For decades, Europe’s annual musical extravaganza brought the continent together, free of politics. Then Putin turned everything upside down. A first-person Eurovision report from writer Charlie Sohne:
about the time Lukashenko gave Putin a tractor, performed by Let 3, a band whose ironic fashion suggests a Stalinist brigade made over by theOver the course of initial competitions, 37 countries were whittled down to 26 finalists. But the final broadcast, one of the most watched nonsporting events in the world, is just part of what goes on across the host city. I spent the week shuttling from theatrical performances to concerts, to after-parties, to after-after parties.
But the EBU’s “implicit” values have, historically, been tossed aside by members whose politics are more explicit and, well, scary. Eurovision’s low point was probably when it allowed itself to become an advertisement for Franco’s Spain in 1969. In 2012, when Azerbaijan hosted, the festival became the site of violent crackdowns on protesters. Then there was Tel Aviv 2019.
Jamala’s straightforward answers stood out. More often than not, I got the sense that current artists were trying to play the EBU’s game of communicating implicitly, coyly or not at all. On the day before the finale, the EBU released a statement that it had rejected a request from Zelenskyy to speak. Its explanation? “One of the cornerstones of the contest is the nonpolitical nature of the event.
I started to think I was oversimplifying: Maybe it would cause a revolt within the delegations? Maybe it was setting a precedent? Maybe by “iron fist,” Graham Norton meant that the EBU would send goons his way. Then I asked Jamala about the EBU’s statement; her response was unequivocal. “The president whose country is at war has the right to speak at any event in the democratic world,” she said, “because it is for freedom that we are fighting.
The justifications for juries and faith in “experts” won’t surprise anyone vaguely familiar with constitutional design: People can make bad decisions for thoughtless reasons. Either voters will choose acts that are simply novelty or camp without focusing on talent and craft, or they’ll vote “politically,” for neighboring countries . Days before he finished second, Kaarija told me he was firmly on the side of democracy, gesturing to the, and the outsized power of such a small group.
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