1st Edition
The Eurovision Song Contest as a Cultural Phenomenon From Concert Halls to the Halls of Academia
Drawing from the wealth of academic literature about the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) written over the last two decades, this book consolidates and recognizes the ESC's relevance in academia by analysing its contribution to different fields of study.
The book brings together leading ESC scholars from across disciplines and from across the globe to reflect on the intersection between their academic fields of study and the ESC by answering the question: what has the ESC contributed to academia? The book also draws from fields rarely associated with the ESC, such as Law, Business and Research Methodologies, to demonstrate the contest's broad utility in research, pedagogy and in practice.
Given its interdisciplinary approach, this volume will be of interest to scholars and students working in cultural, media, and music studies, as well as those interested in the intersections between these areas and politics, law, education, pedagogy, and history.
Part I
From Lugano to the Classroom: The ESC and Academia
1. The Grand Tour: The Origins of the ESC as a Cultural Phenomenon
Dean Vuletic
2. The Eurovision Song Contest: An Academic Phenomenon
Antonio Obregón
3. A Human Rights-Based Analysis of the Eurovision Song Contest and the European Broadcasting Union
Adam Dubin
Part II
From Past to Present: History, Politics and Society
4. The Mythology of Song Contests
Ivan Raykoff
5. Teaching European History and Memory through Eurovision During the Covid-19 Pandemic
Alison Lewis and John Hajek
6. A March for Power: The Variety of Political Programs on the Eurovision Stage
Gad Yair and Chen Ozeri
7. The Molitva Factor: Eurovision and ‘Performing’ National Identity in World Politics
Catherine Baker
8. A Critical Pedagogical Eurovision Euphoria: The Potential of the Eurovision Song Contest to Promote Values Propagated by the European Union within Formal Learning Contexts
George Cremona
9. Sharing Values in the Eurovision Song Contest and OTI Festival: The Moral Fourth Person in the Lyrics of the Winning Songs
Ariel James
10. Eurovision in the Boardroom: What Does Voting Order Tell Us About Decision Making?
Jose Luis Arroyo-Barrigüete, Lourdes Fernández, Antonio Obregón
Part III
From Stage to Screen: Film, Media, and Music
11. High, Low, and Participatory: The Eurovision Song Contest and Cultural Studies
Jessica Carniel
12. Queer Camp Against Franco: Iván Zulueta’s Eurovision Song Contest Parody Un Dos Tres
Robert Tobin
13. The Eurovision Song Contest and European Television History: Continuity, Adaptation, Experimentation
Mari Pajala
14. From Trouble to Bubble? The Ambiguous Relationship between Professional Journalists and Fan Media in the Eurovision Song Contest
Irving Wolther
15. Domesticity, Mass Media, and Moving-Image Aesthetics: The Visual Identity of the Eurovision Song Contest as a Hospitable Platform
José Luis Panea
16. Armchair Researchers: Modes of Ethnographic Research for Understanding and Experiencing Eurovision
Chris Hay and Jessica Carniel
17. Between Concepts and Behaviors: The Eurovision Song Contest and Ethnomusicology
Sofia Vieira Lopes and João Soeiro de Carvalho
Biography
Adam Dubin is a human rights scholar and Assistant Professor of Law at Universidad Pontificia Comillas in Madrid, Spain, as well as an Adjunct Professor of Politics at New York University, USA. He is also a Senior Research Associate at the University of Johannesburg and a Visiting Professor at Southwest University of Politics and Law in China. His research focuses on human rights in sub-Saharan Africa, as well as on the intersection between human rights and pop culture.
Dean Vuletic is a Historian of Contemporary Europe based in the Research Center on the History of Transformations at the University of Vienna, Austria. The author of Postwar Europe and the Eurovision Song Contest (2018), he is the world's leading academic expert on the history of the ESC and he has taught the world's first university course on this topic. He is an internationally prominent media commentator and public speaker on the ESC, and further information about his work can be found on his website www.deanvuletic.com.
Antonio Obregón was formerly Vice Rector of Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculty of Law at Universidad Pontificia Comillas. He is a Full Professor of Criminal Law and International Relations. He holds an undergraduate degree in Law and Business Administration and a PhD in Criminal Law. He designed and taught the first seminar in a Spanish university on the ESC and is a frequent commentator on it in the Spanish media.
