By Fareed Zakaria, CNN
What caught my eye this week was a dispute between two members of a grand old European alliance. The alliance isn't NATO; it's not the
Arctic Council nor the Euro Zone, nor the EU. I'm talking about the annual Eurovision Song Contest.
It's camp; it's cheesy; but it's a huge hit across the pond. Every year, dozens of countries send their top performers to an American Idol-style music competition. More than a 100 million viewers tune in to vote for their favorites. The one rule: you can't vote for your own country.
And so the tradition has continued since the 1950s.
Abba won for "Waterloo" in 1974. Celine Dion made a splash in 1988 representing Switzerland. But somewhere along the way the contest became known less for big names, and more for kitsch: Sequined costumes, outlandish productions, the works.
Now, despite its name, Eurovision is not just a European competition. Algeria participates and so does Israel. This year's host is Azerbaijan. And that's why Eurovision is in the news this week.
First some background: Azerbaijan has long clashed with Armenia. In 1994, the two countries ended a years-long war over the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh. But tensions flared up again recently when an Armenian soldier was shot to death at the border.
So with Azerbaijan as the host, Armenia is pulling out of the Eurovision party. The intrusion of politics into these kinds of events is not new. Music competitions, like big sporting events, are often proxies for larger disputes or trends. When Moscow hosted Eurovision in 2009, Georgia was reluctant to take part because it had just fought a war with Russia.
But music can unify, too. That same year, Israel's entry featured a duet with an Arab and Israeli Jew.
For me, the fascinating thing about Eurovision is not the performances or the music. It's the politics and public psychology. Here at GPS, we plotted the capital cities of the winning countries from the past two decades on a longitudinal graph - yeah, that's the kind of thing we do in our spare time. We found that in the 1990s, the winners tended to be from Western Europe - Dublin or London. But by the late 2000s, the winners mostly came from the East - Moscow and Kiev. Europe's center of gravity is clearly moving East.
And these voters have interesting tendencies. In 2003, Britain got exactly zero votes - that was the year the Blair government supported the war in Iraq. Votes aren't always conscious political choices. But we saw trends. Greeks always vote for Cypriots. The Cypriots return the favor. Viewers from former Warsaw-Pact countries often vote as a bloc. So do members of the former Yugoslavia. In 2007, Serbia won after picking up maximum points from Bosnia-Herzigovina, Croatia, Macedona, Montenegro, and Slovenia. All in all, this is an interesting window into Europe.
So it got me thinking. We have American Idol here in the U.S., and we have "The Voice". But perhaps what we really need is our own Eurovision - an "Americavision".
Will people from red states strategically vote for each other? Will the two coasts create an alliance? Will there be a North-South divide?
I hope a TV executive somewhere is watching. Remember to credit us with the idea - and maybe send a few royalties our way.
For more of my thoughts throughout the week, I invite you to follow me on Facebook and Twitter and to visit the Global Public Square every day. Also, for more What in the World? pieces, click here.
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Just goes to show all the things governments, leaders, and religion can mess up; even music!
" WAR ! HMMPH ! WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR ?!? W' ABSOLUTELY NUTHIN', SING IT AGAIN ! "
It is not so surprising when 2 consequitive Oscars went to an Indian film when India had the most money to spent and Iran when the Arabian Spring is the TREND. Only the new commers of Eurovision have musical ideals in mind. Frankly, taking the most of Eurovision is to make a realy impressive tourism introduction film of your country's marvels. It does take a high rating which means valuable advertisement time. As a televiewer of the contest, the best part is the revealing of votes. Just as the red carpet in Oscar occasion. It is not so dissimilar than who wear what and if it suits the. It is who votes whom and why? Generally mellowed gossip. For Eurovision it is general world politics of this region, hence Israel or Azerbeijan. By the way, since Azerbaijan is the host and this region expects so much of Turkey, I am sure Turkish song will be "awarded" a high place. I hop the song is good enough to match.
Turkey's song is catchy but not great. By the way, Turkey is in semi-final 2, in which Azerbaijan does not even vote. So just because Azerbaijan is the host country doesn't mean anything- they still need votes from everyone else. Turkey should pass to the final no problem, and yes they'll probably give 12 points to Azerbaijan and receive points from Azerbaijan too but that makes no difference. The same goes down for our Nordic bloc too!
