Eurovision: One of the First Parties of the Summer!

One thing I love about Iceland is how excited the entire country seems to get in the lead up to Eurovision. Icelandic entries have been incredibly diverse in terms of musical genres, and I wondered whether this was a reflection of the Icelandic taste in music or what the Icelandic population think has a higher chance of winning Eurovision. I spoke to Gísli Marteinn Baldursson, who has been the Icelandic commentator for Eurovision for many years. He suggested that the reason for the diverse choices is actually because of how diverse the Icelandic music scene is - that people vote based on what they enjoy on stage in Söngvakeppnin and not on what might do well in the competition.

Photo: Gísli Berg

Eurovision Viewership:

I am from the UK, and this excitement and hype surrounding Eurovision is something that I had not really experienced before - don’t get me wrong, I’ve always loved Eurovision, but here it seems to be a national excitement, and there’s a sense of community about it. Gísli told me that Eurovision is broadcast by the main TV stations across Europe and viewership is very high, it is among the highest in the Nordic countries, especially Iceland and Sweden. I wondered whether there was also the same excitement after Eurovision as there is before - and whilst the hype might not be the same in its nature, Gísli did remind me that Måneskin were very popular after their win, appearing on Spotify playlists all over Europe, and he also told me that songs from the competition sometimes make their way onto Icelandic charts after the competition (which is something I don’t think happens as much in the UK).

The success of Eurovision:

I wondered how significant this might be in the success of Eurovision, and why people love it so much, and I completely agree with Gísli’s observation that diversity of the music and acts plays a big role: ‘very weird, very camp, sometimes funny (sometimes accidentally funny) acts that you basically wouldn’t see anywhere else’, and the fact that some of the songs are very good and some are really quite bad makes for ‘a funny and entertaining TV show’. One of my favourite things about Eurovision is the fact that a lot of the artists seem to just have a lot of fun, and Gísli really hit the nail on the head with his assessment, saying that people shouldn’t take it too seriously and that in Iceland it’s often one of the first parties of the summer - it’s all about the atmosphere. 

Of course, I couldn’t leave the interview there, I obviously needed to ask who Gísli thought would win -  whilst the winners can sometimes be very unpredictable, Gísli suspects that Ukraine’s song Stefania will do quite well in the televotes (the jury’s opinion might be more uncertain though). In addition to this, he believes that Italy and Sweden will do quite well - if you read my other article, you’ll notice that I disagree about these two and personally I don’t feel like they stand out as much as some of the others. This is another reason I love Eurovision so much - there’s something there for everyone, no matter what your personal taste in music is.

Can an Organisation such as the EBU be ‘Apolitical’?

As Gísli’s Ukraine comment suggests, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows this year: as many people will already be aware, the biggest Eurovision news this year is that Russia will not be participating - the statement released by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) claims that whilst the EBU is an ‘apolitical’ organisation, they are ‘dedicated to protecting the values of a cultural competition which promotes exchange and understanding…’ and ‘celebrates diversity through music and unites Europe on one stage.’

To me, this statement is riddled with contradictions, especially considering how the EBU has conveniently ignored war and human rights violations in the past. Israel was not prohibited from competing in the past. In fact, they won the competition in 2018, and therefore hosted it in 2019. The Icelandic entry was particularly memorable that year - not only for their song and style which, described as ‘bondage-pop, techno-punk and industrial goth’, easily stood out amongst the euro-pop style entries but also because of their pro-Palestinian protest during the final vote announcements. Iceland was fined as a result of this, for breaking the ‘apolitical’ rules of the contest. That year, there were calls for a boycott of the competition, from pro-Palestine protestors - Hatari, whilst clearly agreeing with the sentiment, went about protesting in a different way, instead using their platform during the live show to protest Israel’s actions to as large an audience as possible. In earlier years, the EBU came under fire for ignoring potential human rights violations in Azerbaijan, with reports of people being forcibly removed from their homes in order to create space to build the new stadium in which Eurovision would take place in 2012.

Photo: RÚV

How does the EBU even define ‘political’?

The EBU actively punished Iceland for behaving ‘politically’ and remained comparatively silent in response to the human rights violations in Azerbaijan several years before that. In 2018 one Chinese broadcaster censored the Irish entry ‘Together’ due to its gay storyline and the EBU immediately terminated its contract with the broadcaster meaning that Eurovision could not be seen in China at all. Surely banning an entire country from watching the show (albeit on reasonable grounds) would count as a political act? The EBU has not hesitated to ban songs in the past for their political nature, the 2021 Belarusian act was not allowed to perform, and when the act’s replacement was deemed equally political (and therefore not suitable) Belarus was unable to perform that year altogether. In contrast to this, the Romanian entry ‘De la capăt’, sung in the 2015 contest, struck me as overtly political - the song was released to raise awareness for children who had been left behind as their parents moved abroad to work. This was allowed to perform. I have not delved into the minutia of the EBU regulations, but this seems somewhat inconsistent to me.

One of my friends in the UK once told me they didn’t like Eurovision because having political messages and sombre topics alongside gimmicky or tacky performances makes any messages sent less important, memorable or serious. I am not sure where I stand on this - I can see their point of course, but I also think that representation and diversity will never be perfect and all that can be done is to continuously improve. Hopefully, this year’s exclusion of Russia from the contest is one step towards that. I cannot say that I understand the decisions that the EBU makes regarding what they should stand up for and what they feel happy to ignore but I do believe that they are on the side of diversity, even if there is (a lot of) room for improvement, and it is something that ultimately is a lot of fun and brings people together.