In its 66 years of broadcasting, the Eurovision Song Contest usually brought joy, merriment and songs featuring Irish turkey dolls. Created with the noble intention of showing that music can unite Europe, it turned out to be a glorious failure instead, with skillful slipknots, deaf, bakery grandmothers and Israeli rappers screaming like chickens, all emphasizing, if nothing else, the impenetrability of the beloved pop music of a foreign nation – even when singing in English.
Just in case you were wondering, after watching the performances, whether the borders of the continent are collapsing, the outrageous party national vote usually confirms that the spirit of intercontinental unity is a mirage. Greece and Cyprus are scoring fewer points, the Nordic countries are voting for each other, and poor old Eurosceptic Britain has spent most of the last decade in the last three places.
The competition in 2015 had “anti-whistle technology”, so the public could not hear protests over the invasion of Crimea
This year, however, things may be different. While the nations participating in Eurovision have been at war before – bloody border disputes erupted for years between Armenia and Azerbaijan, while Russia invaded Georgia in 2008 and invaded the Crimean region in 2014 – this time the mood against the Russian invasion in Ukraine is resolute. After initially saying that Russia could compete because the competition was apolitical, the organizers reversed their decision and banned the country.
“If they had been allowed to enter Eurovision this year, it would have symbolized support for Russia’s actions,” said Oleh Psyuk, frontman of this year’s Ukrainian hip-hop folk band, the Kalush Orchestra. “But now I have a sense of justice.”
For Psyuk and the rest of his six-member crew, this year’s song contest is a unique opportunity. In the midst of an unprecedented threat to European security, he also sees an unprecedented desire for the continent to unite. “I really believe that unity is important right now,” he explained via Zoom from the hotel room he was staying on during a promotional tour in Israel before the race. “Our song has managed to unite so many Ukrainians and I hope it will unite Europeans – and maybe the whole world.”
As early as February, Pshuk took second place in the process of choosing Eurovision in his country with Stefania, his mother’s musical tribute. Then, in a surprising turn, after the withdrawal of the first place due to an alleged visit to the Russian-occupied region of Crimea, he realized that he would represent Ukraine in this year’s competition, which takes place in Turin, Italy. At that time, Russia invaded his nation, his song was hailed by his compatriots as a tribute to their homeland, and now contains soundtracks of about 150,000 TikTok videos, from videos from the #Standwithukraine world protests to footage of rocket launches from buildings.
Growing support for the act prompted the Ukrainian government to give them special permission to travel to Italy, despite initial fears that they would have to perform via video link from a security bunker as a result of laws not allowing young men to leave the country. Kalush is now a huge favorite to win this year’s race – with most of the continent looking to use his voice to make a statement about Russia’s aggression.
Georgia’s 2009 recording, We Don’t Wanna Put In, was banned because of its not-so-thin ditch on the Russian dictator.
“It gives me a good feeling – it’s good to know,” says Psyuk, “not that he thinks the Russian invasion is entirely responsible for the popularity of his participation.” “Even before the war, our song was in the top five according to bookmakers. This situation that has happened may have affected the way we compete to the first position in the odds, but the fact is that we have a very good song – a great song, actually. “
This is an unprecedented territory for competition, which used to have an extremely difficult relationship with inter-European politics. For years, the organizers of Eurovision, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), have argued that it is essentially an anti-political spectacle – and have repeatedly intervened to stifle expressions that challenge such a claim.
One of the publications in TikTok using Stefania, the participation of the Eurovision group. Photo: TikTok
In retrospect, it is remarkable that these are often protest songs about Russia’s hostility to its neighbors. The EBU has banned entry into Georgia since 2009. We Don’t Wanna Put In for his less-than-thin experience with Russia’s then-prime minister after the Russo-Georgian war. “Anti-whistle technology” was installed to prevent audiences around the world from hearing crowd protests against the new Russian in 2015 after the Crimean invasion. And while in 2016 it allowed Ukraine to take part in a controversial song that won the contest for Russia’s deportation of Crimean Tatars during World War II, TV operators were quick to condemn Ukraine as host next year, when the country stopped Russian contestant Yulia Samoilova from traveling to the final in 2017 due to allegations that she entered Crimea “illegally”. A BBC correspondent in Moscow suggested it was probably a deliberate Russian provocation or “exactly what Moscow wanted when it chose Samoilova, knowing she was traveling to Crimea”.
This also puts the Kalush Orchestra in a difficult position when it comes to expressing their feelings about the plight of their country. Just to travel to Eurovision this year, Psyuk had to retire from the 35-member volunteer organization he set up to provide access to safe accommodation, transportation and refugee medicine. Kalush orchestra had to find a deputy member of the group, which is fighting in the defense forces of Kyiv. But the group is driven by the feeling that they had an “important mission” to raise awareness about their country – a feeling that Psiuk has become something that sounds incredible as the continent’s exciting speech for Eurovision.
“I have a message I would like to convey,” Psyuk said. “There are people who can see this conflict as a war movie – something that is really far away and something that cannot happen to them. But this has already happened to us. We didn’t believe in advance, but it really happened, “he insisted.
“We want to avoid any kind of politicization” – the band plays at a Eurovision concert. Photo: ANP / Alamy
“When you wake up every morning to the sound of explosions, when you wake up without being sure if your girlfriend or family is alive, it’s scary – really scary. That is why I would like to call on everyone to support Ukraine, to take the time to think about what they can do to help Ukraine in this situation. If everyone in the world does what they can, then we can end this war much earlier – and prevent it from happening again in another country.
However, even if Ukraine wins, Psyuk is not sure that the rules around open political statements will ever allow him to say those words. “We want to avoid any kind of politicization, so we will first discuss it with the team before we do anything,” he explained.
Another big question is what the distribution of votes might look like this year. On a continent that is overwhelmed by a new spirit of cooperation, can we see a shaking up of the established points distribution system? Could there be an end to the electoral blocs of the Scandinavian, Balkan and former Soviet states?
Obviously, given the UK’s prospects. We seem ready to finish in the top 10 for the first time in 13 years – after being the lowest nation in the last two. Sam Ryder, the star of TikTok, who is this year’s contestant, is currently the fourth favorite to win, and we hope to end many years of complaints in the UK about political voting by former contestant Simon Webb, who explained the 11th his slow pop stepper. ending in 2011 with: “Often it’s not really about the song, it’s about who your neighbors are.”
Ready to take advantage of … UK graduate Sam Ryder. Photo: Edward Cook / BBC / Parlophone Music
There is, of course, a limit. It may be a little too much to expect Turkey and Greece to end the cultural war they are waging over the ownership of Cyprus through the four-decade Eurovision voting board. And given that in 2009 the Azerbaijani state police gathered citizens who voted for Armenia, it seems unlikely that the citizens of each country will vote only for their musical taste.
But for Psiuk, there is a sense that this race could be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to rethink small European rivalries and unite the continent through song like never before. “For Ukraine, this is the most important year for Eurovision. And I really want that to be true for the whole world, he says as he prepares to end the conversation on Zoom. “That is why we bring to the world a message that I would put in one word: love.”
This is a great reminder of the importance of racing, but it’s not surprising. After all, in the middle of a war-torn country, the feeling of being supported by your neighbors may be the most important thing you can dream of. Almost. “Most of all, we would like to win on the main front line. But at this point, every victory is meaningful and important. ” Fortunately, Eurovision voters can do at least one of these things this year.
The Eurovision final will take place on May 14th.
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