explained | What is the Eurovision Song Contest that Ukraine won and why is it important?

the story So Far: Ukrainian band Kalush Orchestra won 66th Eurovision Song Contest Beyond Music held in Turin, Italy, for their song ‘Stefania’, in an apparent show of popular support for conflict-ravaged Ukraine.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky praised his country’s third victory at the singing festival, writing in a Telegram post, “Our courage influences the world, our music conquers Europe!”

Traditionally, the winning country hosts the next edition of the competition. However, taking into account the current humanitarian crisis, Mr Zelensky said that “we will do our best” to host next year’s competition in the port city of Mariupol. He underscored the “Ukrainian Mariupol”, saying: “Free, peaceful, rebuilt.”

What is Eurovision?

The Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) is an annual pan-European singing-songwriting competition organized by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). It largely includes participants from European countries along with some non-European entrants such as Australia and Israel. It is one of the longest-running and most-watched television programs, with some of its television finals reaching over 200 million viewers.

The first Eurovision competition, inspired by the format of the Italian Sanremo music festival, was held in Lugano, Switzerland in 1956, with just seven participating countries. It was won by Swiss artist Lis Assia for the song ‘Refrain’. Now, many more countries participate, with a record 43 countries participating in the same competition for some years.

It is believed that Eurovision was created by the EBU after World War II to bring European countries closer together. Eurovision’s website states that the contest was “designed to test the limits of live television broadcast technology.” Its final rounds, where artists perform an original song on a live broadcast, have since been broadcast annually by public broadcasters in all participating countries, with a few exceptions, over the years.

Eurovision Format

The winner of the contest is determined by a group of judges and a number of civil votes from the participating countries. Juries and fans in each country list their top ten favorites with two sets of points—10-12 and 8-1, with 12 points awarded to the favourites. No country can vote for its party.

26 countries get a chance to compete in the ESC’s Grand Finale, with 20 selected from the semi-finalists and six automatic finalists – the winners of the previous edition and the ‘Big Five’ countries that provided the most financial support to the EBU. These five countries are Spain, Italy, France, Germany and the United Kingdom.

Despite criticism that the quality of the music did not represent the popular standards of the time, Eurovision has historically contributed to the rise of some of the most popular international artists such as Swedish pop legends ABBA, who won the competition in 1974 with their song Waterloo. Was. Despite being Canadian, Celine Dion represented Switzerland in 1988 and owes her early popularity to her Eurovision victory that year.

Eurovision is traditionally hosted by the winner of the previous edition, with last year’s winner Ite hosting Eurovision 2022. Italian rock band Menskin won the 2021 edition with their song “Zitti a Buoni”.

Until the 1990s, there were no rules on what kind of message artists could convey through their songs. But later, in an effort to make the event more commercially lucrative, the EBU made rules to prevent contestants from defaming the contest, which meant no political message.

Has Ukraine taken a political stance on Eurovision before?

Despite the non-political rule, the EBU has not reprimanded the winning Ukrainian band for using their platform to send a clear message about the Russo-Ukraine conflict. Eurovision also took a clear stance this year by banning Russia from competition.

This is despite the fact that the EBU’s non-political rule was further formalized after Ukraine’s 2005 song entry about the anti-Russian Orange Revolution.

Ukraine was already tipped to win Eurovision this year, in a soft diplomatic vote from its European allies amid the current crisis. It won the highest voter score with jury points at 439 and an overall score of 631. Even though it was ranked fourth by the judges, the popular vote ensured a road to victory.

During the competition, the Kalush Orchestra called for public support for Ukraine, the besieged city of Mariupol, and the fighters trapped under the huge Azovstal steel plant in the city. “Please help Ukraine, Mariupol. Help Azovstal now,” shouted Oleh Psyuk, the band’s lead singer from the stage after performing ‘Stefania’ at the grand finale, which was sung entirely in Ukrainian.

Praising Ukraine’s Eurovision victory, Mr. Zelensky expressed confidence that Ukraine’s victory over Russia was imminent. “I am sure that our victorious melody in the battle with the enemy is not far off,” he wrote on Telegram. The Ukrainian compared the ESC’s victory on social media platforms to Ukraine’s symbolic victory over Russia.

However, this was not the first time that Ukraine’s race at Eurovision had sparked politics. In May 2016, Ukrainian participant Jamala won against Russian singer Sergei Lazarev. Jamala’s song ‘1944’ was about Soviet leader Joseph Stalin’s deportation of the Tatar community from Crimea during World War II.

In context, it came after Russia annexed Crimea and supported an insurgency in the Donbass region in 2014. Ukraine also ousted its pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovich after a mass revolution in 2013. While the singer denied any political message in the song, its entry managed to gain wings in the Russian Foreign Ministry.

Russia and Ukraine faced off again at Eurovision 2017. After the 2016 victory, Ukraine hosted the competition the following year, and it denied entry to Russian Eurovision contestant Yulia Samoilova with disabilities. Ms Samoilova reportedly toured Crimea with her music in 2015, violating a Ukrainian ban on all travel to Crimea while it remained under Russian control. Russia retaliated by not broadcasting Eurovision 2017 on its public broadcasting network.

How has politics shaped Eurovision?

Over the years, research on participation and voting patterns at Eurovision has indicated that Eurovision is not simply a singing competition, but an event influenced by the politics and cultural identities of the participating countries.

Starting with a small pool of participants, Eurovision grew in popularity as post-World War II Europe sought to regain its identity. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the newly independent states of the post-Soviet Union continued to come to participate in the ESC as they forged new, unique identities. Countries in Eastern Europe also increased their participation after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The competition soon spread to some Mediterranean countries as well.

Apart from Ukraine, artists from several countries have used the Eurovision platform to raise political and social issues. According to Eurovision expert Dan Vuletic, the earliest example of these dates back to 1976, when the Greek song entry protested the Turkish invasion of Cyprus.

In 2009, Georgia’s song entry “We Don’t Want to Put” was seen as an indirect reference to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Six-Day War in Georgia, where he called for the “independence” of the separatist South Ossetia enclave. . After objections from Russia, the EBU decided that the song was against its rule of political messaging and asked Georgia to change its entry. The country was disqualified after refusing to do so.

The long-standing political rivalry between Armenia and Azerbaijan has also played out at Eurovision. In 2009, reports surfaced of Azeri police questioning some citizens to vote for Armenia’s Eurovision entry ‘Jana Jan’.

Studies on fan voting patterns at Eurovision have shown that voting blocs have been formed in the contest over the years based on political allegiance, common cultural grounds or just proximity. This has also been one of the reasons why the singing competition has been criticized. One of the most prominent examples of this is Greece and Cyprus which often give each other’s entries the most votes. Voting blocks have also been formed in the Balkan states between former Soviet Union states, Britain and Ireland and Francophone European countries, according to Mr. Vuletic.