Scandinavian Euro-Enthusiasts
A Contest to Unify the Continent
A Visual Analysis of the Image of Europe and the Host Nation in the
2010, 2013, 2014 and 2016 Eurovision Song Contest
MA Thesis in European Studies
Graduate School of Humanities
Universiteit van Amsterdam
Marloes Winkel
Main supervisor: dr. Chiara de Cesari
Second supervisor: dr. Menno Spiering
January, 2017h1
I would like to express my gratitude to dr. Chiara de Cesari, who quickly answered all my questions and whose constructive criticism helped me improve the quality of this thesis. I would also like to thank my cousin Sarah Wilders for proofreading my work and improving my academic English skills
along the way. Lastly I would like to thank the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), Norsk Rikskringkasting (NRK), Sveriges Television (SVT) and Danmarks Radio (DR) for organising and
hosting the Eurovision Song Contests analysed in this thesis. Their excellent work resulted in memorable shows and inspired this thesis in the first place.
Table of contents
Preface 3
Table of contents 5
“Bienvenue, välkomna”: Introduction 9
Chapter 1 All kinds of everything: Theoretical framework 13
Chapter 2 Oslo 2010: Share the moment! 23
Chapter 3 Malmö 2013: We are one 33
Chapter 4 Copenhagen 2014: #JoinUs! 47
Chapter 5 Stockholm 2016: Come together 57
“Bonsoir Europe”: Conclusion 69
“This is My-rovision And His-rovision And Her-rovision And You-rovision
Bienvenue, välkomna, be our guest At the Eurovision Song Contest”2
2 Matheson Bayley, ‘Story of ESC (That’s Eurovision)’, http://genius.com/Matheson-bayley-story-of-esc-thats-eurovision-lyrics, accessed on 3 December 2016.
“Bienvenue, välkomna”: Introduction
The opening quote of this thesis was used during the opening act of the second semi-final of the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest (ESC). The song in which it was used was meant not only as a welcome to the global audience of the show, but also as a way to explain what the ESC is about to new and loyal viewers alike. These few lines in particular express a view of the ESC in which the ESC belongs to all of ‘us’. It is not further specified who ‘us’ is, but apparently the ESC belongs to, ‘me’, ‘him’, ‘her’ and ‘you’, in which the latter of course sounds exactly like the word ‘Eurovision’. In other words, the ESC is an event for everyone in which all who want to participate are able and invited to do so. As such, it does not really matter where the ESC takes place. It is, in this view, after all mainly the audience that makes the ESC into what it is. However, in the same few lines we do see a reference to the actual host of the event. Välkomna is the Swedish word for bienvenue: the French word every ESC-fan will immediately recognise and which means welcome. The 2016 ESC did indeed take place in Sweden, which is not the focus of these few lines but is nevertheless included. We can therefore say that this small part of only one act of one show during a single ESC carries two hidden images or
representations: one of the ESC and Europe, and one of the host country Sweden. This is exemplary for the way I will approach many opening and interval acts in this thesis when aiming to answer the following research questions:
How do host broadcasters convey images of both Europe and the host nation during the Eurovision Song Contest and of what do these images consist? How did the Scandinavian host broadcasters develop a specific Scandinavian interpretation of the Eurovision narrative in their hosting of the
ESC?
I will aim to answer these questions by analysing excerpts from four editions of the ESC in three different countries: Norway (Oslo 2010), Sweden (Malmö 2013, Stockholm 2016) and Denmark (Copenhagen 2014). The reason I chose these case studies is threefold. Firstly, these countries are often thought of as a group of countries that are in many aspects similar, so much that they even have a group name as Scandinavian or Nordic countries (the latter shared with Finland and Iceland). Their geographical, cultural, political and historical ties allow for better comparison of their approaches of the ESC and themselves. These Nordic or Scandinavian transnational ties have been discussed academically before in relation to the ESC, as will be further elaborated upon in the first chapter. Secondly, these countries have a long Eurovision history and both the ESC and its national
preliminaries enjoy great popularity there. Moreover, they have been very successful ESC contestants in the last few years and have therefore been given the opportunity to host it once or, in the case of Sweden, even twice. By hosting the ESC, their national broadcasters have been able to express their views of the ESC, Europe and their own nation during the show. Lastly, the Scandinavian countries
are well-established, wealthy, stable and uncontroversially European nations. Unlike the countries that scholars often choose as case studies in relation to the ESC, such as Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Serbia which will be discussed more in depth in the first chapter, the Europeanness of the Scandinavian countries is not questioned but rather taken for granted. They therefore do not need to showcase their Europeanness or modernity on the ESC stage, as the aforementioned countries are often ‘accused’ of doing.
Whereas other academics mainly focus on national and European identities expressed in performances of artists representing countries whose Europeanness was both questioned and taken for granted, those of them who chose to focus on images or identities expressed during the hosting focus only on national images and on countries whose Europeanness is indeed sometimes questioned. My thesis therefore aims to fill a void by focussing on both national and European images, during the hosting of the ESC and in countries whose Europeanness is taken for granted. Moreover, my research will contribute to the body of Eurovision literature by combining methodological elements of
imagology as well as discourse analysis in order to analyse both the mental and visual images conveyed on the Eurovision stage. My argument will be threefold. Firstly I will argue that the Scandinavian host broadcasters use a specific, new type of interval act in order to convey their ESC narrative. This type of interval act combines elements of a national image with humour, often in the form of over-the-top parody, in order to convey a more serious message that is European of nature. This type of interval act often uses national stereotypes or caricatures and is often given the form of a song or a guided tour through the host city of country. Secondly, I will argue that the Scandinavian broadcasters have developed a rather distinctive Eurovision narrative in which the slogan Unity in diversity plays an important role. Moreover, the ESC is in their view not only an exciting media event but also a carrier of an inclusive message of European unity, in which (national) diversity plays a role but where unity or inclusion always prevails. Lastly I will argue that the Scandinavian broadcasters not only have a distinctive view on Europe, but also on their own nations in which humour plays an important role and in which they are not afraid to mock and use their very own nations in order to convey their particular image of Europe.
These arguments will be developed over the course of five chapters. The first chapter critically assesses the highly diverse academic body of ESC literature in relation to topics that are relevant for my research question, such as the role of the host in media events, duality between Europe and the nation at the ESC and the Scandinavian countries in relation to the ESC. This chapter will also reflect on the methodology used in this thesis. The next four chapters each discuss one edition of the ESC, namely Oslo2010, Malmö2013, Copenhagen2014 and Stockholm2016 respectively. All chapters follow the same structure. They start off with a reflection on the slogan (e.g. Share the moment in 2010) and the postcards, the short videos in which the upcoming artist or country is introduced. Next, one part of each of the three shows is discussed. This could be one of the following: an opening act, an interval act or a short pre-recorded video. When necessary or relevant I will make a short side note on
other elements of the show, such as the texts spoken by the hosts, or make a comparison with other discussed acts. The limits of this thesis in time and word count, however, did not allow me to make extensive comparisons with acts in other editions of the ESC than the ones analysed here. The conclusion returns to the research question and discusses other relevant results of my analysis.
Chapter 1 All kinds of everything: Theoretical framework
“The song. Everything else might be important, but the song is essential. Let it be about something everyone can connect to.
