Media events and cosmopolitan fandom: ‘Playful nationalism’ in the Eurovision Song Contest

Abstract

Academic literature on media events is increasingly concerned with their global dimensions and the applicability of Dayan and Katz's (1992) theoretical concept in a post-national context. This paper contributes to this debate by exploring the Eurovision Song Contest as a global media event. In particular, we employ a perspective from 'inside the media event', drawing upon empirical material collected during the 2014 Eurovision final in Copenhagen and focusing on the experiences of fans attending the contest. We argue that the ESC as a media event is experienced by its fans as a cosmopolitan space, open and diverse, whereas national belonging is expressed in a playful way tied to the overall visual aesthetics of the contest. However, the bounded and narrow character of participation render this cosmopolitan space rather limited.

Turkishness on the stage: Affective nationalism in the Eurovision Song Contest

“…Following Ahmed’s model of emotions and affect, I argue that affective discourses of national identity play out to delineate the contours of Turkish cultural identity and guide the orientations towards certain styles of national embodiment. In this way, the case of Turkey resonates with the Eastern European positions of having a ‘more sincere and strategic attitude’ (Bolin, 2006: 195) towards the contest, rather than an ironic one characterized by ‘playful nationalism and cosmopolitan fandom’ (Kyriakidou et al, 2017). Although the Turkish case is different from Eastern European desires for a rupture from their socialist pasts (see Miazhevich, 2010; Mitrović, 2010), the dream of being seen as a part of Europe – echoing Bourdon’s (2007: 266) study – are also emphasized in Turkish ‘sincerity’.…”

“…Bolin (2006: 195) identifies two positions: (i) the Western, having an ironic stance towards national competitiveness; (ii) and the Eastern, which is more liable to national excitement and fervour in the ESC. Kyriakidou and her co-authors’ (2017) study on ESC fandom, for instance, sheds light on the ‘Western’ styles of national excitement in the ESC. They suggest that this fandom is comprised of national belonging and cosmopolitanism, and is largely characterized by carnivalesque elements.…”

‘There are times when I feel like a bit of an alien’: middling migrants and the national order of things

“…That's a game with the identifies that you can observe a lot around here, which I like a lot. (quoted in Favell 2008: 9) Finally, a recent project studying the Eurovision Song Contest (Kyriakidou et al 2017), a televised music competition between European nations, noticed similar practices among fans at the event. Initially when meeting strangers, national categories and, in some cases, stereotypes were again used to 'break the ice' and generate rapport, often in a fairly convivial and humorous manner.…”

Douze point: Eurovisions and Euro-Divisions in the Eurovision Song Contest – Review of two decades of research

“…The competitive setting of the ESC creates a seeming equality across the continent’s nations – from small San Marino, Cyprus and Malta to giants like Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Spain and, more recently, Russia (Kyriakidou et al, 2017). But as Akin (2013) asserts, peripheral countries feel they are ‘competing in a car race with a motorbike’ (p. 2314), an experience nowadays oddly shared by past Eurovision empires like Ireland and the United Kingdom that in the last decade got used to receiving nil points (Georgiou, 2008).…”

“…Turkish, Azerbaijani and Israeli performers – often seeming non-European – have won the contest and thereby extended the idea of Europe and its multicultural vision. Indeed, theoretical insertions like the idea of multiple modernity – like the concept of banal nationalism (Billig, 1995; Kyriakidou et al, 2017) – are likely to advance the academic standing of Eurovision studies.…”