Popular Culture for Political Identity? Evidence from Voting Behavior at the Eurovision Song Contest

• In Event: Pop Culture and The Framing of Politics

Abstract

Results of the Eurovision Song Contest, a unique song competition created in 1956 to draw Europeans closer together through music, have been hailed as a cultural seismograph and a window to broader European politics. In the context of the new European Union (EU) citizenship introduced in the late 20th century and meant to only complement pre-existing national identities of member-states’ citizens, the Eurovision has served as a fertile field on which banal displays of nationalism coexist with pan-European celebrations and contestations. Building on previous scholarship which has demonstrated that national juries’ voting patterns correlate with their country’s diplomatic and cultural interests, this article additionally considers the public vote – where, since 2003, regular citizens of finalist countries can also cast their vote – as broader representations of elite and ordinary citizens’ perceptions of the EU. In a systematic assessment of voting behavior at the Eurovision between 2012 and 2022, a nested analysis reveals that the jury and the public vote rarely reflect EU politically salient issues while few instances of outstanding support does suggest that voters – and especially televoters – appreciate the cultural and linguistic diversity promoted by the EU. These findings contribute to the broader literature on culture as a pillar to identity-building by exploring processes through which participation in popular culture legitimatizes political authority.

Author

• Estelle Brun, Boston University