1. The media dimension

The ESC is first and foremost a television broadcast intended to attract a large audience and to obtain extensive media coverage. Therefore, according to Boorstin (Reference Boorstin1985) and the German media scholars Scherer and Schlütz (Reference Scherer and Schlütz2003), we can define the show precisely as a media-staged pseudo-media event, i.e. an event staged by the media only for the purpose of further media coverage. For Eurovision, the television news and programme exchange of the EBU, the contest has become a kind of figurehead giving a face to their mostly unnoticed activities. With this million-euro media event, the member broadcasters of the EBU attempt to showcase the technical and organisational superiority of public television broadcasting over private competitors.

According to its individual definition of public service, each national broadcaster chooses how to select its representative for the international competition, steering the outcome of such selection by means of self-defined exclusion criteria (e.g. by requiring a top 100 position in the national single charts for submission of songs or by directly appointing famous singers and/or composers). The broadcasters' wish to influence their national selection and, in some cases the stage performance of their representative, is above all aimed at avoiding any reputational risks that may arise from ‘inappropriate’ acts. Opposing interests of the national music industries are, in many cases, not taken into consideration, as Hans-Otto Grünefeld, the former head of programming of the German regional public broadcaster Hessischer Rundfunk, stated in 1970: ‘The show [i.e. the national selection] is not about picking the song with the highest commercial potential. It is about picking the song which can help ARD [the all-German public broadcaster] to pass this special examination called [the] Eurovision Song Contest’ (Böhmer, Reference Böhmer1970).

For the audience (which also includes the fans), the ESC has become a television ritual, due to its periodicity, its standardised and unvarying formal structure, the long-standing tradition of the event, and the feeling it gives of being part of a community based upon patterns of national and cultural identity.

2. The musical dimension

The necessities associated with the organisation of a television broadcast as well as former regulatory requirements – such as singing the entry in a national language – have favoured a special type of music in the ESC (cf. Wolther, Reference Wolther, Helms and Phelps2005). In some countries the continuous effort to find musical expression appreciated by an all-European audience brought about a specific musical style characterised by low originality and a certain repetitiveness between songs. Björnberg (Reference Björnberg1987), for example, points out that in his homeland, Sweden, a certain type of continental pop music is regarded as prototypical for a good ESC entry. Despite these developments, there are many examples showing a desire to present national musical culture and traditions at the contest, especially from Mediterranean and Eastern European countries where regional varieties of popular music with strong folkloristic influences have always played a major role in the national pop music scenes.

The development of nationally or culturally specific expressions of popular music was, of course, triggered by the impact of Anglo-American musical styles on the various national music cultures; in many cases, however, national audiences perceive them as being representative of their respective cultures. The use of seemingly ‘ethnic’ elements does not necessarily reflect historical-cultural roots, but rather constitutes an ‘active construction of the past’ (Björnberg, Reference Björnberg, Raykoff and Tobin2007, p. 23). This was the case when the Ukrainian singer Ruslana used elements of the archaic Hutsul culture to represent her country, which has a young political history, in her song ‘Wild Dances’ which won the ESC in 2004. On the other hand, nationally or culturally specific expressions of popular music may not necessarily be recognised as typical by members of other national or cultural groups. In a study on musical preferences of pupils in multicultural classes in Germany, Dollase et al. (Reference Dollase, Woitowitz, Bieler, Ridder, Köhnemann and Bonz2002) found that ‘ethnic and intercultural differences can be found despite the pupils’ participation in international pop music culture. This international popular music scene is so varied that it can be used to build ethnic distinctions.' In some cases we also find constructions of national stereotypes which were highly controversial in the country of origin but very much appreciated by other participating countries, such as the Oriental clichés used by the Turkish singer Sertab Erener in her winning song ‘Every Way That I Can’ in 2003 (cf. Gumpert, Reference Gumpert, Raykoff and Tobin2007).

