number of people that can touch the it, increases the participation. Part of this vision as well extends to the host city, with events that are not just passive but also engage local community groups to do their thing within the Song Contest. One aspect that symbolises this could be the plethora of local Malmö sports clubs who will be frequenting Eurovision Village during the week of the show.
Celebrating The Swedish Music Phenomenon
It was little surprise given how perfect the timing was that SVT believes they have plenty to celebrate and Eurovision is the platform on which to share it. Firstly of course there is the fact that our two time winner Loreen is worthy of celebrating an achievement that for Christel “shouldn’t have been possible.” Loreen’s victory in Liverpool also brings Sweden to another important milestone and that of course is Sweden’s seven wins that places them equal with Ireland on the top of the Eurovision medal table.
And yes, the fact that it will be 50 years since Sweden’s first victory at Eurovision, by a group that became one of the world’s best recognisable bands in ABBA, has to also be celebrated by the broadcaster.
“We must be brave enough to celebrate those great artists and not be too shy about that.
“We are also a great music export country, 2nd or 3rd in the world depending on how you count, and that is something to be really proud of.”
Celebrating at the Song Contest though is far more than just a list of musical memories that the host broadcaster wants to share with the world. It is also a focus for how the show celebrates all of those that take part in it. Each of the participating nations have somebody that the show will want to celebrate in their own way, especially in a year that Christel describes as a “patchwork”, with lots of uniqueness in genres, styles and presentations expected in this year’s Song Contest.
“I believe that we have created a stage this year that makes it possible to change and to put each and every artist in a totally different world. That is something that is possible to create a unique space for each and every participant and song. That is something that is extremely, for me, beautiful.”
Rediscovering, Not Just Reusing
For many people following the Song Contest, there is much obvious about the term rediscover being the final word of SVT’s Contest vision. This is the 3rd SVT production of Eurovision in 11 years and the team feel that there is no need to “reinvent the wheel” from the work that has been done before. Christel notes that part of the show will “reuse stuff that worked out well and refresh them, putting them into contemporary time.”
Part of what is being reused is already well known. We are back in the Malmö Arena which is the same location as 2013, and Petra Mede our host from that year assumes the same responsibility this year. Furthermore the slogan of United By Music is another nod to this rekindling of the old but bringing it in modern packaging for 2024.
Some of the rediscovery though has also brought changes, to try to optimise the viewing experience. Christel reflected on one aspect that was different in 2013 and 2016 compared to today, the show’s visual ID. Back at those earlier SVT hostings, the focus was first on working out what message wanted to be communicated in print before any visual ID for the show was formed. This year that process was flipped, so the Eurovision Lights theming was designed with the Eurovision stage in mind from very first idea. It meant that the key conversations were with the set designer, art director and content and lighting teams instead of taking advice from marketing bureaus.
It promises to look excellent on the Malmö Arena stage.
SVT’s Eurovision Idea
The team from SVT that have worked on the Eurovision Song Contest over the past eleven years throughout their three hostings (and much more) have all had an influence on where Eurovision has become. One of those key parts to it is with what SVT call “The Eurovision Idea”. The Eurovision idea is the overarching purpose of the Contest, the reason it exists, and use that as the framework to tie all of that together.
Martin Österdahl spoke about this in 2013 when he was Executive Producer for that year’s Song Contest, allowing the team to be reminded that the creation of Eurovision had at its core values to create cultural understanding, reduce distances and highlight every person as being equal.
“In all seriousness I believe that it is this dynamic that enables (the show) to really have an impact. The thing that makes you think that this is not just the world’s funniest and coolest show, is also feeling that it is actually exciting and in fact quite important; that it matters and that what we are doing has a meaning and a sense of worth”
Christel reflects on those words from 2013 and explains that even today SVT are “really found of the Eurovision idea”, adding that afterwards “Eurovision itself has been quite good at lifting up and telling that story.”
“We also believe it is quite beautiful that broadcasters now, they align with the story, with the higher purpose.”
In some ways the journey from We Are One, the slogan in 2013, to the completion of the grandiose journey in slogan creation with United By Music, completes this chapter. Now in 2024 there is a unity across the participating broadcasters that Eurovision is more than music and competition, but it is also border breaking storytelling, emotion and of deeper cultural value than perhaps we once allowed ourselves to admit.
I would argue that the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest was a revelation in design and values for the Song Contest. What it didn’t have in budget it had in a transformative Song Contest experience, with the parade of nations, standing audience and producer-led running order – so much of that edition made the event and more importantly the story of the Eurovision Song Contest come to light.
“We just told the story that was already there,” Christel continued. “We don’t have to reinvent Eurovision. We just have to put our effort and ambitions into this show. We have framed with entertainment, with rediscover, by celebrating all these musical perspectives. Of course by doing the stuff that we know we have done great in history, but with a twist.”
Evolution Not Revolution
For all its stunning staging and everything else that I am sure we will witness in the coming days, this year’s Eurovision Song Contest isn’t the huge dramatic step change for this competition. Yes there have been changes, and yes, the vision that SVT has influenced many of those decisions to further impact the drama, the storytelling and the engagement that fans can have with this year’s Song Contest.
But what is different than 2013 and 2016 is that SVT haven’t had to move the goalposts from where the goalposts sat in previous editions. Over the past decade each successive broadcaster has moved the Contest more in line with the vision for Eurovision that SVT came up with in 2013. So much so that by the Liverpool-hosted edition last year, the tagline of United By Music sat so well with SVT that they have convinced the powers that be that it should remain forevermore.
2024’s Eurovision Song Contest isn’t the most Swedish influenced of all time because of the tiny changes that permeate this edition. It’s because the Song Contest over the last decade has nudged itself year-upon-year to be more naturally Swedish.