The playful secret of Eurovision – Claudio Rossi Marcelli

Something seemingly difficult to decipher last weekend on the streaming music platform Spotify: The cure by Franco Battiato, who dominated the Italian ranking since the day of the songwriter’s death, has been supplanted by the electronic version of a pre-Christian song from the Ukrainian folk tradition dedicated to the harvest of hemp. This simple anecdote suggests what a bizarre creature we are talking about when we talk about Eurovision.

more by Go_A, the song in question, was in fact the Ukrainian proposal in the 2021 edition of the Eurovision song contest, which ended on May 22 in Rotterdam with the victory of the Italian group Måneskin. With over two hundred million viewers, Eurovision is the most followed singing competition in the world, yet it would be impossible to compare it to any other event on the international music scene. Starting with a more unique than rare feature: the absence of a commercial logic.

Organized annually by the European Broadcasting Union with the aim of involving audiences from different European countries and promoting their integration, Eurovision is a cauldron of musical genres, stage costumes, languages, colors, pyrotechnics, nationalities and oddities. in which the omnipresence of marketing typical of all other international musical and sporting events is missing.

An aspect that can be seen from the choice of the songs in the competition, which are traditionally selected more to entertain the public during the evening than with the actual intention of making them reach the radio and commercial success. How else to explain the decision to stage a Ukrainian folk song in a dance key?

Aware of the fact that non-English-speaking artists are unlikely to break through in individual European markets, the competing countries are under no pressure to send the song with the most commercial potential to the arena and therefore select their piece in competition with great freedom. And the result is a triumph of creativity and spontaneity which, for example, this year made the European public fall in love with a glam rock piece by four Roman boys. An undertaking so unpredictable that no record company could have achieved.

For Americans, who study Eurovision with the curiosity of observing an exotic animal in the zoo, the most shocking aspect is to discover that there is a musical show lasting over three hours without even a commercial break. And without the presence of bulky sponsors that require space and visibility during the evening.

“It is now a sad reality that, when it comes to major musical or sporting events, marketing is always guaranteed a great deal of freedom of expression,” writes the New York Times fashion and costume editor, Vanessa Friedman. “And that’s why Eurovision is such a joy to watch: the parade of ridiculous stage costumes alternating on stage are worn with such exuberance that they ultimately convince you that sometimes the ultimate goal should be just feel free to dress as you want ”.

“Actually the Italians Måneskin, the winners of the evening, were dressed by a famous brand but no one noticed it, because the identity of the band completely clouded the fashion house,” continues Friedman. “And that’s what makes Eurovision so special and so one of a kind.”

Light years away from events such as the night of the Grammy or the MTV music awards, in fact to find a worthy comparison you have to get out of the musical field and go to fish out Games without Frontiers, the great televised competition in which the representative teams of European countries competed in a series of competitions. And then it becomes even clearer that the leitmotif between the two programs is the desire to entertain the public by celebrating Europe’s rich diversity.

Games without Frontiers has not been on the air since 1999 and at a time when even the Olympics were completely subjected to the need to advertise and sell products, the fact that once a year Europe finds itself on a stage with the sole purpose to have fun all in all is an opportunity not to be missed.