3. The musical-economical dimension

The commercial importance of the ESC has always been surprisingly small – due, on the one hand, to the broadcasting organisations trying to defend their contest from commercial abuse and, on the other hand, to the development of the general market and media situations (e.g. increasing number of records released, increasing number of private broadcasters, etc.) as well as to inadequate marketing of the songs after the contest, passing up the chance to publish the songs promoted in the show within a short time of the contest. Many competing songs have never even been released for purchase outside the EBU-produced official CD compilation which has been available only since 2001.

As Denisoff (Reference Denisoff1975) observed, the commercial success of music productions depends on a number of factors that are not necessarily related to their aesthetic qualities. The general decline of national-language music in the European charts at the end of the 20th century seems to have had much influence on the decreasing commercial success of the ESC entries, which tend to be stylistically associated with the national language repertoire even when performed in English (cf. Wolther, Reference Wolther2006, p. 98ff.).

Since the regulatory framework of the ESC influences the range of musical styles presented in the show to some extent, and this range may have become commercially less interesting for the national music industries in some countries, record companies and popular artists from these countries lost a desire to participate in the contest. Because television broadcasters profit from the popularity of the participating artists and songs in terms of viewing figures, the regulatory framework was therefore modified from 1998 to facilitate the commercialisation of the songs in the competition (these rules include permission to publish the songs within a certain period before the contest, and use of a backing tape with the original arrangement during the performance). However, the musical structure of the show could not be radically changed since it is based on historical developments and expectations being independent from any economic interests within the music industry.

4. The political dimension

The political dimension of the ESC can be divided into an external (allativeFootnote ¹) and an internal (ablativeFootnote ²) one. The external (or allative) political dimension is activated when the ESC is used as a tool for representation by political forces or to call public attention to political issues (i.e. when the political system influences the ESC system). A very striking example of this case occurred during the ESC 2005 in Kyiv when, for the first time in history, the president of the host country, Victor Yushchenko, came on stage to hand the winner a special prize offered by the national government of Ukraine.Footnote ³

On the other hand, the internal (or ablative) political dimension of the ESC comes into play when the show itself influences political agendas (i.e. when the ESC affects the political system). A case in point concerns the song, ‘Sì’ by Italian singer Gigliola Cinquetti, which was subject to censorship in 1974. The ESC was only broadcast by Italian television one week after the actual competition, and the song was blacklisted by public radio stations. The reason for such unusual action was the fact that on the Sunday following the ESC, a referendum possibly introducing a liberalised divorce law was held in Italy. A song called ‘Sì’ (which means ‘yes’) could have been interpreted as a political statement meant to influence the viewers' decisions (cf. Feddersen, Reference Feddersen2002, pp. 138ff; Chartitalia, 2005).

The political dimension of the ESC manifests itself differently in the various countries. A good example of the differing political relevance of the ESC was provided in the 1996 contest when the Norwegian public broadcaster NRK used short video messages from national politicians to open the respective stage performances of the corresponding entries. While this task was undertaken for countries such as Poland, Turkey and Sweden by the head of state or the head of government (President Kwaśniewski, President Demirel, and Prime Minister Persson, respectively), countries such as Spain and the UK just sent in video messages by subordinate political personnel. The fact that heads of state and heads of government took time to welcome the singers representing their countries with a personal video message suggests that the ESC is of great political importance in their countries. This importance depends on the position a country has in the international balance of power and the amount of time it has occupied this position. For the young nations that were part of the former Eastern bloc especially, the ESC has played an important role in overcoming the political, economic and also cultural isolation from which they have suffered for decades. On the occasion of the ESC 2002 taking place in Tallinn, the then Estonian Prime Minister Siim Kallas stated: ‘For many Estonians it is symbolic that the Eurovision Song Contest is taking place here in the same year that Estonia will conclude membership talks with the European Union – at a time when aspirations that Estonians have laboured towards for years are reaching fulfilment’ (Eesti Televisioon, Reference Televisioon2002, p. 5).

