EUROVISION SONG CONTEST AS A FORM OF CULTURAL DIPLOMACY BY EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

Abstract

This final project paper aims to research the situation in which the concept of Cultural Diplomacy plays a part in a music contest, in particular the Eurovision Song Contest (or ESC), an international music competition that has long been held since 1956 mainly between European countries. New reports in 2022 suggest that the Eurovision Song Contest brought a huge impact towards the social, economic, cultural and of course, musical impact on and off screen, particularly to the European countries participating in the song contest. ESC is a program under an institution called European Broadcasting Union (or EBU) and is not related to the cultural policies of the European Union, but it also shows that the song contest can be some of the ways of cultural diplomacy practices that has been long running until now.

This paper will discuss if Eurovision was created to build a positive image, because as the initial intention of creating this contest was so that the countries in Europe could unite in togetherness on the sidelines of the war that befell Europe at that time. It will also argue whether the creation of the Song Contest itself is effective and will list all the effects of ESC in the context of cultural diplomacy in Europe.

Soft Power through Cultural Diplomacy will be used as a theoretical framework to support this paper. The method used in this paper will be both quantitative and qualitative, with quantitative data taken from Eurovision Song Contest Brand Impact Report 2022 (published by the European Broadcasting Union’s Media Intelligence Service, produced by Matthieu Rawolle & Francesca Cimino) and qualitative data taken from journals and web articles from official sources.