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EUROPE
In May 2017, 42 countries from across the European continent and beyond convened at the Ukrainian capital of Kiev to participate in the longest-running international singing competition in the world. Despite its whimsical intentions and colorful scenery, the Eurovision Song Contest continues to grow in a sharply political context. While the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the body that oversees the management of the contest, has fought to prevent its politicization, the profound cultural impact of such a pan-European occasion makes the contest a nontraditional yet central arena for geopolitical debates.
The Eurovision Song Contest began in 1956 with six countries in the city of Lugano, Switzerland. From there, it has expanded to encompass over 50 nations ranging from Portugal to Azerbaijan. The songs and singers represent the nations they hail from, and are financed and chosen by, their national broadcaster; for example, the Italian competitor is chosen by RAI, while the UK competitor is chosen by the BBC. Each broadcaster sends one representative to showcase the musical talent of their country through an original song performance. The songs are all performed live and are directly followed by a vote to determine the best performance.
Since 2016, there has been a new voting system in which each country conducts two votes: a jury vote by five musical professionals from every country, and a vote which is open to all residents during the duration of the contest. Every country is given an equal set of points regardless of country size. One important voting pattern that is thought to have influenced the outcome is "bloc voting," a term developed by Eurovision historian John Kennedy O'Connor. O'Connor has set up a geographical analysis based on voting patterns from the 1990s until today to show the formation of various voting regions, including former Soviet nations, the Balkans, the Iberian Peninsula, and Scandinavia. As a telling example, voting between neighboring countries like Greece and Cyprus, Romania and Moldova, and Turkey and Azerbaijan demonstrate their tendency to award each other the coveted 'douze points,' or the maximum twelve points. Countries seem to give more favorable scores to nations from the same region, especially following the post-Cold War integration of new nations participating in the Contest.
At the end of the...