The Eurovision Song Contest was created in 1956 as an opportunity to bring the nations and the people together in an expressly non-political fashion—through song. Now, 60 years later, Eurovision is often used as a specific political tool. James Evans and Yuval Weber discuss the history of the song contest and how Eurovision has been used as a political tool to reignite recent conflagration between Ukraine and Russia.
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Referenced in this Episode
- Jamala--1944 (Ukraine) 2016 Eurovision Song Contest (Winner)
- Dima Bilan--Believe (Russia) 2008 Eurovision Song Contest (Winner)
- Buranovskiye Babushki--Party for Everybody (Russia) 2012 Eurovision Song Contest
- Eurovision Song Contest YouTube Channel
- Toward an understanding of the Eurovision Song Contest: A brief survey of the extant literature by Joshua Keating, Foreignpolicy.com, posted May 28, 2010
- This Man Knows So Much about Eurovision, They Gave him a PhD by Daisy Sindelar, RFERL.org, posted May 8, 2014
- How a 'Propaganda War' Overtook Eurovision, the World's Most Inclusive Song Competition by William Lee Adams, Billboard.com. posted June 8, 2017
Interim Executive Director, Davis Center
Cris Martin is the interim executive director of the Davis Center for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Ph.D. Student, Department of History, Harvard
James Gethyn Evans is a Ph.D. candidate in history at Harvard.
Research Assistant Professor, Texas A&M’s Bush School of Government and Public Service
