‘The Song Contest Is a Battlefield’: Panel Discussion with Eurovision Song Contest Broadcasters, 18 February 2011

External perceptions of the European Union in Israel—the role of norms and culture

“…Manners (2009) argues that the ESC symbolizes contemporary Europe, as perhaps other cultural or even sports events that symbolize Europe do and that can thus be related to perceptions of the EU. The ESC has, indeed, become a topic of scholarly interest (Fricker and Gluhovic, 2013; Spaziante, 2021; Tobin, 2017; Yair, 2019), and our findings suggest another path of research: the use of the ESC not only for nation branding, but also for the promotion of external perceptions of the EU. Future studies might examine whether watching the ESC changes views of Europe and, in fact, why watching the ESC is related to EU image but not to EU connection.…”

“…Over the years, the competition has become significant as one of the world's key cultural events. Its integral kitsch aside, the ESC has drawn scholarly attention across a range of fields, such as media, identity, music, folklore, economy, politics, gender, language, and more (Fricker and Gluhovic, 2013; Spaziante, 2021; Tobin, 2017; Yair, 2019). While not institutionally related to the EU, the ESC can be seen as one key event among others, like the UEFA Champions League, which, according to Manners (2009), symbolizes the cultural understanding of contemporary Europe.…”

Towards a theory of participatory diplomacy via the Eurovision Song Contest

“…Equally, the large body of scholarship on Eurovision fans and audiences concentrates on their identities, communities and contributions to participatory culture (e.g. Fricker et al, 2007;Halliwell, 2018;Lemish, 2004;Waysdorf, 2021), but rarely their complicity and, importantly, their agency in the state-oriented rather than valued-based political dimensions of the song contest.…”

Adam Dubin, Dean Vuletic and Antonio Obregón (Eds.). The Eurovision Song Contest as a Cultural Phenomenon. From Concert Halls to the Halls of Academia. Published by Routledge, New York (2023), 275 pp.

“…The collective works in this volume assert, with varying degrees of subtlety, the Festival's legitimacy as a subject of study and advocate for diverse disciplinary approaches, encompassing cultural or media studies, which analyse contemporary popular culture.This publication serves as foundational work, even considering the prior academic works from which it originates, forming what I would venture to call Eurovision Studies -a multidimensional discipline open to diverse approaches, analytical perspectives and reflections. While academic works on the contest can be traced back to the 1950s (Pollock & Lyndon, 1959), it is the turbulent geopolitical landscape in Europe from the 1990s onward that sparks interest in the contest from a political standpoint (Yair, 1995;Fricker & Gluhovic, 2013;Raykoff & Tobin, 2016;Vuletic, 2018). As highlighted in the bibliography compiled by , the focus on the Festival later expands to encompass Media Studies, Cultural Studies and Eurovision Analytics.The book begins with a preface written by Martin Österdahl, the current executive producer of the show, expressing the enthusiasm and interest that academic works on the Festival generate among the organisers.…”

“…This publication serves as foundational work, even considering the prior academic works from which it originates, forming what I would venture to call Eurovision Studies -a multidimensional discipline open to diverse approaches, analytical perspectives and reflections. While academic works on the contest can be traced back to the 1950s (Pollock & Lyndon, 1959), it is the turbulent geopolitical landscape in Europe from the 1990s onward that sparks interest in the contest from a political standpoint (Yair, 1995;Fricker & Gluhovic, 2013;Raykoff & Tobin, 2016;Vuletic, 2018). As highlighted in the bibliography compiled by , the focus on the Festival later expands to encompass Media Studies, Cultural Studies and Eurovision Analytics.…”