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This book uses the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC), as an analytical entry point to understand and illuminate post-War Europe and the drive to create an identity that can legitimise the European project in its broadest sense. The ESC presents an idealised vision of Europe, and this has long existed in a strained relationship with reality. While the trajectory of post-war European integration is a high-profile topic, we believe that the ESC offers a unique and innovative way to think about the role of culture in the history of post-War European integration and tensions between the ideal and reality of European unity. Through the series of case studies that make up the chapters in this book, analysis brings these interlinked tensions to light, exploring the roles of culture and identity, alongside and a productive conversation with the political and economic projects of post-war European integration.
List of contents
1. Entangled Histories: Identity, Eurovision and European Integration.- 2. Germany as the Good European: National Atonement and Performing Europeanness at the Eurovision Song Contest.- 3. 'Making Your Mind Up': the United Kingdom and Eurovision-scepticism.- 4. Losing Nationhood at the Heart of Europe? Belgium, Eurovision, and National Identity.- 5. Negotiating Post-war Nationhood: Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina at the Eurovision Song Contest.- 6. Recognising Kosovo in the World of Televised International Song Contests.- 7. Ruslana, Serduchka and Jamala: National Self-Imaging in Ukraine's Eurovision Entries.- 8. Nation branding, cultural relations, and cultural diplomacy at Eurovision: between Australia and Europe.- 9. 'If Love Was a Crime, We Would Be Criminals': the Eurovision Song Contest and the Queer International Politics of Flags.- 10. Europe - Start Voting Now! Democracy, Participation and Diversity in the Eurovision Song Contest.
About the author
Julie Kalman is Associate Professor of History at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. She has published widely on the history of French-speaking Europe.
Ben Wellings is a Senior Lecture in Politics and International Relations at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. He is the author of English Nationalism, Brexit and the Anglosphere: wider still and wider (2019) and English Nationalism and Eurosceptcism: losing the peace (2012).
Keshia Jacotine works in research development at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. She holds a MPhil in Political Science, and has written about British and European politics for the Conversation and Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Summary
This book uses the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC), as an analytical entry point to understand and illuminate post-War Europe and the drive to create an identity that can legitimise the European project in its broadest sense. The ESC presents an idealised vision of Europe, and this has long existed in a strained relationship with reality. While the trajectory of post-war European integration is a high-profile topic, we believe that the ESC offers a unique and innovative way to think about the role of culture in the history of post-War European integration and tensions between the ideal and reality of European unity. Through the series of case studies that make up the chapters in this book, analysis brings these interlinked tensions to light, exploring the roles of culture and identity, alongside and a productive conversation with the political and economic projects of post-war European integration.