Love Works. Peace is also a popular way to go.3”
The above quote is taken from the 2016 final interval act in which the ultimate ESC song is recreated using elements from previous ESC successes. While the song is deemed “essential” for ESC success, the essential element for academic success is the theoretical framework which structures research and situates it in a broader framework of academic debate. The theoretical framework in this chapter is developed around the research question discussed in the introduction: How do host broadcasters convey images of both Europe and the host nation during the Eurovision Song Contest and of what do these images consist? As social scientist Udo Merkel accurately writes “no single theoretical
framework can encapsulate the totality of a social phenomenon.”4 I will therefore not aim to do this.
Rather, I will discuss several recurrent themes in Eurovision literature. These themes are grouped together based on how they are related to the research question. Academic literature on the ESC is accurately described by the title of Irish singer Dana’s song All kinds of everything which won the ESC in 1970. ESC literature is as scattered as the musical styles performed at the ESC. It covers research on the aforementioned musical styles performed on the Eurovision stage, as well as research on stereotypes, its contribution to the development of a European public sphere, the voting system and much, much more. It was researched by academics from a broad range of disciplines, varying from musicology and anthropology to sociology and studies of event management. This thesis will make a small contribution to this large and varied body of academic literature.
This chapter is structured as follows: Firstly the role of the host broadcaster will be discussed through a brief overview of the role the ESC as a media event can play in identity building and the organisational structure of the ESC. Secondly I will discuss how the ESC functions on both a European and a national level. This duality is central to my research as it links representations of the nation to the representation of Europe. Thirdly I will shortly discuss the Nordic countries in relation to the ESC as they provide for my case studies. Lastly I will present the methodology used in this thesis before providing a conclusion in which I will situate my research in the broad framework of
Eurovision literature.
3 Edward af Sillén, ‘Love Love Peace Peace’, http://genius.com/Edward-af-sillen-love-love-peace-peace-lyrics, accessed on 3 December 2016.
4 Udo Merkel, ‘Making Sense of Identity Discourses in International Events, Festivals and Spectacles’, in: Udo Merkel (ed.)., Making Sense of Identity Discourses in International Events, Festivals and Spectacles, London: Palgrave Macmillan 2015, p. 15.
Media events and representation: The role of the host
The role of televised mega-events such as the ESC is not only to entertain, but also to contribute to the “construction, consolidation and contestation”5 of identities. Although such events appear to be
inclusive, Udo Merkel argues that they often pay most attention to a certain dominant identity
discourse, thereby not recognising or even marginalising certain other identities.6 To describe the role
such an event has to play sociologist Myria Georgiou coined the concept of ‘media events’. These are events that are connected to a certain time-frame and social experiences surrounding the specific event, and which play a certain cultural and political role.7 The ESC, with its time-frame of almost a
year and numerous preliminaries and fan events, fits perfectly in this concept. When discussing the political role of the ESC, many authors, such as musicologist Annemette Kirkegaard, point to its massive audience to illustrate the point that politics “not only concern lyrics [of the songs performed, MW]”8 but also concern the size of the event itself. Sociologist Cornel Sandvoss adds to this point that
the ESC not only reflects images of Europe, but “as the most popular and longest running
pan-European media event also forms [italics in original, MW] visions of Europe for those on the inside as much as on the outside of the continent.”9 This is central to my research, because if this is true, it is of
utmost importance to analyse what visions of Europe are promoted, what role the host country plays in this and how these images become dominant.
Each ESC is organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) in cooperation with a host broadcaster. Most often this is the public broadcaster of the country that won the ESC the previous year. Successful countries might therefore be able to leave a mark on how their successors organise the ESC, both by using an appealing narrative or by using innovative technologies to improve the show. The collaboration between the EBU and the host broadcaster can be described in terms of a unity-in-diversity narrative.10 The EBU, as overarching European institution, embodies unity and
provides the continuity that gives the ESC a “historical longue durée”11. The national host broadcaster,
on the other hand, brings something new and original to every ESC and provides the necessary diversity to create an interesting and unique event. However, Sandvoss argues that the influence of the EBU on the ESC is not very large.12 When lookin at the EBU’s statutes, Sandvoss nevertheless
identified some values that are important to the EBU. Any influence the EBU has, would therefore
5 Ibidem, p. 24. 6 Ibidem, p. 17.
7 Myria Georgiou, ‘ “In the End, Germany will Always Resort to Hot Pants”: Watch Europe Singing, Constructing the Stereotype’, Popular Communication, nr. 6 (2008),, p. 149.
8 Annemette Kirkegaard, ‘The Nordic Brotherhoods – Eurovision as a Platform for Partnership and Competition’, in: Dafni Tragaki (ed.), Empire of Song: Europe and Nation in the Eurovision Song Contest, Lanham: Scarecrow Press 2013, pp. 84-85.
9 Sandvoss, ‘On the Couch with Europe’, p. 202.
10 Andrea F. Bohlman and Ioannis Polychronakis, ‘Eurovision Everywhere – A Kaleidoscopic Vision of the Grand Prix’, in: Dafni Tragaki (ed.), Empire of Song: Europe and Nation in the Eurovision Song Contest, Lanham: Scarecrow Press 2013, p. 65
11Philip V. Bohlman , ‘Tempus Edax Rerum – Time and the Making of the Eurovision Song’, in: Dafni Tragaki (ed.), Empire of Song: Europe and Nation in the Eurovision Song Contest, Lanham: Scarecrow Press 2013, p. 45.
most likely be used to promote a Europe of “inclusiveness, plurality, authorial control and independence.”13
The organisational structure of each show leaves only little room for the host broadcaster to showcase its country. The large majority of the time is of course filled with the acts, representing all participating countries, on which the host broadcaster has no influence whatsoever. Moments where the host broadcaster can, quite literally, steal the show therefore include the opening acts, the interval acts and the postcard videos that introduce the next act. Interval acts can take form as pre-recorded videos shown to the audience or take place on stage in the ESC arena. Theatre studies specialist Marilena Zaroulia describes two types of interval acts: those that celebrate the host country’s national identity and promote its authentic culture and those that celebrate a common European identity.14
Kirkegaard further differentiates the first type of interval act as described by Zaroulia. Interval acts focussing on the host country could either display “traditional, nostalgic or even historical
presentations of the nation and its heritage” or “their technological and highly modern abilities and competences through popular music production and famous stars.”15 Zaroulia’s distinction between
nationally and European defined interval acts offers quite a black-and-white understanding of the acts created by the show’s host. Later in this chapter I will reflect on the duality between Europe and the nation at the ESC. This duality is however not visible in Zaroulia’s understanding of the interval acts, where the national and the European seem to be opposed rather than in relation to each other. A dual understanding of the ESC calls for a third category of interval acts in which the national and the European complement each other and one can be used to illustrate a narrative about the other. As will become clearer in the next four chapters, this is a type of interval act that is in fact often used by the Scandinavian host broadcasters which further reflects the needs of this new category of interval acts. The opening act could be considered a special type of interval act as it not only functions as a spectacular beginning of the show, it also welcomes both the audience in the arena as well as the millions of viewers spread over Europe and the world. Between each nationally defined performance, the host broadcaster has the chance to shortly showcase its narrative once more in the postcard which is shown right before each act. These postcards connect the local to the global and form “the bridge, from Europe with all its differences, political, ideological and cultural, to the Europe celebrated for its potential sameness.”16 It is likely that these postcards also fit in one of Zaroulia’s categories albeit
slightly differently. As postcards introduce the next performance and generally last only for about thirty seconds, it is presumably not suitable to elaborate on Europe as a whole. Broadcasters can,
12 Cornel Sandvoss, ‘On the Couch with Europe: The Eurovision Song Contest, the European Broadcast Union and Belonging on the Old Continent’, Popular Communication, nr. 6 (2008), p. 202.
