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Oh, you thought the Eurovision Song Contest was about songs? Or a fun international TV event that brings people together in lots of different countries? Or watching extremely vigorous dance numbers? OK, it is, but it's also about some pretty thorny language-related politics. Historian Dean Vuletic, author of Postwar Europe and the Eurovision Song Contest, discusses Eurovision's many linguistic controversies, and the ways the contest has been exploited politically - and caused political kick-offs too.
This is the second instalment of a two-part Eurovisionallusionist. In the first part: a whole lot of tussling about which languages to compete in.
EXTRA MATERIALS:
Get the gist of Eurovision (albeit with a British bias) from the BBC’s documentary about the first sixty years of the contest.
Bookies predict Sweden to win this year’s contest.
“Moldova's Eurovision 'Train' Song Speeds Off Track Over Unification Reference”.
“Today’s low levels of international awareness reflect Crimea’s general disappearance from the geopolitical radar. Indeed, merely getting reliable information about the current situation on the peninsula is immensely challenging.”
Georgia’s 2009 entry ‘We Don’t Wanna Put In’.
Ukraine’s 2007 entry ‘Dancing Lasha Tumbai’.
In honour of Eurovision winners ‘Boom Bang-A-Bang’, ‘Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley’, ‘Ding-A-Dong’ and ‘La, La, La’, go way back in the Allusionist vaults to listen to the episode about vocables - the non-words that behave like words in songs.
Support the show at theallusionist.org/donate and as well as keeping this independent podcast going, you also get glimpses into how the podsausage is made, regular livestreams, AND membership of the delightful Allusioverse Discord community with whom I will be watching the Eurovision final on 13 May - join us!
YOUR RANDOMLY SELECTED WORD FROM THE DICTIONARY:
urinant, adjective, heraldry: diving, head down. Noun: urinator, a diver. [Latin: ūrīnārī, to plunge.]
CREDITS:
Dean Vuletic is a historian and academic, and author of Postwar Europe and the Eurovision Song Contest, the world's first scholarly study on the history of the Eurovision Song Contest. Find his work, and links to his other media appearances, at DeanVuletic.com.
Thanks to Ewan Spence for information about the Eurovision Song Contest. His podcast and website cater to all your Eurovisional needs: ESCInsight.com.
This episode was produced by me, Helen Zaltzman. The original Allusionist music is by Martin Austwick. Download his songs at palebirdmusic.com and listen to his podcasts Song By Song and Neutrino Watch.
Find the Allusionist at youtube.com/allusionistshow, twitter.com/allusionistshow, facebook.com/allusionistshow, twitter.com/helenzaltzman and instagram.com/allusionistshow.
