Eurovision and Politics

Have you heard of Eurovision? It’s a yearly song competition that pits the best pop song from each European country to determine the Continent's song of the year. Some non-European countries are included such as Turkey and Israel.

No one takes Eurovision seriously from an artistic perspective. Most songs are catchy, promote good feeling and plant themselves in the rhythmic corners of the mind regardless of whether they're invited. ABBA notably won Eurovision in the early 1970s on their way to international stardom. Ten years ago, an Israeli transvestite, Dana International, made her country proud. Most people wince at the tune chosen to represent their country. But everyone backs their country's entry with gusto.

Despite its history of glorifying cross dressers, artstic thieves and mediocrity, Eurovision this year may demonstrate how scary it is, not just how weird. The Israeli entry, Tipex (also known as Tea Packs), which is a long running band with true artistic credibility that combines traditional middle eastern sounds with western rock rhythms, won the right to represent Israel with a song that addresses the dangers of nuclear war and rogue states with nuclear ambitions. The song supposedly names no particular country (this writer hasn’t yet heard the song), but an allusion to Iran is there.

Eurovision has threatened to disqualify Tipex’s song on the grounds that it carries a political message. Paraphrasing a good friend, Europe, with all its pretensions of promoting dialogue rather than war in search of peace, is the place that doesn’t want to hear one group’s thoughts on the country that’s the biggest aggressor of all. The Europeans aren’t looking for peace as much as they desire to appease, shutting out voices of reason and concern. Hey, it's just a song. Right?