Eurovision and politics - Part 1

It comes but once a year. An explosion of neon dreams, on-stage acrobatics and ethno ballads - and the undeniably ever-present key change. And as usual this year, hundreds of millions of people around the world - including Australia - are expected to tune in.

Eurovision favourites Source: SBS Radio, Eurovision Song Contest

Eurovision Song Contest is family entertainment at its biggest and most garish, some say. But, in recent years, more and more attention is being given to alternative readings of the Eurovision Song Contest.

Of particular note is what the scoreboard has to say about the relationships between participating countries and the alleged spilling over of politics into this, at times questionably, cultural arena. 

Eurovision Song Contest organisers say they have from the beginning maintained a stand against political language and nationalistic sentiment. But, over the years, contestants representing their countries have taken to the stage in protest over such issues as the Vietnam War and nuclear power, and even to parody the contest itself.

 

 

The story continues ... join us again next week when we take a look at the Eurovision Song Contest after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the dissolution of the Soviet Union two years later. 

→ Learn much more about Eurovision Song Contest 2016 here:

www.sbs.com.au/programs/eurovision