13 Ibidem, p. 205.
14 Marilena Zaroulia, ‘ ‘Sharing the moment’: Europe, Affect, and Utopian Performatives in the Eurovision Song Contest’, in: Karen Fricker and Milija Gluhovic (eds)., Performing the ‘New’ Europe: Identities, Feelings and Politics in the Eurovision Song Contest, London: Palgrave Macmillan UK 2013, p. 39.
15 Kirkegaard, ‘The Nordic Brotherhoods’, p. 88. 16 Bohlman, ‘Tempus Edax Rerum’, p. 36.
however, use these thirty seconds to further ‘sell’ themselves or to focus on the artist or country that is represented in the following act. It is then possible to still differentiate between postcards that are either more nation-oriented or more Europe-oriented. Lastly the host broadcaster could also distinguish itself from its predecessors and successors by the text spoken by the actual hosts of the show. Although this would provide for a very interesting and meaningful analysis, it is unfortunately impossible to include such an analysis given the time frame and word count of this thesis. In short, the host broadcaster can choose to ‘use’ the ESC to either showcase the uniqueness of the host country, or to celebrate a Europe united in song and dance, or both. These options will further be elaborated upon in the next section.
Negotiating Europe and the nation: Duality at the ESC
The origins of the ESC can be found in the post-world-war-II desire for unity as an alternative to Europe’s conflicts and divisions17 as well as the EBU’s more pragmatic desire to promote cooperation
between European (public) broadcasters.18 The goals researchers attribute to the ESC fit in this
context: for example, they argue that the ESC would aim to help foster a common European identity19,
a European cultural space20 or a European imagined community.21 If the ESC does indeed aim to foster
a certain European cultural identity, in opposition to a more political European identity fostered by economic and political integration, it is most likely that a very conscious image of Europe will be portrayed every year. This image, although not static, can be described as the Eurovision narrative.
If the ESC does indeed promote a certain kind of Europe, it is important to further investigate what kind of Europe this is.22 According to Georgiou the Europe promoted at the ESC is a Europe
constructed by nation-states which together form a European public sphere.23 The tension between
clearly defined nation-states which somehow fit together in a Europe-wide public sphere is at the heart of the Eurovision narrative which Georgiou describes as somewhat contradictory:
17 Mari Pajala, ‘Mapping Europe: Images of Europe in the Eurovision Song Contest’, View: Journal of European Television History and Culture, nr. 2 (2012), p. 85. Kirkegaard, ‘The Nordic Brotherhoods ‘, p. 81. Gad Yair, ‘ ‘Unite, Unite Europe’: The political and cultural structures of Europe as reflected in the Eurovision Song Contest’, Social Networks, nr. 17 (1995), p. 160.
18 Derek B. Scott, ‘Musical Style and Social Meaning Chapter 10 – Imagining the Nation, Imagining Europe’,
https://www.academia.edu/408266/Musical_Style_and_Social_Meaning, accessed on 10 August 2016, p.3. 19 Jayne Luscombe, ‘Promoting ‘European’ Identities at and through Pan-European Events’, in: Udo Merkel (ed.), Making Sense of Identity Discourses in International Events, Festivals and Spectacles, London: Palgrave Macmillan 2015, p. 183.
20 Georgiou, ‘ “In the End, Germany will Always Resort to Hot Pants, p. 142. 21 Kirkegaard, ‘The Nordic Brotherhoods’, p. 81.
22 Cornel Sandvoss, ‘On the Couch with Europe: The Eurovision Song Contest, the European Broadcast Union and Belonging on the Old Continent’, Popular Communication, nr. 6 (2008), p. 196.
“On the one hand, the contest is a celebration of a cosmopolitan world, where different cultural production comes together; on the other hand it is an affair of (inter-)national competition where
cultures are nationally defined and framed.”24
The same tension can arguably be found in the motto of the European Union (EU), ‘United in diversity’, where ‘united’ refers to Europe and ‘diversity’ to the nation-states that make up Europe. Karen Fricker, who is a specialist in theatre studies and takes part in the Eurovision and the ‘New’ Europe Research Network, claims that the ESC and changes in post-war European history, economics, politics, social and cultural life are intertwined: as Europe changed, so did the ESC. The ESC does not only mirror these changing realities, but is also a driver of “changing conceptions and realities of Europe and Europeanness.”25 This broad observation on Eurovision history is shared by Sandvoss who
writes that the ESC followed the “cultural imperative of the European project”26 even decades after the
first edition in 1956. Samuel Garfield and Kaitlyn Sweeting from the School of International Studies at Washington University claim that the ESC has become increasingly important in building a European public sphere ever since the mid 1990s, when former communist countries joined the ESC (1993) and the televoting system was introduced (1997). Since the end of the 2000s the ESC entered an era of “cultural transformation” where the ESC “takes part in renegotiating the cultural meanings of Europe”27, according to media studies specialist Mari Pajala. This coincides with increasing concerns
of the meaning and viability of the European project and illustrates once more how the ESC and the post-war concepts of Europe and European integration are intertwined.
The aforementioned tension between Europe on the one hand and nation-states on the other is not only at the heart of the Europe the ESC reflects, it also gives the ESC a certain duality that is at the core of its TV-format. This duality is best visible in the way many countries, among which the case studies of this thesis, select their representative: national preliminaries are organised in order to decide who is going to represent the nation at the European level. These preliminaries often have a similar structure to the ESC. The artists who participate in the preliminaries then face the difficult task to both represent the nation and appeal to a European audience during the (semi-)final at the European level. However, it is not just artists and music producers who need to deal with this duality. The host broadcaster is required to do the same: it has to appeal to both a European and a national audience. Many authors touch upon the opportunity a host broadcaster has to address an international audience and ‘sell’ the country. A key example discussed by several scholars is Azerbaijan which used the 2012 ESC in Baku to construct a modern image of the country in order to show its Europeanness.28
According to political geographer Elisabeth Militz the image of Azerbaijan at the ESC served both
24 Ibidem, p. 148.
25 Karen Fricker and Milija Gluhovic, ‘Introduction: Eurovision and the New Europe’, in: Karen Fricker and Milija Gluhovic (eds.), Performing the ‘New’ Europe: Identities, Feelings and Politics in the Eurovision Song Contest, London: Palgrave Macmillan UK 2013, p. 3.
