The Eurovision song contest and the potential of unintended events and public diplomacy: how exposure to an international mega-event shapes external views of the EU

Abstract

This article focuses on the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) as a potential tool for EU public diplomacy. Institutionally, the ESC, a pan-European international mega-event that forms images of Europe, is not related to the EU. Yet, given the strong link between the ESC and the notion of Europe, the article suggests that the ESC might have unintentionally become a public diplomacy tool for the EU. This argument is supported by showing how public views of the EU in a nonmember country, Israel, changed following its hosting of the ESC in 2019. A longitudinal survey was used to examine the impact of the ESC on Israelis’ sympathy for the EU six months before the 2019 ESC and immediately after hosting the contest. The findings indicated that watching the ESC final increased sympathy for the EU. This demonstrates the positive influence of exposure to the ESC on the views of the EU, highlighting the potential role of the ESC as a tool of public diplomacy for the EU. The findings also illustrate a broader potential for understanding public diplomacy consequences from real-life events.