The multilevel identity politics of the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest
- 20 March 2020
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in International Affairs
- Vol. 96 (3), 729-748
- https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiaa004
Abstract
This article uses the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) that took place in Tel Aviv to explore how cultural mega-events serve both as political arenas and as tools for identity construction, negotiation and contestation. These processes of identity politics are all conducted across national–subnational–international–transnational levels. The hosting of mega-events fleshes out these multiple processes in a very strong manner. We first discuss the politics of hosting mega-events in general. We then examine the identity politics associated more specifically with the Eurovision Song Contest, before examining in depth the complex forms of identity politics emerging around the competition following the 2018 Israeli victory. We suggest that it is important to study together the multiple processes—domestic, international and transnational—of identity politics that take place around the competition, as they interact with each other. Consequently, we follow the various stakeholders involved at these different levels and their interactions. We examine the internal identity negotiation process in Israel surrounding the event, the critical actors debating how to use the stage to challenge the liberal, western, ‘normal’ identity Israel hoped to project in the contest and how other stakeholders (participating states, national broadcasting agencies, participating artists) reacted to them, and finally we examine the behaviour of the institution in charge, the European Broadcasting Union, and national governments. We contribute to the study of mega-events as fields of contestation, to the understanding of the complex, multilevel nature of national identity construction, negotiation and contestation in the current era, and more broadly to the role that popular culture plays in this context.This publication has 25 references indexed in Scilit:
- Nation Branding, National Self-Esteem, and the Constitution of Subjectivity in Late ModernityForeign Policy Analysis, 2013
- Fantasies of power: Performing Europeanization on the European peripheryEuropean Journal of Cultural Studies, 2011
- Embodying the nation: football,1emotions and the construction of collective identityNationalities Papers, 2011
- Pop Goes IR? Researching the Popular Culture—World Politics ContinuumPolitics, 2009
- On the Couch with Europe: The Eurovision Song Contest, the European Broadcast Union and Belonging on the Old ContinentPopular Communication, 2008
- Wild Dances and Dying Wolves: Simulation, Essentialization, and National Identity at the Eurovision Song ContestPopular Communication, 2008
- Scripting the nation: sport, mega-events, foreign policy and state-building in post-apartheid South Africa1Sport in Society, 2008
- t.A.T.u. You! Russia, the global politics of Eurovision, and lesbian popPopular Music, 2007
- Ontological Security in World Politics: State Identity and the Security DilemmaEuropean Journal of International Relations, 2006
- The Persistent Structure of Hegemony in the Eurovision Song ContestActa Sociologica, 1996