Eurovision and the east


The Eurovision song contest is for many viewers nothing more than a fun spectacle. But in some former Soviet Union countries the contest raises powerful issues of national identity and gives insights into how they integrate with Europe. By Dr Paul Jordan


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TUDIES FOCUSING ON the return of post-communist states to Europe have come to the fore in political science research since the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe. The way in which many states of the former Eastern Bloc have engaged with European geopolitical power structures such as the European Union and Council of Europe are well-documented. These studies have raised interesting questions


about the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union and their relationship to, and engagement with the European Union as well as the broader constructions of Europe, namely the geopolitical categories of East and West. My ESRC-funded research examined issues


of Europeanisation, national identity and nation branding in Estonia and Ukraine through the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC), looking specifically at the role the ESC plays in highlighting issues of identity politics. Although some studies have been made of the ESC there has been no detailed


14 SOCIETY NOW SPRING 2012


research on the relationship of a former Soviet republic with the contest. First inaugurated in 1956, the Eurovision Song


Contest is one of the largest television and media productions in the world although often dismissed as musically and culturally inferior. But it deserves attention because of its longevity and annual audience. And, as the research shows, different countries attribute different meanings to the ESC beyond the dominant (western) view. Estonia was the first former Soviet republic


to win the ESC in 2001 and Ukraine the third in 2005. In both cases hosting the contest was significant for domestic politics. It was also an opportunity to promote a positive international image, to move away from the Soviet past and, in the Ukrainian case, the shadow of Chernobyl. In Estonia the event coincided with a


decisive point in EU accession negotiations and in Ukraine it followed on from the Orange Revolution of 2004-5. Whilst comparisons between these two countries can be problematic,


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