26 Sandvoss, ‘On the Couch with Europe’, p. 203. 27 Pajala, ‘Mapping Europe’, pp. 8-9.
commercial (addressing a foreign audience) and nation-building interests (addressing a national audience). It also aimed to enhance the country’s international reputation and communicated an exclusive image of the nation while telling a narrative of modernity.29 Other countries which are said
to have done the same include Estonia, Latvia, Russia, Ukraine, Serbia and Turkey. All these countries can be considered young in the sense that they have known large societal change and/or political instability in the 1990s. These countries might therefore have more reason to ‘use’ the ESC for nation-building purposes than others. However, no other countries, which have a different recent history than the countries mentioned above, have been investigated in the same way. My case studies of Norway, Sweden and Denmark aim to fill this void. Kjell Ekholm, who was involved in the organisation of the 2007 ESC in Helsinki, on behalf of YLE, the Finnish national broadcaster, exemplified that the image of the host nation is nonetheless very important. During a panel discussion for the Eurovision and the ‘New’ Europe Research Network he describes the relieved reactions from the Finnish audience when the image of their country conveyed at the ESC was the one they wanted Europeans to see.30
The duality between nation and Europe thus is visible at different aspects of the ESC. It therefore makes sense to not either study the image of the nation or the image of Europe at the ESC but to study both of them, independently as well as in relation to each other. Asking what image of the nation is promoted is as important as asking what kind of Europe is promoted. It is, then, essential to clearly define these sometimes fuzzy concepts. In this thesis the terms ‘national’ and ‘European’ will be used as follows. The term ‘national’ is used whenever the host broadcaster focuses on (a
representation of) the host country or city, or whenever it focuses solely on the national diversity in Europe and the cultural differences between the participating countries. The term ‘European’ on the other hand is used as a label for the non-national dimension of the ESC. It is used whenever the host broadcaster focuses on the similarity between the participating countries, or whenever it focuses on European (cultural) unity or the togetherness of Europeans around the ESC. As we will see, however, the broadcasters sometimes interpret European unity as unity in diversity. In these cases I will speak of a European interpretation of the national dimension and label an act as European whenever the main focus is on the European unity created by national diversity. The terms ‘national’ and ‘European’ are essential to the ESC-format as well as to its unity-in-diversity narrative and its relation to wider societal developments in Europe.
28 Milija Gluhovic, ‘Sing for Democracy: Human Rights and Sexuality Discourse in the Eurovision Song Contest’, in: Karen Fricker and Milija Gluhovic (eds)., Performing the ‘New’ Europe: Identities, Feelings and Politics in the Eurovision Song Contest, London: Palgrave Macmillan UK 2013, p. 203.
29 Elisabeth Militz, ‘Welcome to Paradise: The Construction of the Azerbaijani Nation in Visual
Representations during the Eurovision Song Contest 2012’, in: R. Isaacs and A. Polese (eds.), Nation-building and Identity in the Post-Soviet Space: New Tools and Approaches, Lanham: Ashgate (forthcoming), pp. 13-19. 30 Karen Fricker and Milija Gluhovic, ‘ ‘The Song Contest is a Battlefield’: Panel Discussion with Eurovision Song Contest Broadcasters 18 February 2011’, in: Karen Fricker and Milija Gluhovic eds., Performing the ‘New’ Europe: Identities, Feelings and Politics in the Eurovision Song Contest, London: Palgrave Macmillan UK 2013, p. 96.
Solidarity and smallness: The Nordic countries at the ESC
In the past sixty editions of the ESC, Nordic countries have won thirteen times out of which they won eight times since 1995 and four times in the past seven years. The fact that they have been so
successful has given them the opportunity to host the ESC and showcase themselves and their visions of Europe quite often compared to other countries. Usually the Nordic countries are considered to consist of the sovereign members of the Nordic Council: Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland. Since Finland counts for only one of the Nordic ESC-victories (the memorable Lordi won in 2006) and Iceland never won the ESC, I will focus on Norway, Sweden and Denmark and their respective public broadcasters NRK, SVT and DR which together form the case studies of this thesis. It is interesting to note that these countries have quite different relations to European political and economic integration initiatives31 which could reflect a differing image of an ‘ideal’ Europe. In order
to distinguish these three countries from their fellow Nordic states, I will here use the word
‘Scandinavia’ to refer to them. However, when other authors use the term ‘Nordic’ it is safe to assume that these countries are included.
In most studies of countries clustering together at the ESC, the Scandinavian countries often appear as a region, most of the time as part of a larger Northern European region. One example is the Northern bloc which is distinguished by sociologist Gad Yair based on cultural homogeneity.32
Geographer Paul Adams has written about Nordic clustering at the ESC as one example of regionalisation in Northern Europe. He identified several connotations of the region, namely
marginality (both objectively and subjectively), development, progressiveness, superiority, innovation, soft power, egalitarian, environmentally aware and reluctance towards Europe.33 Among these might
be characteristics that the host broadcasters chose to be representative of their countries as well. In that case the same characteristics can be used by all three countries. It is however unlikely that the last characteristic, which refers to their sometimes complicated attitude towards European integration, will be something they would want to showcase during an essentially European event as the ESC. The marginality mentioned by Adams is a concept other authors point to as well. Swedish musicologist Alf Björnberg for example identified a wish to be more continental in his historical analysis of the
Swedish preliminaries. This sentiment, Björnberg argues, seems to be “a common pattern for those European nations whose national self-esteem involves a view of the national culture in question as somehow ‘marginal’ compared to the cultural centres of the continent.”34 A similar sentiment can
therefore also be expected in Denmark and Norway. Kirkegaard, a Danish scholar, even argues this
31 For example, Sweden and Denmark are EU-members whereas Norway has voted down membership twice. Denmark has several opt-outs from European treaties, for example concerning the euro, whereas Sweden does not.
32 Yair, ‘Unite, Unite Europe’, p. 155-157.
33 Paul C. Adams, ‘Multilayered regionalization in Northern Europe’, GeoJournal, nr. 77 (2012), pp. 295-296. 34 Alf Björnberg, ‘Invincible Heroes – The Musical Construction of National and European Identities in Swedish Eurovision Song Contest Entries’, in: Dafni Tragaki (ed.), Empire of Song: Europe and Nation in the Eurovision Song Contest, Lanham: Scarecrow Press 2013, p. 208.
marginality is at the heart of the grand narrative of the Nordic countries: ‘We are small’. This narrative not only refers to their small populations, but also to their relatively isolated geographical position on the edge of Europe. “This master narrative of smallness”, Kirkegaard writes, “is closely tied to an emotional understanding of the North as partly outside or at least on the borders of Europe”.35
Kirkegaard also brings the concept of Nordic solidarity into the ESC when she writes that “the Nordic countries – and their peoples – feel an obligation to support their neighbours and as such the ESC is of significance.”36 Here she does not only refer to the concept of ‘bloc voting’, something the Nordic
countries are often accused of, but also to a Nordic talk show called “Before ESC” where all entries are discussed by experts from all Nordic countries and which, she argues, contributes to the idea of unity in the region.37 However, in the next few chapters we will see this solidarity in other areas of the
ESC-universe, mainly in references to other countries during the hosting of the ESC. Methodology
The basic premise my analysis is based on is that nothing happens by accident during TV-spectacles such as the ESC. These events are simply too large not to be prepared exhaustively. Bearing the political and symbolic importance of the ESC in mind it is moreover highly unlikely that a certain image portrayed is only a coincidence. The power of the ESC lays in the meaning it produces even though the audience is not always aware of the fact that it makes sense of this meaning.38 The aim of
this thesis is to uncover the meaning produced while being aware that also my “way of seeing and judging is conditioned by preconceived notions, prejudice and stereotypes.”39 This implies that my
research can never be fully objective. However, during my analysis I will embody one of the millions of viewers the ESC attracts during these three evenings in May. According to Jørgen Franck, interim director at the EBU, this subjectivity is not a problem:
“The broadcasters send something out with a message for the big European audience. (...) If that message is understood in a different way than what we wanted to send, we have a problem. A
miscommunication is always the problem of the transmitter, not the recipient.”40 Continuously being aware of my own subjectivity while still meaningfully making sense of visual material is also at the heart of the methodologies I used. My methodology consists of a combination between imagology and discourse analysis. Both offer relevant methodological instructions which,
35 Kirkegaard, ‘The Nordic Brotherhoods’, p. 101. 36 Ibidem, p. 100.
37 Ibidem, p. 95.
38 Paul Long and Tim Wall, Media Studies: Texts, Production, Context, London: Longman (2009), p. 31 39 Manfred Beller, ‘Perception, image, imagology’, in: Manfred Beller and Joseph Theodoor Leerssen (eds.), Imagology: The Cultural Construction and Literary Representation of National Characters : a Critical Survey, Amsterdam: Rodopi (2007), p. 4.
when integrated, can meaningfully make sense of the images of Europe and the host nation portrayed at the ESC.