I watched the Turkish song yesterday. Song was not bad, The words could be taken anywhere. But the costume and appearance of the singer was indicative. My interpretation of the Tukish song put a wide smile on my face. Which I can hardly share but have to leave it to your view of the world....Also your knowledge of past world cultures.
it will do better than that this time. Even a mass bytooct by Armenians (who CAN’T EVEN VOTE FOR THEIR OWN COUNTRY) won’t keep other countries from voting for Armenia as a legitimately good song. This means only the Armenian diaspora in Europe, who of course doesn’t even live under Serge’s rule, are the only people who can bytooct Armenia at Eurovision since Armenia has to vote for other countries. Even with their bytooct Armenia is expected to get at least 8th place. Therefore the worst it can probably do is equal to how it’s done in past years, so all you’ve done is out of spite kept Armenia from getting a higher place (meanwhile Azerbaijan’s horrendous entry is actually getting some buzz for God knows what reason (which I do not say out of anti-Azeri fervor but out of concern for my ear drums), it and Turkey are actually something to compete against this year) and possibly kept Eurovision from coming to Armenia while taught the authorities NOTHING. They’ll just say look we got 8th place again, horray for us, case closed.Besides, can you imagine if Armenia came in last (which it won’t) that Serge would be so distraut he’d just resign or the public television would stop being his puppet? NO! This is absolutely the WRONG place to do this and will do nothing but take away, as pointed out, one of the only good things going well for Armenia right now. I am sympathetic to the opposition but will you stop at NOTHING to add to Armenia’s already great misery by bytoocting a stupid song contest?!?!?! Half the entries are singing fat men (Estonia) or dancing turkeys (Ireland), is this REALLY the place for a political statement?!
Its an important point. Americans would be much more at ease if the confederates had won the civil war and seceded. There would be 2 very different Americas. A normal one in the North and a Christian version of Iran in the South. But at least they would be internally at ease with themselves. That would have been better. Perhaps the South should secede again...and be allowed to go...peacefully.
But USA does have several contasts similar to Eurovision. They are called "Beauty Queens". It has so many variations of it. But while the American-vision consantrates on female beauty as a symbol, European side choose to express their symbols in a more cultural means – for lack of words – such as songs. It may be that while USA is more physical, the Europeans are more vocal. Food for thought.
It's a show which only attracts housewives and pensioers alike. Britain, Irland, France and Italy were usually seen as favourites and they offered quality stuff. Then after the fall of the Iron Curtain, acts – absolutely vulgar and tasteless copycats – are pouring out of the East. Thanks to regional block voting, telephone vote from audiences and votes of juries, which are made up of music professionals, we see more and more winners from the East, but they stand no chance to sell their music in the West.
When Turkey was first accepted to ESC, we did sent our most popular stars singing orchestrated songs in Turkish (not very musical to the Western ear) in compositions carrying Turkish classical music notes (half notes). We did have a track record in sticking to the last 5 places. Now, none of the realy good Turkish singers would consider taking part in ESC seriously. It is a kind of musical joke if you look at it artistically.
Algeria?
Algeria never took part in eurovision, this year neither, just Morocco did once in 1980, so, Check your infos before publish "this'...
That'll Be Algeria thats never participated then – Nice to see more lazy journalism.
Britain got 0 in 2003 because the SONG was awful
Serbia got 268 points in 2007 – 208 of which from countries that weren't in Yugoslavia!!
You're doing well – though as you yanks would say, not even "batting 500"!!
Algeria doesn't participate, and Israel is culturally an European country.
Nope, Israel is not at all a culturally European country. Israel is culturally, politically, and geographically Middle Eastern. Jews aren't much different than Arabs. If Israel was culturally European, so would be all the Arabic countries. Good try though, you Israelis always try to twist everything and show yourselves as something you aren't with continuous feed of propaganda.
Fareed, I think you are spot on with our comment and we in Western Europe have been in dispair for a decade about the East European "conspiracy" to decide the ESC between themselves.
