Revolution, genocide, Brexit: why Eurovision 2015's entries reveal a continent in crisis – The Guardian

Is Greece’s song a disguised farewell to the Euro? Is Georgia preparing for war? This year’s Song Contest entries might be the most political collection ever – and the underlying ideas are pretty worrying

Blog story By Bella Qvist

Let’s start by making one thing clear; the Eurovision Song Contest was created as a “light entertainment programme”, bringing countries together, and has a strict policy against political content.

“No lyrics, speeches, gestures of a political or similar nature shall be permitted … No messages promoting any organisation, institution, political cause or other, company, brand, products or services shall be allowed ... A breach of this rule may result in disqualification.” - 1.2.2.h, Public Rules of 60th Eurovision Song Contest (pdf).

Many entries in the past have walked pretty close to the line with this rule. There was Ukraine’s 2007 entry Verka Serduchka with Dancing Lasha Tumbai, sounding almost like “Russia: goodbye”, and San Marino’s The Social Network Song of 2012, about a website which rhymed with “look”. Not to forget Georgia’s We Don’t Wanna Put In by Stephane & 3G, which sounded suspiciously close to “we don’t want a Putin” when performed in Moscow in 2009.

So just how political does 2015 get? There aren’t any obvious cheesecake songs or Russian grannies (Graham Norton won’t be happy) but instead a bleak display of tracks steeped in black; Eurovision has gone serious. The mood could be a response to the theme “building bridges”, set by last year’s winner, Austria’s Conchita Wurst, but much also speaks in favour of bigger, underlying issues. 

Armenia is represented by Genealogy, a group of singers from six different countries. Officially promoting peace, unity and love, their track Face the Shadow was criticised when it first appearedunder the title Don’t Deny, and it had to be renamed when the organisers deemed it too political. Why?

2015 is the 100-year anniversary of the Ottoman Empire’s mass murder of 1.5 million Armenians, an event which many countries, including Germany and France, have recognised as genocide but which Turkey (as well as the US and UK) contests. Genealogy’s lyrics continually repeat the words “don’t deny” and the official video features a family portrait that slowly becomes empty. Is it about love, or about murder?

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