‘A SONG FOR EUROPE’: MUSIC OR POLITICS?

Abstract

This article highlights some of the debatable issues related to the international media event – the Eurovision Song Contest. In addition to the theoretical basis of studying the ‘Eurovision’ phenomenon from the standpoint of theory and cultural history, the article reviews such aspects as problems of national identity, national branding, and political factors affecting the voting result. For the first time an attempt was made to briefly describe the musical trends of the contest in different periods of its development. Despite the existing multidimensional studies of Eurovision, most of which are aimed primarily at the political and economic essence of the contest, the question remains unresolved: does politics affect the success of a song?.