For another example on politics and the ESC just take my own country, Germany: when we won the ESC in 2010, during the financial crisis, Germany was seen as a global model for dealing with the economic downturn. Today, with all the German-bashing in Europe about our Euro policies, it is a surprise we even survived the first round.
But there is one point you are missing: the winners of the ESC simply convinced the audience with a really good show. Russia allegedly spent 10 mln. USD on the song by Dima Bilan which won in 2008 and which featured a star violonist and a world-class ice skater. Compare this to the uninspired and often dull perfomances of many of the West European songs and you know why they don't win the contest. The East European countries are the real innovators of the ESC.
I've blogged about this phenomena in more detail on my own blog, for those of you who can read German:
http://www.danielflorian.de/2008/05/26/eurovision-song-contest-an-inconvenient-truth/
The lyrics and music were written by swedes. The Azerbaijanis just sang it.
if you do bother urself with national affiliations of the singers, so do not forget that Eric Saade's father is palestinian... you swedes love to make nationalist comments.
Jo, of course the Swedes have the right to brag about this kind of things!
Not only have Sweden won the Eurovision on so many occasions, Swedish songwriters are behind several other countries contribution every year. (The Greece 2005 winner Helena Paparizou was raised outside Gothenburg Sweden)
But the beautiful thing about this is, lots of these Swedish songwriters are immigrants from all over the world. Sweden just happens to be the place to nurture your musical talent, no matter ethnicity.
So is it that strange that people are proud because they live in a kick-ass country?
- The Iranian-Swede
Armenia was smart to pull out.
In any case, most of these singers are singing in English, and they're supposed to be representing their own countries? Uhm, ok. Whoever came up with the "Eurovision" idea, had a skewed vision. I've listened to the song that won the last contest, and it's one of the simplest songs sung in a bad accent, and the words don't make sense grammatically. Sorry, but that's not music to my ears.
Word of advice- sing in your own language.
Why would anyone get an advice from an Armenian? Armenians have never proven themselves, they've always been losers blaming it on others. Your country is a major failure and its citizens live in African standards. Do not flatter yourself.
Armenia pulling out of Eurovision may have made a big impact in your tiny insignificant country but nobody at all cares elsewhere. Don't make a big deal out of yourselves, you are not any more valuable than a village of other European countries, you are nothing.
My country? Excuse me, but I wasn't born in Armenia. In fact, Armenians have been around for thousands of years, are the first christian nation in the world, and are a very proud culture, and are extremely successful in everything they do. If you call that failure, then I'm sorry to dissapoint your Turkic Islamic nations.
But most political views are reflected in the daily art of people. Not deep down art but a kind of "trend". That's the way common people express themselves or make a contribution to the global opinion. Take street fashion for example. It can never be predicted, is shaped by current events and does not last long. It is not an effort to become a classic but just to make a statement. I believe this is just good clean fun to blow off steam...Not different from any international sports contest but without Holigans. If politicians were clever they would measure the pulse of people from just such events.
This story seems similar to something I've read before!!:
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/05/26/1053801334628.html
Fareed as I read about about cypriots supporting greece and Former eastern block countries voting together. I hear a lilting Irish cadence in your text, the merest hint of of a twinkle in your oirish, sorry asian, eyes, a gently mocking tone in the narrative. Bejabbers sorr, you have turned into Terry Wogan!
A lot of commentary,well Eurovision and AmericanVision,spreading tentacles of making the Universe one,as one people,with the same share destiny.
Germany was the host last year because they won the year before that. Don't jump to conclusions.
The actual reason that Georgia did not participate in Eurovision when it was held in Moscow was not technically because of the Ruso-Georian war. To learn the real reason Georgia did not participate, please see the article http://borkosmurse.blogspot.com/2011/05/eurovision-song-contest-2011.html
Thanks for your attention to ESC Farid.But,there are many information mistakes about Azerbajan.Noqorni Karabakh is historically and legally Azerbaijani land and and its is accupied by Russian backed armenian troops between 1991-1994 war.Despite 4 UN resolutions they have not freed this land so far.Armenian goverment is trying to put shadow to ESC ,because of their own internal politics.
