Promoting nation building and nation branding through Western European integration in the Eurovision song contest.

Abstract

This study examines the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC), as a popular culture event in which countries that have been under a post-socialist transition since 1990 – and, later on, aspiring members of the European Union - are represented in the process of creating and shaping European identity and belonging. The geopolitical map of Europe is said to have molded by the ability and power of such events, being a place of public representation of nation. Examples such as Serbia or Ukraine, which sought for and saw their victory as a chance for them to invert the social and economic order, corroborate the effort of such countries to integrate into Europe and inscribe themselves into its symbolic map. Furthermore, the ESC is used as a tool for representation by political forces or to call public attention to political issues. It can clearly be considered as the mirror which reflects in cultural and symbolic terms the current struggles of the political conditions of the area. It is also argued that Central and Eastern European countries offer on the stage excessive aesthetics and sexuality monitoring the construction of national-cultural identity as they concurrently ascertain their position in the conceptualized term of ‘Europeanness’. The Italian winning song, ‘Insieme: 1992’ is a hymn to European integration, a process which is reflected by visual elements of the show, the most prominent being the map of Europe. Throughout the years, the ESC maps have pictured a gradually widening image of Europe, and with the 2012 contest held in Azerbaijan, where conventional geographical definitions place the border between Europe and Asia, the program’s relationship to the concept of Europe may be undergoing a change after all.