In order to fully understand imagology one first needs to know what exactly an image is. One can identify five different categories of images: graphic, optical, perceptual, mental and verbal.41
Imagology is mainly concerned with mental images, but the ESC also includes graphic (moving) as well as verbal images. Images are not static facts, they are context dependent, influence us42 as they
“rule[s] our opinion of others and control[s] our behaviour towards them.”43 This implies that not only
the viewer is subjective, but also the image itself. According to imagologist Manfred Beller this is the starting point for any imagological analysis.44 Imagologist Joep Leerssen further elaborates on the
methodology of imagology by proposing four sets of questions that need to be answered. First are questions about intertextuality which covers the historical background of the image. Second are questions about contextuality which covers the source and function of the image. These sets of questions have already been discussed in the theoretical framework outlined above. Third are questions about the historical context of the image which was broadly described in the section about the ESC and Europe above, but which can also be more specifically described in terms of the year previous to the ESC discussed. Fourth are questions about the audience, the rhetoric used to relate to it and the reception of the image by it. The ESC’s audience is explicitly addressed as European (e.g. “Good evening Europe!” and “Europe, start voting now!”).45 Imagology is thus concerned with
representation. Leerssen emphasises that the cultural context of an image is a certain underlying discourse of representation, not a certain collective.46 This means that images portrayed at the ESC are
not ‘Sweden speaking’, but rather that these images stem from a certain discourse present in Sweden and/or Europe. This is where discourse analysis comes in.
Discourse analysis is mainly based on work by political philosopher Michel Foucault. The term discourse refers to “a particular knowledge about the world which shapes how the world is understood and how things are done in it.”47 Foucault linked the concept of discourse to power. Not
only does it shape the way we think and act, it also shapes our sense of ourselves and of the world.48
Powerful discourses therefore create a certain ‘regime of truth’ since their power is based on the assumption that their claims are true.49 Discourse analysis aims to uncover these regimes of truth and
see how we are affected by it. In order to do so it offers several methodological strategies. Some of the
41 Beller, ‘Perception, image, imagology’, pp. 3-4. 42 Militz, ‘Welcome to Paradise’, p. 6.
43 Beller, ‘Perception, image, imagology’, p. 4. 44 Ibidem, p. 12.
45Joep Leerssen, ‘Imagology: History and method’, in: Manfred Beller and Joseph Theodoor Leerssen (eds.), Imagology: The Cultural Construction and Literary Representation of National Characters : a Critical Survey, Amsterdam: Rodopi (2007), p. 28.
46 Ibidem, p. 27.
47 Gillian Rose, Visual Methodologies: An Introduction to the Interpretation of Visual Materials, London: Sage (2007), p. 142.
48 Ibidem, p. 143. 49 Ibidem, p. 144.
most relevant for this thesis include looking at the source (in this case visual material from various ESCs) with fresh eyes, identifying recurrent themes, paying attention to details, complexity and contradictions and looking for the invisible as much as for the visible.50 Imagology will allow me
unravel and understand the graphic, verbal and mental images portrayed at the ESC, discourse analysis will allow me make sense of symbolic power of these images and uncover the discourse they are part of .
Academic research on the ESC is as diverse as the artists that perform on the ESC stage every year. While many scholars point to the opportunities host broadcasters have to showcase their country and their vision of Europe to the continent and the rest of the world, not many have dived into the role of the host broadcaster in the representation of Europe and the host country. If they do, they often use case studies from ‘young’ countries without a long ESC history. The Scandinavian countries do have a long and successful ESC history, making their debut between 1957 and 1960 and having won twelve times ever since, but their contribution to hosting the ESC and their representation of Europe and themselves has rarely been researched. Regardless of their marginal geographic and demographic position they are undoubtedly and undeniably European. They have no need to prove or showcase their Europeanness as many of the previously analysed countries apparently felt they were required to do. My thesis will fill this void and thereby contribute to the limited body of research on the images of Europe and host nation national broadcasters portray when they host ‘Europe’s favourite TV-show’.
Chapter 2 Oslo 2010:
Share the moment!
“Let us share this moment, let's enjoy this night, Get the world connected, though you one of a kind,
See we try to reach out, get the world to see, Though we all feel different, you are just like me51”
In Moscow in 2009, the Norwegian of Belarusian descent Alexander Rybak took home the Eurovision trophy by winning the contest with an astonishing 387 points, a record in Eurovision history. It was Norway’s third win after the Bobbysocks in 1985 and Secret Garden in 1995. As a result, next year’s ESC was hosted by Norwegian broadcaster NRK in the Telenor Arena in Oslo. NRK faced a
challenge: up until then the ESC had grown larger and more expensive every year. Although Norway is generally considered one of the wealthiest countries in Europe, NRK could not afford an even more expensive show than the one Russia had hosted in 2009. To solve this problem, NRK came up with a theme that marked a change, according to EBU-official Jørgen Franck.52 Instead of creating an even
larger and more spectacular show, NRK decided to focus on what makes the ESC special: the fact that so many viewers from all across Europe watch the same TV-show at the same time.53 As we will see,
this idea was the inspiration behind the 2010 slogan Share the moment as well as the final interval act. Part of the lyrics of the song Glow performed in the final interval act are used above as an introductory quote of this chapter as it is representative of the active interpretation of Europeanness promoted by NRK.
Share the moment : Unity around a shared experience
In 2002 Estonia introduced a slogan for the edition of the ESC it organised. Ever since every host, except for Russia in 2009, has come up with a slogan for its own special edition. Norway’s slogan Share the moment embodies Europeanness as a unifying element that brings together people from countries who would otherwise not have been connected. However, Norway is not alone in this interpretation of the ESC. Other examples are: Magical Rendez-vous (Latvia, 2003), Under the same sky (Turkey, 2004), We are one (Sweden, 2013), #JoinUs! (Denmark, 2014), Building bridges
(Austria, 2015) and Come together (Sweden, 2016).54 Whereas other slogans emphasise the excitement
and ‘magical touch’ of the ESC, all of these slogans clearly point to the ESC as a meeting point and an expression of some kind of unity that is nevertheless not clearly defined. Norway’s slogan, not unlike Latvia did in 2003, embodies both the coming together of Europeans around the ESC (“share”) and the excitement that surrounds it (“the moment”). NRK writes in the media handbook that is distributed to the press during the Eurovision week that it decided not to merely broadcast the ESC, but rather to share it.55 For NRK, the ESC’s uniqueness lies in the fact that “it is the only time of the year in Europe
51 Musixmatch, ‘Madcon Lyrics’, http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/madcon/glow.html, accessed on 3 December 2016.
