The Eurovision fever hit us all, and this blog was not left unharmed. I’ve never followed this locally highly acclaimed festival with any fervour, I do however amuse myself with its outcome. I am not talking here about who wins or loses, nor the ‘bull’ we hear from the bad losers such as our country and on our local media, but rather the socio-political innuendos that interweave the final outcome of the festival.For starters, let us go through some definitions.
Definitions:
The Eurovision Song Contest:
The Eurovision Song Contest (French: Concours Eurovision de la Chanson)[1] is an annual competition held among active member countries of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).
Each member country submits a song to be performed on live television and then casts votes for the other countries' songs to determine the most popular song in the competition. Each country participates via one of their national EBU-member television stations, whose task it is to select a singer and a song to represent their country in the international competition. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurovision_Song_Contest
Eurovision:
Eurovision is the operational service of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), and is the world's largest provider of international transmission services of live sports and news events. - http://www.eurovision.net/about/profile.php
European Broadcasting Union:
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; French: L'Union Européenne de Radio-Télévision ("UER"), and unrelated to the European Union) was formed on 12 February 1950 by 23 broadcasting organisations from Europe and the Mediterranean at a conference in the coastal resort of Torquay in Devon, England. In 1993, the International Radio and Television Organisation (OIRT), an equivalent organisation of broadcasters from Central and Eastern Europe, was merged with the EBU.
As of July 6, 2007, the EBU has 75 active members from 56 countries, and 43 associate members from a further 25. Members are radio and television companies, most of which are government-owned public service broadcasters or privately owned stations with public missions. Full active Members are based in countries from Algeria to the Vatican State, including almost all European countries. Associate members aren't limited to those from European countries and the Mediterranean but include broadcasters from Canada, Japan, Mexico, India and Hong Kong, as well as many others. Associate Members from the United States include ABC, CBS, NBC, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and Time Warner.
Active members are those whose states fall within the European Broadcasting Area, or otherwise those who are members of the Council of Europe. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Broadcasting_Union
Europe:
Europe is one of the seven traditional continents of Earth. The westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, it is bounded to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the west by the Atlantic Ocean, to the south by the Mediterranean Sea, to the southeast by the Caucasus Mountains, the Black Sea and the waterways connecting the Black Sea to the Mediterranean. To the east, Europe is generally divided from Asia by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, and by the Caspian Sea.[1] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe
Democracy:
Democracy is a system of government by which political sovereignty is retained by the people and either exercised directly by citizens or through their elected representatives. It is derived by from the Greek δημοκρατία ([demokratia] info), "popular government"[1] which was coined from δήμος (dēmos), "people" and κράτος (kratos), "rule, strength" in the middle of the 5th century BC to denote the political systems then existing in some Greek city-states, notably Athens.[2] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy
Eastern Bloc:
During the Cold War, the term Eastern Bloc (or Soviet Bloc) was used to refer to the Soviet Union and countries it either controlled or that were its allies in Central and Eastern Europe (Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and—until the early 1960s—Albania).
The label "Eastern Bloc" was also used to collectively denote member states of the Warsaw Pact (a Soviet-dominated military organisation) or the Comecon (an international economic organization of Communist states). Allies outside of Eastern Europe, such as Mongolia and often China, Cuba, Vietnam, Ethiopia, and North Korea were sometimes included in the term Eastern Bloc as well.
The terms Eastern Bloc and Soviet Union are sometimes confused. Although the Soviet Union had much political and economic influence over its Eastern Bloc possessions, the other countries in the Eastern Bloc were never constituent republics of the Soviet Union. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Bloc
Pop Music:
Pop music is music charted by the number or sales, plays, etc., that the work receives.[1] It is not a particular genre or style of music, but simply that which is the most popular for the tracked period of time. Most commercial music of any genre is composed with deliberate intent to appeal to the majority of its contemporaries,[2][3][4] but, unless extremely popular in its own genre, it must to appeal to a wider audience to appear on the pop charts.
In opposition to music that may require education or formation to fully appreciate, a defining characteristic of pop music is that anyone is able to enjoy it. Artistic concepts such as musical form and aesthetics are not a concern in the writing of pop songs, the primary objectives being audience enjoyment and commercial success.[5]
Although pop music is produced with a desire to sell records and do well in the charts, it does not necessitate wide acclaim or commercial success: there are bad or failed pop songs.[6]
Initially the term was an abbreviation of, and synonymous with, popular music, but evolved around the 1950s to describe a specific musical category.[7] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pop_music
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With a few definitions in place, one is in a better position to entertain himself/herself with the Eurovision Song Festival.
A few myths still surround the Festival; firstly it is neither a ‘Euro Song Festival’ nor a ‘Song for Europe’. It is organised by the EBU, which is comprised of a group of high profile Broadcasters that have nothing to do with Europe or the EU. They are an International money making entertainment enterprise, and as such they are very successful.
With respect to the argument that Israel, Turkey or Russia not being part of Europe hence the case for their right to be or not be in this Festival, one has to look at the who are the EBU, and the definition of Europe.
The results of recent editions of the Eurovision Song Festival were decided by ‘televoting’, which is in theory the will of the majority. At least it is definitely the will of those who are fervently following the festival! There are numerous discussions about the outcome of this voting system, but a ‘demos kratos’ better than this I still have to conceive.
The voting has been characterised by a new definition of ‘neighbour voting’, mostly by the Eastern Bloc. The sociological impact of these results are very clear, at least they are clear to me. Firstly Europe is not England and France, nor Germany. Not mentioning Italy because they do not even care to participate. Europe is far from united, and the discrimination between the financially Big European Countries and the rest of the Countries is one effect of such voting. Maybe the Eastern Block feel they that they are not wholly equal to their big buddies hence naturally flock together and block vote.
Definitely the numbers that make the New European countries outnumber the old Europe. The majority is in the East! Old is relative to post World War Two definitions. In the 18th Century Europe was a conglomeration of Kingdoms that inter-wed to keep a stronghold over their territories and wealth. It encompassed the lands between the Mountbattens and the Romanovs.
The current Music Industry is dominated by UK and USA, maybe these votes are the first signs of an Eastern shift. Few people are aware for instance that the budgets of Bollywood already exceed those of Hollywood.
My final comments are about Pop Music. What is popular is the current fad. (With the exception of Finland’s victory a few years back, which was more of a show of force by the 'Rockers'.) We’ve seen, even in this edition of the Eurovision, high rankers that are basically Brtiney Spears wanna-be’s, a current craze. Tátu` were the eastern version of the Spice Girls plus some current (for the time) eccenricities from Madonna.
A good song is a good song, and what the people like at the moment is what gets to the top, add to that the block voting, and you get the results we have in the Eurovision Festival.
Lastly, one should not refrain from giving due attention to things like the Spanish entry. These are spin-offs of the frustration of western citizens that are coerced into a ‘politically correct’ society pushing forward such performances akin to the utterly gross “Borat” film.
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