The Eurovision Song Contest: Connecting The World Through Music

By Ester De Greef, Institute for Cultural Diplomacy.

Saturday May 18^th the annual Eurovision song contest was held in Malmö, Sweden. 26 countries competed. But of course there can only be one winner: Denmark.

The Eurovision song contest is an example where different cultures and nations come together through cultural diplomacy using music and dance. Hundred millions of people watch the show every year. It has the largest international audience of any non-sporting event. The contest is therefore a great opportunity to create awareness and understanding between cultures.

The slogan of the contest was ‘we are one’. This refers to the basic of the contest: bringing people together in a shared project. Not only European citizens are involved, the contest united millions of people from all over the world. The main idea of this event is diversity, happiness and togetherness.

For the graphics they chose a butterfly, because butterflies exist in different shapes and colours but we use a common name for them: ‘butterflies’. This the connection to the diversity between people in this world. We are all human but also really different, but in the end we are one strong identity. This what the Eurovision song contest wanted to achieve this year with their logo.

References:

http://www.eurovision.tv/page/news?id=malmoe_2013_we_are_one

Center for Cultural Diplomacy Studies Publication
Institute for Cultural Diplomacy
www.ccds-berlin.de
www.culturaldiplomacy.org