Sabiondo
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Just read this article at ESCInsight today. Let's discuss it together here, in a civilized manner!! 
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Is Eurovision (too) political?
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MyHeartIsYours
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Of course it is - I don't think there's any doubt about that!!
LalehForWD
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Just read this article at ESCInsight today. Let's discuss it together here, in a civilized manner!!
Click click!
I read it too the other day
Voted no, but I think political issues should be discussed openly and not hushed away.
Well to be honest every event involving countries is bound too have some political presence in it as much as I hate it.
But at-least the EBU is trying to fight it with mixed results. Mainly because the main problem isn't the Contest it self but people who get involved with it. Like for example many fans at the moment have a really strong anti-Swedish bias despite the fact that Swedish songs are well liked outside of Eurovision (both Heroes and Euphoria topped our charts).
Also we have no clear definition on what political means for example a normal love song can be political in certain areas and societies where arranged marriages are the norm.
But at-least the EBU is trying to fight it with mixed results. Mainly because the main problem isn't the Contest it self but people who get involved with it. Like for example many fans at the moment have a really strong anti-Swedish bias despite the fact that Swedish songs are well liked outside of Eurovision (both Heroes and Euphoria topped our charts).
Also we have no clear definition on what political means for example a normal love song can be political in certain areas and societies where arranged marriages are the norm.
I laughed at the whole article because these people wish the contest was devoid of politics, yet they admit they can't help themselves judging acts on music only... talk about irony! Of course, the contest is political in all its aspects, stating the contrary would be a nonsense. In addition to that, people are always stigmatising the same countries, and this binary perspective is very basic imo.
The only extract that caught my eye and I agree with is the one below:
"I’ve said before how the voting system we have means that the more safe, more mainstream and the least offensive entries are likely to do better as they get no negative drag. The same applies to the competing countries. Not deliberately, but just by having the country names there Western jurors will think twice about giving high scores to Russia, Azerbaijan and Belarus. They are easy cannon fodder to have at the bottom. In fact I argue this voting system of negative drag means the countries with politically friendly global agendas will perform very well. Only one country has been in the top three of the jury rankings in each of the three years this system has been in place and that same country had not a single juror rank it lower than 20th place this year.
This era of Swedish dominance in the Eurovision Song Contest is far from over people, and we would all be too naive to say SVT’s success is purely because of the music."
Of course, the contest is political in all its aspects, stating the contrary would be a nonsense. In addition to that, people are always stigmatising the same countries, and this binary perspective is very basic imo.The only extract that caught my eye and I agree with is the one below:
"I’ve said before how the voting system we have means that the more safe, more mainstream and the least offensive entries are likely to do better as they get no negative drag. The same applies to the competing countries. Not deliberately, but just by having the country names there Western jurors will think twice about giving high scores to Russia, Azerbaijan and Belarus. They are easy cannon fodder to have at the bottom. In fact I argue this voting system of negative drag means the countries with politically friendly global agendas will perform very well. Only one country has been in the top three of the jury rankings in each of the three years this system has been in place and that same country had not a single juror rank it lower than 20th place this year.
This era of Swedish dominance in the Eurovision Song Contest is far from over people, and we would all be too naive to say SVT’s success is purely because of the music."
MyHeartIsYours
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I'm as guilty as the rest when it comes to this - it's about 10 times more likely that I vote for Ireland than any other country. But for anybody to claim that Eurovision isn't at least part political is a nonsense.
I'd say these days it's 80% music/20% politics. In the bad old days of 2007-2008, I'd say it was 50/50, perhaps even going towards 40% music/60% politics. But since the introduction of the juries, and since I think there was a realisation amongst people that hey this is ruining the contest, the problem has somewhat rectified itself. I'm quite happy with it now, a bit of politics makes it funny I think
I'd say these days it's 80% music/20% politics. In the bad old days of 2007-2008, I'd say it was 50/50, perhaps even going towards 40% music/60% politics. But since the introduction of the juries, and since I think there was a realisation amongst people that hey this is ruining the contest, the problem has somewhat rectified itself. I'm quite happy with it now, a bit of politics makes it funny I think
From my vast wealth of experience (2015 only) I agree that there are politics involved in the contest and that it would be basically impossible to separate the two ever. We are human and however hard we try to be objective when judging the songs, I just cannot see anyone claiming 100% objectivity. It's interesting the points raised by the article about travelling to some of the Eurovision countries if they win. My favourite this year was Belarus, and it never really occurred to me what their hosting would be like and what it would be like for people going thither. Out of the top two, I wanted Sweden more, but the overriding reason for that is because "Heroes" is on my Spotify playlist and "A Million Voices" is not. Yes, I prefer Sweden as a country to Russia, and I would not want to go to Russia given their current attitude to the LGBT+ community. So there goes my objectivity. I just think it's inescapable and we just to have to accept that!