52 Karen Fricker and Milija Gluhovic, ‘The Song Contest is a Battlefield’, pp. 100-101. 53 Ibidem.
54 Author unknown, ‘Eurovision Song Contest Slogans’,
that some 125 million people are doing exactly the same thing at exactly the same time.”56 Not only do
Europeans share the ESC in this sense, they also often watch the show together with family or friends.57 The sharing therefore works on two levels: on an abstract European level and on a very
concrete personal level. The same goes for “the moment”: it is not only this huge festival in Oslo, but also the big Eurovision party in Hamburg and little gatherings in living rooms all over Europe. The slogan and the size of the ESC were emphasised multiple times in the Media Handbook that the organisation provided for the press. TV-producer Hasse Lindmo says the organisation wondered what these 125 million people looked like58, an idea which, we will see, was further elaborated upon during
the creation of the final interval act.
The postcards NRK made were of quite an ambitious nature. In every participating country a camera crew filmed a group of people supporting their national representative.59 They gather in the
streets of the capital or another famous city in their country, waving flags and celebrating the upcoming act. We then move back to the ESC arena where the representative is filmed live on stage where he/she/they prepare(s) for their moment of fame before we go back to the fans back home once more. Before the postcard starts we see the country’s territory lighting up in the arena and afterwards we see its flag. Both are very clear and well-known national symbols. All territories are, independently of their actual surface, depicted in the same size, sending the message that all countries are of equal importance at the ESC. After all, small countries such as Malta and Albania give the same amount of points as large contestants such as Turkey, Germany or Russia. Interestingly, the postcards echo the slogan, which was interpreted above as celebrating the European dimension of the ESC, while at the same time focusing on the national dimension. We watch people sharing a Eurovision moment, but rather a national than a European one. However, the fact that we see the same nationally inspired celebration before each act, also creates a sense of unity as all groups celebrate in a similar way. By showing the artists in the final seconds before their song starts, NRK also gives us a peek behind the scenes of the ESC. Not only do we get to share a moment with fellow nationals or fellow Europeans, we also see the artists at one of their most vulnerable moments and get to share their nerves and/or excitement. By showing both national celebrations as well as the artist in the ESC arena, the 2010 postcards are illustrative of ethnomusicologist Philip Bohlman’s argument that postcards serve as a bridge between a Europe characterised by national differences and a potentially united Europe.60
So far, the bottom line of the 2010 ESC has turned out to be profoundly European in the sense that its focus is on Europe, which is understood as a virtual as well as a factual gathering of people
55 Eurovision Song Contest Communications & Public Relations team, Eurovision Song Contest Oslo 2010
Media Handbook, Oslo: European Broadcasting Union 2010, p. 13.
56 Ibidem. 57 Ibidem. 58 Ibidem.
59 To watch all 2010 postcards, see: Paolo Diácono, ‘ESC 2010: The Postcards’,
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2vy0a0_esc-2010-the-postcards_fun, accessed on 11 October 2016. 60 Bohlman, ‘Tempus Edax Rerum’, p. 36.
from many different countries. Their national backgrounds, however, are left behind as they come together to share the ESC experience. The idea behind the slogan was all about sharing this experience. NRK understood the ESC as one of those rare moments where a large number of Europeans does the same thing at the same time, which creates a bond between them. The ESC therefore creates a certain unity within Europe, even though it is still a contest and most people, in the end, root for their own country. The postcards follow this narrative and show us new ways of sharing the ESC-moment together, not only with people from our own country but also with the representative of a different country. They show us both national diversity as well as similarities in the way people celebrate their national representative. The postcards therefore offer a European interpretation of the national dimension used which becomes especially clear when they are compared to postcards that are used in what I would argue is a purely ‘national’ way. Examples in point are Azerbaijan 201261 and
Austria 2015.62 In Azerbaijan the postcards showed various images from Azerbaijan, ranging for
example from its nature to monuments, always accompanied by a slogan in the form of ‘Azerbaijan, land of ...’ or ‘Baku, city of ...’. It was said to be, among others, the land of poetry and the city of leisure. In the 2015 postcards the artists received a letter containing an invitation to an activity in Austria. These activities then represented a certain image of Austria, among others a visit to a large theatre in Vienna or a trip to a deserted castle in the Austrian mountains. Although the postcards started with a glimpse of the city the artist lives in, the focus was on the large variation of activities Austria has to offer, all accompanied by classical music as a hint to the country’s history of famous composers. Norway on the other hand chose to focus on the upcoming act and the country it represented, rather than Norway itself or anything Norwegian. The national dimension was instead used as the diversity component of the European dimension of unity-in-diversity and can as such be labelled as European.
First semi-final: Song unites us
61 To watch all 2012 postcards, see: ETKIWIPROJECT, ‘Eurovision 2012 Postcards (Baku)’,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bK_jgsK_ByM, accessed on 12 October 2016.
62 To watch all 2015 postcards, see: San Marino Deacon, ‘Eurovision 2015: The Postcards’,
“The ESC brings together 39 different cultures and traditions and even though each country in Europe has its own individual sound, its own voice so to speak, we have song in common. Song unites
us, that’s why we can all tonight share the moment.”63
With the quote above one of the three hosts introduced the interval act of the first semi-final. The introduction accurately describes what we are going to see and links the act to the slogan Share the moment. It also plays with the idea of unity-in-diversity pointed out by sociologist Georgiou before: Europe is made up of different countries, each with their own cultures, but together they make up a continental public sphere.64 In this case NRK chose to exemplify unity-in-diversity with a metaphor of
song, which, of course, suits the ESC very well. Although European countries all have their own unique voice, they can ‘sing’ together in what could be called a European choir.
What follows is a music video of this European choir. It starts off with a range of human sounds, ranging from sounds people can make with their mouths and hands to crying babies and tap dancing. Soon however, we can see all kinds of national details. The details range from nationally defined music such as yodelling65 and Portuguese traditional music66 to flags shown on Albanese
t-shirts, Bulgarian bag badges, Georgian kites and Danish grasslands. Sometimes the details are even smaller than that. The viewer must for example pay close attention to see that a woman is reading a Greek newspaper, a man is wearing a “Kiss me, I’m Macedonian” t-shirt and a girl has a tattoo indicating that she is from Iceland. Other countries are represented by places or products from those countries that are known all over the world, such as the Brandenburger Tor in Germany, Russian matrushka dolls and Dutch wooden shoes. Last but not least some countries, for example Sweden, are represented by their national dress. All sounds are mixed together by different musical styles such as opera and beat boxing. Special attention is paid to religious music where Orthodox Christian, catholic Gregorian and Islamic singing is combined. What is interesting here is that religion is used as a uniting force rather than a dividing force within Europe. After all, all these religions are considered to be European and the sounds they produce are thought to be important enough to be included in a musical overview of European culture. The interval act ends on stage in the ESC arena where all people we saw in the video come together and finish the song that was started in the video. As they sing their final notes we see NRK’s understanding of a truly European choir on stage, all parts contributing to an overwhelming whole, with rainbow colours in the background.
