The 61st annual Eurovision Song Contest, the campiest event on the international cultural calendar, arrives at its glorious climax this week. Beloved by Europeans, although mystifying to many in the United States, the contest was conceived as a way to unite Cold War Europe through music — a kind of World Cup for pop songs — and to bolster ratings for national broadcasters. Over the years, countries as varied as Israel and the nascent Balkan republics have vied to enter, seeing participation as a sign of acceptance on the world stage. This year’s contest is in Stockholm, where performers from 42 countries will compete for the top prize — exposure — in semi-finals on Tuesday and Thursday and finals on Saturday.
Sergey Lazarev, representing Russia, performs You Are The Only One during the semi-final. (Image Credit: AFP)
Who are the entrants?
Most Eurovision participants come from countries in the European Broadcasting Union, a conglomerate of broadcasters from across Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. Last year, Australia, which has a large Eurovision fan base and always loves a party, brokered a deal to participate, and they will be back. Last year, roughly 200 million people tuned in to the finals, far more than the Super Bowl’s average of 110 million viewers.
Each year, the festival is in the country that won the previous year’s award. Sweden’s Mans Zelmerlow won last year in Vienna with Heroes. How participants are chosen varies by country. Sweden, land of consensus, hosts Melodifestivalen, a monthslong song contest, to choose its participant. Other countries use juries from the music industry. Participants from Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain automatically jump to the finals because their national broadcasters contribute the most funding.
Samra, representing Azerbaijan, performs in Stockholm on Tuesday. (Image Credit: AFP)
What are the rules?
Eurovision’s byzantine voting rules have evolved as organisers have tried to make voting more fair and more suspenseful. This year, the rules were overhauled yet again. Winners will be chosen by votes from professional judges in each country, combined with votes from viewers. Up until now the competition’s winner has usually been clear long before the lengthy tally of points from different countries was over.
This year, to save some of the spice till the end, organisers decided to change the tally so that results from the national juries will be announced first, and the less predictable television viewers’ votes will be revealed last.
Serhat (centre), representing San Marino, performs I Didn’t Know, on Tuesday. (Image Credit: AFP)
Who’s hot this year?
The 18-year-old singer Jamie-Lee Kriewitz stepped in to represent Germany after an outcry over that country’s original entrant, Xavier Naidoo, a pop star who drew criticism because of apparent ties to right-wing politics. Kriewitz, whose look is inspired by Japanese manga and whose sound evokes Lana Del Rey, will compete with her love song, Ghost.
In only its second year competing, Australia has a front-runner: Dami Im’s Sound of Silence, widely considered one of the best entries in the line-up. That song, too, stirred controversy, for the lyric “trying to feel your love through face time.” Some claimed that the song referenced Apple’s “FaceTime” video chat technology and violated the contest’s ban on commercial lyrics, but conference organisers ruled that “the lyrics of the Australian song are presented as two separate words, ‘face time’ and not FaceTime, which is an Apple trademark.”
Russia’s entrant, Sergey Lazarev, built his reputation as part of the pop duo Smash!!, which crooned romance songs in the early 2000s, including numbers in French and English. His You Are the Only One is part love ballad, part rock anthem. The video features frenzied digital animation and fire-breathing background dancers.
Ukraine’s entrant, Jamala, is a Ukrainian Tatar, whose song 1944 seems to refer to the mistreatment of that ethnic minority group by Soviet forces in the waning years of the Second World War.
The song has sparked controversy in Russia, where some say it violates the contest’s ban on political songs.
France’s entrant, Amir, is a likely front-runner with his debut single, J’ai Cherche (I Searched). The song has a catchy beat and an uplifting, if vague, message (“You’re the one that’s making me strong,” Amir sings, “like the melody of my song”). Amir, who has Tunisian and Moroccan ancestry, represents a multicultural France. After the November terrorist attacks, whose targets included a Paris concert hall, solidarity with France is expected to be strong.
Bosnia’s Dalal & Deen featuring Ana Rucner and Jala perform Ljubav Je during the semi-final. (Image Credit: AP)
What is victory worth?
Over the decades, only a few Eurovision winners have hit it really big with their songs, including Abba’s Waterloo in 1974 and Celine Dion’s Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi in 1988. (Dion, from Quebec, represented Switzerland.) The Riverdance spectacle, from Ireland, started as a half-time show when Ireland hosted the competition in 1994. Back in 1958, the Italian song Nel Blu Dipinto di Blu (popularly known as Volare), by Domenico Modugno, was a Eurovision finalist.
Zoe of Austria. (Image Credit: AFP)
What are its big controversies?
This year, Romania was expelled from the competition after failing to pay a $16.3 million (Dh59 million) debt it owed to the European Broadcast Union, which was not nearly as exciting as the last big flap, in 2013, when Azerbaijan was accused of bribing judges and paying Lithuanian students to call in and vote for its contestant. In 2009, Georgia withdrew after controversy over its song We Don’t Wanna Put In, which was performed shortly after the 2009 armed conflict between Georgia and Russia. Some read the title as a reference to Vladimir Putin, then the Russian prime minister and now the president.
Argo, representing Greece, performs Utopian Land during the semi-final. (Image Credit: AFP)
Why is everyone so into it?
National pride, friendly competition between countries that once went to war, an appetite for kitsch, Schadenfreude, questionable taste — the reasons for applauding Eurovision are numerous. “It’s like the Oscar gala, but with more of a freak show and fun in it and more politics,” said Anna Charlotta Gunnarson, a Swedish radio host and diehard Eurovision fan who has written books on the contest.