Well now. You cannot say that only glitter makes it to Eurovsion. In Russia, this year in a public voting won a folk song group - a group of babushkas from Buranovskie! They are singing in their native Udmurt language. The group of six first became popular when they started translating and performing songs from other languages and cultures into their Udmurt. Ranging in age from 43 – 74, they are an absolute polar opposite of your typical Eurovision fare.
This may start a counter culture trend - as this protest voting seems to indicate. I hope so. The current twisting and wailing of contestants is getting BORING!
You should all go check out this online international contest I found called Make a Star, where music gets voted on by the fans and the winner can win $100 in monthly prizes – http://www.makeastar.com/
Dear Fareed, as you see from my nickname I am big fan of yours and when I read you articles I usually agree with almost 100% conviction. However, as I am from Azerbaijan and see many articles written by foreigners about my country, I rarely see anyone who really seems to understand or even know the basic facts about the region. I therefore expected something different from you. You mentioned Armenia pulling out of Eurovision and for an ordinary reader it would seem as if Armenia did so because an Armenian soldier was recently shot. Well Fareed, this is a monthly occurrence. Both sides lose soldiers on the frontline, dozens every year. Now, you could use this opportunity to show that you still have countries like Armenia who occupy foreign territories and no one even says anything about it( unfortunately that includes your name too). When it comes to other countries, like your lovely Georgia you never miss the chance to remind the people of the Russian occupation of Georgia's internationally recognised territories. All I have to say is that now I have totally lost confidence in the impartiality of journalists who seem to have a similar if not the same agenda that contemporary Western politicians have. God bless Justice!
Armenia isn't occupying "foreign territories". Artsakh (or Nagorno Karabakh) has always been Armenian. It was Stalin, a dictator, that handed the territory to the Azeris. The people living in Artsakh have a right to self rule. They are independent of Armenia, and are their own territory. Armenia, unlike its neighbours, has free press and a growing democracy. Maybe Azerbaijan should worry about helping its own population before worrying about foreign territories.
If anyone is to return "foreign territories" it would be Azerbaijan who now has control over Armenian Nakhichevan (which is an Armenian word actually), or for Turkey to return northern Cyprus to the Cypriots.
Currently Azerbaijan has nothing, other than oil and gas, to offer to the world. Concurrently, these resources utilized by small elite in Azerbaijan. If you really follow Zakaria, I would recommend you to go back for a few week, where during GPS, he classifies Azerbaijan among very undemocratic Muslim states.
With regard to the Eurovision, there are more than enough reasons for non participation. At first few years ago, Armenian officer was cruelly murdered by Azeri, who killed Armenian officer by axe, when he was asleep. Later the killer was nominated as hero of the nation. At second, government of Azerbaijan has been continuously violating ceasefire and attacks kindergartens and schools. I think these two reasons are sufficient, although there are much more to say.
I am from Nakhchivan! So we should give Nakhchivan to you as well? You see how brainwashed people you are? Don't you realise it yourselves that you are sick? You simp;y cannot comprehend the fact that it's 21st century and that all countries have borders recognised by UN and not by your or our interpretation of history? Seriously!
You should look up the meaning of Nakhichevan.
And you should look up the meaning of Karabakh which means black garden in Azeri. Then what?! This is precisely the point I am trying to make. The borders are set and recognised by UN and should be respected. Otherwise we should just go on killing each other just because we have different interpretations of history.
And regarding your accusation of Azeris being filled with anti-Armenian propaganda. Well, tell me what propaganda are you filled with? Azeri, Turkish love? The whole world sees how you love Azerbaijan and the Turks. You simply cannot hide your love. Bravo! You think that you are so clever and that you are talking to children. Azerbaijan has always been a multi-cultrual country and is well known for its tolerance. And Armenia for quite the opposite. So do not even dare to compare your fascist, backward Armenia with Azerbaijan.
you call it Karabakh. We call is Artsakh.
By the way, I am indifferent to Azeris and Turks. It's the governments I don't like.
I'm an American. So I'm not envious of any third world Islamic country. Thank you.
