The fall of the Berlin Wall not only brought about the end of the division of Germany, but also the musical reunification of pop Europe. Starting in 1993, the countries of the East began to show up at Eurovision with their atypical and vitalist proposals. Ukraine is the best exponent of this successful landing, verified with its new victory in this year’s edition. More a geopolitical festival than a musical event, its artistic essence cannot be completely denied. Europe, which borrowed foreign music such as blues, country, reggae and other Caribbean rhythms to strengthen the hegemony of its pop between the 1960s and the turn of the century, has lost centrality in the era of Spotify and YouTube. The contest, an exciting and impossible mixture of risk and desire to please, thus serves to prop up the shaky edifice of European popular music.
But it is true that the popularity of Eurovision has an ideological aspect: it owes much to its commitment to a fair and diverse Europe. These years the festival has been lavished with gestures of recognition and defense of the rights of LGTBI people. Gestures that have targeted Russia and other countries with homophobic policies. The support of this community, added to that of all those who see the continent as a haven of freedom, partly explains the staggering ratings. The supportive vote for Ukraine may annoy those who would like a fairer award, but it is also in tune with the supportive values of many of its supporters. And, in short, it is not about detracting from the victory of the Kalush Orchestra by demanding purity from a contest that is essentially flawed, because five countries go directly to the final as premium contributors that they are. In Spain (one of these five), the success of Chanel reinforces an unusual phenomenon that can already be seen in post-pandemic parties: the Catalan Eurovisionist, Rigoberta Bandini and Tanxugueiras form an unbeatable, plural and intergenerational trio, on the dance floors of all the country.
For all these reasons, even for those who find the contest insufferable from aesthetics, it would be desirable not only to continue with the current Eurovision, but also to create more Eurovisions in other areas of European coexistence.
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