Eurovision 2013 lecture at Trinity College Dublin – Podcast Available. Photograph courtesy of independent.ie

The Eurovision Song Contest and the Performance of Europe’, a lecture by Prof Brian Singleton,as part of the Euro-Visions Public Lecture Series on Europe. Though heavily criticised for its camp staging and the simplistic lyrics of many of its songs, the Eurovision Song Contest has survived for 58 years to become the second most popular television show in the world.

Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and staged by national public service broadcasters from Iceland to Azerbaijan, the Contest offers annual competing national representations of Europeanness and performs transnationally contested politics of gender, race and sexuality that have resulted in street protests, Presidential interventions, and allegations of bribery and corruption.

This lecture will analyse the political fall-out of the 2013 Contest and its representations and bring into focus competing conceptions of the national in relation to the notion of Europe as constructed by the EBU.

Here is the iTunes link to the “FREE Podcast Download”. The full series of the talks are on thi slink. You want to select the second poadcast called “Euro-Visions : The Eurovision Song Contest and the Performance of Europe”

https://itunes.apple.com/ie/itunes-u/eurovisions-public-lecture/id662910134?mt=10

This an interesting lecture looking at the recent political fallout of the Eurovision Song Contest and the behind the scenes politics of hosting the contest with contrasting examples of Malmo 2013 and Baku 2012. You may agree or disagree (like we did) with some of the points made, but an interesting analysis and well worth the free listen.

Speakers: Prof Brian Singleton Prof Juergen Barkhoff http://www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub/ http://www.tcd.ie/iiis/

Author/Website co-founder and Editor in Chief Garrett Mulhall

Source – TCD.ie and Eurovision Ireland