The use of religion in this interval act was not the only interesting feature. Although it is clear that this interval act was of a European nature in the sense that it focused on Europe rather than on host country Norway, we could also see a glimpse of a Norwegian touch to it. One part of the video shows a group
63 Eurovision Song Contest, ‘First Semi-Final of the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest’,
http://www.eurovision.tv/page/webtv?program=11563, consulted 12 October 2016. The interval act takes place between 1 h 34 and 1 h 40.
64 Georgiou, ‘“In the End, Germany will Always Resort to Hot Pants”’, p. 142.
65 We see a woman dressed in a Tiroler dress singing in what is clearly an Alpine setting.
of skiers in a mountainous scenery. Although it is not specified where this is, this could very well have been a reference to Norway, a country that takes pride in its mountainous beauty and long and
successful history in skiing. The country’s astounding natural beauty is important for its image both in Norway67 and abroad. Norway’s tourist office, for example, uses the slogan Norway – powered by
nature to sell the country to tourists from all over the world.68 In another part of the video, the
Norwegian host made an inside joke to its Danish friends. After watching a fashion show one of the models suddenly finds herself in a grassland where she steps into a little pile of faecal matter. The only other things we see are the cow that produced it and a Danish flag. This fragment can be interpreted in several ways. It could hint at the unspectacular Danish landscape (especially in comparison to the Norwegian landscape) but could also portray Denmark as a, for the lack of a better word, ‘piece of shit’. Considering the friendly neighbouring relationship the two countries have, where inhabitants of one country are often made fun of by inhabitants of the other, it is more likely that this needs to be interpreted as a playful joke rather than a downright insult.
The first interval act is therefore pretty much in line with the narrative outlined by the slogan and the postcards. It is an interval act of the type that “celebrates a common European identity”69, to
use Zaroulia’s words. At the same time this is a good example of the duality that, as I argued in the first chapter, is at the heart of what the ESC is: it pays attention to national cultural specificities, sometimes very stereotypical (matrushka dolls, wooden shoes and yodelling to name but a few) but which somehow represent a certain country in the eyes of the viewer. Yet the interval act manages to reduce them to mere details while telling a musical tale of Europeanness. Paradoxically, the specific blending of these national features is what makes the ‘sound’ distinctively European. The act echoes Georgiou’s description of the somewhat contradictory Eurovision narrative70 in which the ESC is a
platform for nationally framed cultures to come together in a European space. This paradox is solved by the acts’ suggestion of Europe as a classic example of a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.
Second semi-final: Failure turned into success
Besides the main interval act during the counting of the votes, there is a short video shown shortly after the voting procedure starts. These videos usually last no longer than two or three minutes but
67 Ulrike Spring, ‘Norwegians’, in: Manfred Beller and Joseph Theodoor Leerssen (eds.), Imagology: The Cultural Construction and Literary Representation of National Characters : a Critical Survey, Amsterdam: Rodopi (2007), p. 215.
68 Visit Norway, ‘The Norwegian Way of Life’, https://www.visitnorway.com/about/, consulted 11 October 2016.
69 Zaroulia, ‘Sharing the moment’, p. 39.
nevertheless give the host another chance to present itself and/or its narrative. As shown above, the Norwegian broadcaster chose to focus mainly on the European dimension of the ESC, but during the short videos of the first and second semi-final it showed a little piece of Norway and Oslo.
The first semi-final included a video of host Erik Solbakken who tries to guide a group of Eurovision fans through host city Oslo. Since the fans are so obsessed with cameras (a reference to their enthusiastic flag-waving whenever the cameras face them in the arena), Solbakken does not quite get to show the city the way he intended to. The guided tour brings Solbakken and the fans to some of Oslo’s most famous tourist attractions such as the Vigeland sculpture park, the Holmenkollen ski jump and the Munch Museum.71 In this way NRK could unobtrusively show what Norway’s capital has to
offer without turning the interval video into a cheap tourist campaign. The focus of the video is on the Eurovision fans and their behaviour rather than the actual sites of interest. To use the host city in such a way, as a décor rather than the topic of the video, shows a sense of self-mockery. It is meant to be funny, which becomes all the more clear as we see Solbakken grow more and more desperate about his endeavour for the duration of the video. The places he considers must-sees are not of any interest to the fans, who visit Oslo to celebrate the ESC and support the participating countries rather than for tourist purposes. Apparently Oslo (and Norway) are not as interesting to foreigners as Norwegians might think it is, which already shows a glimpse of NRK’s self-critical attitude, which in turn becomes more obvious in the second semi-final.
The second semi-final interval video is introduced by the hosts as they tell the audience that Norway has won the ESC three times, but that it has “also achieved something completely different that we are equally proud of.”72 Norway has apparently come in last most often: “a record-breaking 10
times.” What follows is a “tribute” to songs that ended up in the bottom three but are nevertheless “part of the Eurovision legacy.” Ten countries are included in the video of which Turkey, Belgium and Israel are represented with two songs and Norway with four. The tribute is concluded by one of the hosts proclaiming proudly that “someone has to end up last, but here in Norway we celebrate them!” To be able to make fun of Norway’s (and others’) ESC failures indicates that the ESC, although its hosting is a serious matter, is handled by the Norwegian host in a way that is down-to-earth and pragmatic: even the ‘black’ pages of Eurovision history can be used for entertainment purposes. Moreover, it shows that Norway is self-confident enough not only to celebrate its Eurovision strengths but to show its Eurovision failures as well. These failures are not only a simple part of the truth, they also deserve to be shown to a Europe-wide audience and are considered something to be proud of rather than embarrassing tapes that should dust away in the ESC archives. According to historian Ulrike Spring, who has written extensively about the image of Norway and its inhabitants, this
71 To watch the whole video, see: Eurovision Song Contest, ‘First Semi-Final of the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest’, http://www.eurovision.tv/page/webtv?program=11563, accessed on 11 October 2016. The video starts at 1 h 24.
72 To watch the whole video, see: Eurovision Song Contest, ‘Second Semi-Final of the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest’ http://www.eurovision.tv/page/webtv?program=9783, accessed on 11 October 2016. The video starts at 1 h 24.
confident self-image is relatively recent and linked to Norway’s also recent wealth, largely gained by its oil reserves.73 The for imagology important historical background74 of this image of Norway then
lies in the country’s post-war acquisition of wealth as well as its old regional and relatively new multiethnic cultural diversity. Amidst their Europe-minded narrative, NRK has chosen to pay only little attention to Norway and/or Oslo. The confident and self-critical attitude with which NRK has chosen to do so, on the other hand, also reveals something about the Norwegian self-image the broadcaster holds. It suggests that Norway does not need the publicity that comes with hosting an ESC. Instead NRK focuses on the message it wants to convey, which is considered more important. Grand Final: “Though we all feel different, you are just like me”
The final interval act is a good opportunity to, once more, put the slogan into practice. NRK asked the Norwegian duo Madcon, who have had considerable musical success outside of Norway as well, to perform a song written for the ESC during which an enormous flash mob was to take place. The act starts with one of the hosts exclaiming: “Europe, it’s time to dance!”, thereby introducing the idea of all of Europe dancing together and sharing this moment.75 Madcon walks through the audience as four
women, who look like body guards, start following them. The dance really starts off when one part of the audience begins to dance and larger and larger parts of the audience follow. Then we get to see some pre-recorded videos from eight European countries where a part of the flash mob is performed. After we have seen the stadium in Oslo again we continue to Europe’s living rooms. All 39
participating countries are represented by a family or group dancing and celebrating the ESC in their own living rooms. Many flags are waved, some people wear Eurovision merchandise whereas others wear t-shirts that represent their country in some way (for example some of the Dutch are dressed in orange). We even see some members of the Norwegian royal family, the embodiment of the
Norwegian state. Then we move on to the Eurovision party in Hamburg where the flash mob is performed live before we see a lonely man dancing on a rock somewhere in the North Sea. The flash mob ends in the Telenor Arena where the entire audience, the artists and a small crowd on stage are dancing and celebrating. Even the following applause is shown from the stadium, living rooms and Hamburg. The act very much follows the vision of Europe ‘sharing a moment’ and is as such very powerful. Its power lies not only in the visual, which has been at focus here, but is also present in the song’s lyrics, which unfortunately cannot by analysed more in depth in the frame of this thesis, but becomes clear in the opening quote in this chapter which is taken from Glow’s lyrics.
