Postwar Europe and the Eurovision Song Contest
Postwar Europe and the Eurovision Song Contest examines from a political perspective how Eurovision has reflected and become intertwined with the history of postwar Europe. The book is the product of a research project conducted under the most prestigious European research award, the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship funded by the European Commission. Established in 1956, Eurovision is one of Europe’s most popular television programmes, and this book is the first-ever scholarly study on the history of one of Europe’s greatest popular cultural phenomena.
Eurovision is often mocked as cultural kitsch. Yet there is no cultural medium that connects Europeans more than popular music, the development of which has always been tied to cultural, economic, political, social and technological change. This makes Eurovision an ideal tool to explain the history of postwar Europe, from the political divisions of the Cold War to the current challenges of European integration. This book does so by drawing on original sources, including hitherto unpublished archival documents from international broadcasting organisations and the author’s analyses of every edition of Eurovision.
