National Promotion and Eurovision: from Besieged Sarajevo to the Floodlights of Europe Research Article Neven Andjelić Senior Lecturer, Regent’s University London
[email protected] http://www.suedosteuropa.uni-graz.at/cse/en/andjelic Contemporary Southeastern Europe, 2015, 2(1), 94-109 Contemporary Southeastern Europe is an online, peer-reviewed, multidisciplinary journal that publishes original, scholarly, and policy-oriented research on issues relevant to societies in Southeastern Europe. For more information, please contact us at
[email protected] or visit our website at www.contemporarysee.org National Promotion and Eurovision: from Besieged Sarajevo to the Floodlights of Europe Neven Andjelić* The Eurovision Song Contest, as an important part of the entertainment industry, has offered European countries a platform for national promotion. The original format has developed over 60 years and has come under scrutiny and criticism as allegations of block voting, politics and nationalism have been raised. It has also been argued that similarity of cultures, linguistic connections, and close national identities, rather than national interests and politics, are what actually bring countries together in this competition. This study has two focuses in an attempt to determine what role the contest has had for participating countries and how they have used it. The first focus is on analysing historical incidents at the competition when countries have attempted to politicise the contest. The second focus and the main part of the study is a thorough investigation into the organisation of the first Bosnian-Herzegovinian delegation to participate in Eurovision, their escape from besieged Sarajevo and their participation at the contest in Ireland in 1993.