175. Eurovision part 2
The Allusionist
Helen Zaltzman
4.7 • 3.8K Ratings
🗓️ 21 April 2023
⏱️ 35 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Oh, you thought the Eurovision Song Contest was about songs? Or a fun international TV event that brings people together in lots of different countries? Or watching extremely vigorous dance numbers? OK, it is, but it's also about some pretty thorny language-related politics. Historian Dean Vuletic, author of Postwar Europe and the Eurovision Song Contest, discusses Eurovision's many linguistic controversies, and the ways the contest has been exploited politically - and caused political kick-offs too.
This is the second instalment of a two-part Eurovisionallusionist. In the first part: a whole lot of tussling about which languages to compete in.
Find out more about this episode at theallusionist.org/eurovision2, where there's also a transcript.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is the illusionist in which I, Helen Zoltzman, the ward language, doves poigts. |
| 0:09.6 | This is the second half of our two-part excursion into the language of the Eurovision Song Contest, |
| 0:14.6 | whose bespangled all-sugging, some dancing surface belies the linguistic squabbles, |
| 0:20.6 | politicking and upsets beneath. |
| 0:22.4 | You don't even have to have seen the contest before for this podcast a bit worthwhile |
| 0:26.0 | use of your time, but do treat yourself to some online clips of the Eurovisionary greats. |
| 0:31.1 | The final of the 2023 contest is May 13th, and why don't you watch it with me and your |
| 0:35.9 | fellow illusion arts? |
| 0:37.0 | We'll be gathered in the Illusionverse Discord to chat throughout, and it'll be lovely |
| 0:40.8 | to have you along. |
| 0:41.8 | Join us at theillusionist.org slash donate, on with the show. |
| 0:53.1 | Previously on the Eurovision Illusionist. |
| 0:56.4 | In 1956, the European Broadcasting Union, or EBU, a body made up of state broadcasters |
| 1:02.0 | of various different European countries, started the annual television event, the Eurovision |
| 1:06.8 | Song Contest, in which each competing country performs an original song, and the rules |
| 1:12.4 | have changed many times. |
| 1:14.8 | Countries had to perform in one of their official national languages, then countries could |
| 1:18.7 | perform in any language, and too many were choosing English, so the rule was restored |
| 1:23.0 | that countries had to perform in their official national languages, then English language songs |
| 1:27.2 | kept winning in the 1990s, so the compulsory national language rule was taken away again, |
| 1:32.4 | and our countries can perform in whichever language they like. |
| 1:35.4 | But that is still often English. |
... |
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