Sabiondo
Well-known member
Eurovision wasn't politics when i started to watch it 13 years ago, but little by little things have evolved and changed to the point that even the reputation of each country in Eurovision is evaluated by people at voting time, no matter how good is the song. Its not fair judge a hole country for a song that doesn't reflect the true values of the country, but its reflects how much the people is hypocritical and have double standards, specially from Western Europe.
Now the Ultra-hard OGAY's groups & Swedish mafia dictate and controls every competition aspect and humiliate the singers as if they were responsible for what happens in their countries. If they are afraid to go to Russia, Azerbaijan, Belarus or any non so-gay friendly European country to see an Eurovision live, then stay at home for avoid drama queens with the countries rules, but each country has its policies and customs and they will not change so easy from night to morning to reassure a group that ''owners'' the competition.
Now the Ultra-hard OGAY's groups & Swedish mafia dictate and controls every competition aspect and humiliate the singers as if they were responsible for what happens in their countries. If they are afraid to go to Russia, Azerbaijan, Belarus or any non so-gay friendly European country to see an Eurovision live, then stay at home for avoid drama queens with the countries rules, but each country has its policies and customs and they will not change so easy from night to morning to reassure a group that ''owners'' the competition.
popavapeur
Well-known member
i was trying to write something but i don't wanna roll my face on my keyboard for weeks while reading some posts.
(i'm up with a lot of you guys, keep the good work haha)
(i'm up with a lot of you guys, keep the good work haha
)Huge preach Sabiondo!!
First, as a fan, it's not that hard to be unbiased if you truly judge the contest music-wise. Tbh, I don't get how you can like a song less (or more) if it comes from certain countries: if one finds a song nice, the song remains nice regardless of who sent it.
Second, if people don't want a country to win just because they don't want to go there for any "valid" reason, then they should feel free not to go. Lots of things have changed in recent years but attending Eurovision isn't mandatory yet
Third, people themselves are bringing politics to the contest by stigmatising a bunch of countries: is it still a music contest or countries should now pass a test to see if they comply with Western politics standards? :? I just don't get this, and for two years now, the contest has been used to send some kind of values to the "non-tolerant" countries. And after that, people talk about tolerance... :? Tolerance is not tolerating only the ones who think the same as you, it's not booing, and it's not throwing so-called good values at someone's face. If one wants to lead by example, one has to be irreproachable oneself.
FilipFromSweden
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Ofcourse it's political but not that political. Because in 2014 Conchita Wurst from Austria won, and in 2015 Polina from Russia got more televotes than the winner, even more so than Conchita I believe. So I don't think you can say the voters are leaning one way. But there are always going to be political stuff like the Azerbaijani bribe scandal including them breaking human rights while hosting, Armenia sending a political song this year, Russia often sending peace songs, Turkey dropping out, Conchita winning by representing LGBTQ etc.
Chorizo
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Obviously the contest is political and there is no denying that. The question is if the contest should be political. Since it is a competition of countries and the winner can host the contest the following year, which means lots of PR for the winning country, it is impossible for the contest to be apolitical. If one accepts that the contest couldn't exist the way it does as an apolitical contest, the question whether it should be political is a moot point. The format automatically involves politics, no matter if people like that or not.
Since it is political, the politics need to be acknowledged and it is legitimate not to vote for a country for political reasons because of what winning means for a country and politics. The fact that it is actually just a competition of singers and bands that were selected by broadcasters from different countries doesn't change anything about the political implications.
Since it is political, the politics need to be acknowledged and it is legitimate not to vote for a country for political reasons because of what winning means for a country and politics. The fact that it is actually just a competition of singers and bands that were selected by broadcasters from different countries doesn't change anything about the political implications.
If every country could play after the rules and stop with these pathetic ways to cheat (pretty obvious which country I mean), then we are a huge step in the right way. Sadly, this "let´s make the biggest and most valuable Contest ever" competition among the hosting each year is one of many things why the Contest has been more political
Despite all the block voting, the winner is almost always the best song in the competition, and often predicted by most of the fans. I think any country would have won with "Euphoria" or "Fairytale". None of us would have envisioned if someone said "Austria will win the competition one day", and they were absent for quite a long time blaming the political voting but they won in their 4th try after being back. With the right song, even Malta won the JESC which is way more influenced by the eastern block.
It's only us fans that care about the top 10 and the qualifiers and stuff.
The winner takes it all guys, calm down.
It's only us fans that care about the top 10 and the qualifiers and stuff.
The winner takes it all guys, calm down.