5. The national-cultural dimension

One of the fundamental concerns of many broadcasters is the representation of national characteristics in their ESC entry. However, the use of more or less stereotyped national-cultural elements in composition and performance is not necessarily the result of deliberate consideration. To a large extent, this may be due to a subconscious identification with the singer's/songwriter's own national culture. Habermas (Reference Habermas1990, p. 151) states that ‘in a characterization of identity, the gestalt we have become through our life histories, the histories of our milieus and of our nation cannot be detached from the image we present to ourselves and others, and according to which we want to be estimated, respected and accepted’. Thus, the more closely the members of a certain nation feel attached to their cultures, the more likely they will be to use and take pride in specific expressions of this culture in music, lyrics and choreography, underscoring their cultural uniqueness. Great emphasis is placed on presenting something special that sets the national entry apart from other countries' songs, reflecting and constructing national-cultural identity at the same time (cf. Frith, Reference Frith, Hall and Gay1996, p. 113). This applies in particular to a contest like the ESC in which the participating artists assume the clear responsibility of representing their respective countries.

6. The national-economic dimension

Although organizing the ESC is a very expensive task, national broadcasters rarely refuse to do this. Hosting the contest seems to have a positive influence on the economy, as the following examples show, not only in terms of tourism but also in showcasing the national service sectors and promoting goods intended for export. For the Irish public broadcaster RTE, hosting the contest three times in a row in the 1990s was a heavy burden – but it was more than justified by a high increase in tourist numbers, as explicitly acknowledged by political representatives. As the then Irish Prime Minister Charles Haughey stated in a parliamentary debate:

In the run-up to their bid for EC membership, Estonia and Latvia not only used their role as host of the ESC to showcase touristic places of interest but also to gain attention as attractive locations for scientific research and industrial production. Of course, it is impossible to say exactly to what extent these countries benefitted from hosting the contest, but the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that the country's promotion worldwide thanks to the ESC was valued at US$1 billion (cited in from CFC Consulting, 2005, p. 1).

7. The competitive dimension

The ESC was originally a composer's competition and only the song titles appeared on the scoreboard in the early years. The increase in the number of participating countries called for streamlining the voting, and little by little the song titles were replaced by the countries' names. Nowadays we also find the national flags on the scoreboard, which add even more national symbolism to the voting. By no longer voting for songs but rather countries, the contest has become a competition of nations and national cultures, and the importance of music has decreased.

The hegemony of Western European countries observed in earlier years (cf. Yair and Maman, Reference Yair and Maman1996) has been broken by various successful participations from Eastern Europe (the victories of Ukraine 2004, Serbia 2007 and Russia 2008), which have caused many controversies within some of the traditional ESC countries, suspicious of political voting in Eastern European countries (cf. Mayr, Reference Mayr2009, pp. 3f.). However, geographical and cultural factors seem to play the most important role in voting issues, as proven in a very interesting study by Schweiger and Brosius (Reference Schweiger and Brosius2003), guiding the attention of national audiences, sometimes despite the supposed aesthetic qualities of a song and its performance. Spierdijk and Vellekoop (Reference Spierdijk and Vellekoop2009) have recently established ‘strong evidence for voting bias in the song contest on the basis of geography […].’ However, these effects did not generally correspond with the usual accusations of block voting, i.e. particular countries voting for their neighbours due to any political reasons. And Ginsburgh and Noury (Reference Ginsburgh and Noury2004) assert that ‘there is no evidence for logrolling. By contrast, cultural and linguistic proximities obviously play a significant role. […] It may well be that cultural proximities are also at work in international political bodies, […] and that what appears as being logrolling is due to cultural factors.’ Nevertheless it has to be underlined that accusing certain cultural groups or nations of political voting is, of course, part of the political dimension of the ESC even though the voting itself is not.

Performing in the English language can be interpreted as a competitive aspect as well. Most countries use the English language because they think it might help them to be more successful in the contest than if they sang in a national language, as Klapheck (Reference Klapheck2004) suggests. At first glance, ESC entries in English do indeed seem to be much more successful than songs in national languages. This was suggested as well by Schweiger and Brosius (Reference Schweiger and Brosius2003, p. 284) and by LeGuern (Reference Le Guern2000). However, the competitive advantage of English compared with other national languages cannot be detected statistically. Thus Klapheck (Reference Klapheck2004, p. 102) concludes: ‘In the end, the choice of the English language is only based on the television excutives’ speculations that English corresponds to the general language preferences of the ESC audience.'