The reason Armenia pulled out is because there are very strong anti-Armenian sentiments in Azerbaijan, mostly led by the government to make their people believe that Armenians are the cause of all their troubles. This hatred of anything Armenian is evident in Azeri newspapers, and in government. Remind you much of the anti-Jewish propaganda in Nazi Germany? Unlike Azerbaijan, Armenia works hard to improve the economic situation of its own country, its people, and by improving on tourism. Armenians around the world support Armenia economically and are tied to the country even though most weren't born there. Many different non-profit groups work on improving the situation of Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh and in investing in the infrastructures, planting trees, etc. Of course, Armenia still has a long ways to go, just like most post-communist countries.
For anyone to come here and say that Armenians are "losers", wow. Armenians are a very complicated people, and most live outside of Armenia. You can't possibly understand the culture.
Hatred is the worst thing in the world, and is the cause of genocide.
Could the U.S. please broadcast this Contest? I volunteer to be a host! America could have its own voting, turned in state by state!
Well, there are a few inaccuracies in the article. Algeria does NOT take part for one, secondly the winners in the late 2000 came from Northern as well as Southern Europe not just the Eastern countries : 2005 Greece, 2006 Finland, 2007 Serbia, 2008 Russia, 2009 Norway, 2010 Germany, 2011 Azerbaijan.
Now if anyone wonders why the western countries do not win, it is because they send crap, way crappier than the usual crap (google Josh Dubovie, UK 2010), if you do not take it seriously, how can you expect the world to take you seriously?
Bloc voting does not determine the winner, Serbian did get max points from their neighbours in 2007 (hey, they speak the same language!) but also got points from everyone but 5 countries out of the 41 participants.
Also, regarding bloc voting, although it is undeniably a fact, there are valid reasons behind it. Greeks and Cypriots, for example, share the same language and the exact same singers top both countries' charts, the same goes for former Yugoslav countries as well as ex CSI ones.
Come on, lets get down to the nitty gritty, write down your 3 favorite songs, lets see if we can beat the bookies
1: Turkey Just so catchy
2: France
3: Germany
, I also don't know if Danielyan has any injuries or not and to what etenxt they are serious.From looking on the Internet it could be something that is used to fire a projectile with compressed air (like paintball) or something that doesn't fire anything and which is used to scare away birds, for example. As I said, I think we need to know what injuries he suffered.As for the US Embassy, I'd like to know who came, where from and how were they contacted before making any judgement. Ten minutes sounds like they must have been in the area and it's interesting to know who rang them. Danielyan?Regardless, while I can see what you mean about them not being so quick to act on other cases, I suppose the matter is that the US Embassy really cares about human rights defenders in countries such as Armenia (even if not in Afghanistan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Guatanomo as well as among civil rights defenders in the US).Like I said, if someone is accused of spying for a foreign power then that's treason and they should be investigated and not attacked. Moreover, if the Armenian government is unhappy about the US Embassy funding and supporting activists then they should demand that they stop. I would guess that all foreign funding has to be through bodies allowed to do so in Armenia. Of course, they won't because it would then create a problem in terms of international relations. Anyway, let me just say that even if individuals or organizations are considered to be up to no good in Armenia that is no justification.The law has to protect them and if they themselves are in violation of the law it should be used to prosecute in open and transparent court cases. The same would be true if, say, Levon did come to power. One person has already tried to leave comments threatening A pro-Sargsyan blogger will face retribution later for treason. I didn't let it through because taking the law into your own hands is not the answer to anything and not least because who is a spy or who is committing treason is subjective. Evidence presented in a court case is the only way to deal with such matters. I'd also say that if Danielyan was a spy then he wouldn't be so open in his activities.Moreover, the US wouldn't be so open in coming to his assistance. Instead, I'd just suggest that they are working closely together unless, of course, the person from the Embassy in question was also a close friend.
The Russian "Babushki" will win. There is not one former Soviet Union state that will not vote for "Babushka"!
If you want to learn more about Eurovision, visit our blog "The Eurovision Times", one of the biggest on the web:
http://eurovisiontimes.wordpress.com
Most of the things you claim is supprisingly precise and it makes me wonder why I had not looked at this in this light before. Your piece truly did switch the light on for me as far as this issue goes. Nevertheless there is 1 issue I am not too comfy with and while I make an effort to reconcile that with the actual central theme of your issue, let me see exactly what all the rest of the visitors have to point out.Well done.