TV-producer for NRK Hasse Lindmo used the amount of viewers the ESC attracts to inspire NRK’s employees who were going to work on the event for about a year. In addition Lindmo showed them a video by the American Matt Harding who became a YouTube celebrity after performing a silly
73 Spring, ‘Norwegians’, p. 215.
74 Leerssen, ‘Imagology: History and Method’, p. 28.
75 To watch the whole interval act, see: Luis de Manuel, ‘EUROVISION 2010 FINAL - MADCON - GLOW - INTERVAL ACT (HD).flv’, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qjmAQ72O6g, accessed on 11 October 2016.
dance all over the world. In the NRK documentary Bak Øyeblikket (Behind the moment, MW) Lindmo says he wanted to show Harding’s video to “illustrate what human concurrency can do.”76 This feeling
was recreated in the flash mob interval act that was prepared in the following months. Dancing, and especially the kind of dancing performed in a flash mob, is a very good physical example of ‘unity in diversity’. It is about people who are all different77 but come together in doing the same thing. This is
an analogy for the ESC in general: although people from all over Europe live very different lives, with different customs and traditions and different looking living rooms, they come together as they watch the ESC which, as it is put in the Media Handbook, is a “celebration of music, unity and diversity.”78
The fact that the Media Handbook uses exactly these words, that echo the unity-in-diversity narrative identified above, is telling. In the flash mob we see people from all over Europe: small families and large crowds, old people and children, blonde and dark-haired people, men and women, normal families and royals. The only person that is alone is the man we see dancing on that rock in the North Sea who shows us that the ESC reaches every single corner of Europe. The flash mob provides us with an inclusive image of the Europe of the people:79 a happy and celebratory Europe that comes together
through music and dance and echoes the initial goal of the ESC: “To bring Europeans together by creating the ultimate musical event of the year.”80
Again, Europeanness is at the heart of the interval act. Europe is understood as a constellation of different nations, but if we look closely we see that these nations are not that different. The living rooms we get to see are rather similar, as are the people. They all dance in a funny way and they are all sharing a Eurovision moment. However, if we look closely, we might also identify a glimpse of a Norwegian self-image during this interval act. As mentioned before, the song Glow was written and performed by Madcon. The group consists of two men who are Norwegian of immigrant descent. They were chosen to perform a song that unites Europe in dance and to ‘represent’ Norwegian music during the most important interval act of the Oslo ESC. By choosing them, NRK portrays an inclusive image of Norway as a multi-ethnic society. According to Spring, the former homogeneous
(self-)image of Norway has made room for an inclusive self-image of which migrant as well as indigenous and regional cultures are a part.81 This acknowledgment of Norway’s internal diversity was
also visible in the choice of the three hosts. Only one of them, Erik Solbakken, suits the stereotypical image of a blonde-haired and blue-eyed Norwegian. The other two, Haddy N’jie and Nadia Hasnaoui,
76 Yngvild Sve Flikke (director), ’Bak Øyeblikket – en historie fra Eurovision Song Contest 2010’, Anne Gammelsæter (executive producer), Oslo: NRK 2010.
77 Unlike professional groups where different dancers are often dressed the same or alike, this is not the case for flash mobs which are supposed to look more spontaneous.
78Eurovision Song Contest Communications & Public Relations team, Eurovision Song Contest Oslo 2010
Media Handbook, Oslo: European Broadcasting Union 2010, p.15.
79 One could argue, however, that the living rooms present quite a homogeneous image of the country represented. There are no viewers with a (visible) immigrant background. On the other hand, as discussed later in this section, Madcon, the performers of the song, are from African-Norwegian descent.
80 Eurovision Song Contest Communications & Public Relations team, Eurovision Song Contest Oslo 2010
Media Handbook, p.14.
are of Gambian and Moroccan descent respectively. Together they welcome the audience to an inclusive and multicultural Norway. Moreover, an obvious reference to Norway was of course the inclusion of crown-princess Mette-Marit and her two children in the pre-recorded video. Less obvious, but still worth noticing was the fact that two of the eight countries where the flash mob was recorded, were fellow Nordic countries: Iceland and Sweden. Considering the fact that the Nordic countries, even including Norway, made up only five out of thirty-nine contestants, it is striking that they provided for 25% of the countries where a flash mob was recorded. As will become more apparent in the next chapters, the disproportional inclusion of other Nordic countries is a recurrent theme in the Scandinavian hosting of the ESC.
Conclusion
Norway’s third hosting of the ESC emphasised the European dimension of the event. Although Norway’s relations with European integration initiatives such as the EU and its predecessors is complicated to say the least,82 it portrayed itself as euro-enthusiast when it comes to the ESC. A
certain reluctance towards Europe, which Adams associated with the Nordic region,83 is then not
visible in NRK’s approach of the ESC. The kind of Europe it promoted fits Georgiou’s notion of a Europe that consists of nationally defined cultures84 but at the same time it downplays national
differences. After all, they seem not to matter when everyone tunes in to watch the ESC and share a moment. NRK’s vision of Europe underlines both unity and diversity and adds to this an interesting understanding of European unity. Unity, according to NRK, cannot be found in a static or fixed European identity. It is found in the active participation of diverse individuals in a singular event such as the ESC. Europeanness, then, is an experience, something you do, rather than a given, almost genetic aspect of one’s identity, suggested for example by the slogan We are one that will be discussed in the next chapter. NRK’s understanding of Europe as an experience is a good example of Sandvoss’ claim that a media event such as the ESC not only reflects a certain vision of Europe, but also forms and inspires such a vision of Europe in the first place.85 Moreover, NRK’s interpretation of
Europeanness as a shared activity shows how NRK renegotiated the cultural meaning of Europe in its hosting of the ESC. The 2010 ESC, then, is illustrative of the ESC’s era of cultural transformation as identified by Pajala.86
The focus of the ESC is so much on Europe, that one must look at the details to find an image of Norway. This illustrates the importance of paying attention to details87 in discourse analysis in order to
uncover the entire discourse. The details in the acts discussed here show us a modern and inclusive
82 Norway has applied for EEC- and later EU-membership twice, but this was both times turned down in a referendum.
83 Adams, ‘Multilayered regionalization’, p. 296.
84 Georgiou, ‘In the End, Germany will Always Resort to Hot Pants’, p. 142. 85 Sandvoss, ‘On the Couch with Europe’, p. 202.
86 Pajala, ‘Mapping Europe’, p. 6.
