“So Disarmingly European”. Eurovision Song Contest and the European Identity

The article retrace some stages of the long history of ESC, whose meaning has varied over time, developed in European media context, with its wide international reach and deep longevity, began in a post-war context. What makes ESC an interesting phenomenon beyond an aesthetic judgement and the many configurations it has assumed over time, is its very existence which can be viewed as paradoxical in an European reality so eternally crossed by political crises, and in a continuously changing media landscape. In its 70 years of life there has been a continuous succession of nations in ESC, that have entered or exited, depending on economic situations, internal conflicts or political conflicts. Besides being a fertile case to study, ESC certainly represents a potentially rich heritage, remaining a cultural construction shared by millions of people. An annual event in which those using the word “European” are people and not just political representatives. In several cases, the individual nations have in fact drawn, during the various editions, from their own internal and local narratives, or have readjusted and reconstructed, or “built”, media performances that evoke elements of their national identity. Another relevant issue concerns some frequent situations when the individual national representation was questioned, due to the singer’s ethnic origins. ESC offers various discursive and value components interconnecting each other, and it owes its cultural depth to its long history and the vastness of the nations involved and of number of potential viewers. It is a high budget television show but it is also a musical performance, partly made live, partly resulting of videos and postproduction editing. At the same time, it exhibits an organization of different media networks and nations, outlining a territory that is much more than European, going from Russia to Australia. So, it is a real brand, very well known in the world, although full of contradictions and with values not always positively considered. On the other hand, it represents a sort of permanent laboratory constantly changing, just as the European identity itself is mutant and problematic