5 Reasons Why Eurovision Is Awesome (from an Indonesian Perspective) — Part 2
Indonesia on European stage?
Without any further chattering, let’s go to other three reasons why Eurovision is awesome.
3. Eurovision is the place with some Indonesian traces
In spite of not competing in Eurovision ever, Indonesia has still got its credit on Eurovision involvement. Chiefly thanks to Netherlands, they have sent some Indonesian figures to compete in the song contest. According to Raykoff and Tobin in their book “A Song for Eurovision: Popular Music and Politics in the Eurovision Song Contest”, 14 of 46 total attempts by the Windmill Country from 1956 to 2005 was done by Indonesian, Afro-Suriname, or Moluccan descent performers. Some remarkable Indonesian descents of doing so are Anneke Grönloh, Sandra Reemer, and Justine Pelmelay.
In 1964, Netherlands created history by sending the first non-European artist ever to the contest. It was Tondano born Anneke Grönloh who sang “Jij bent mijn leven” (Translated: you are my life), finishing 10th out of 16 fields. Anneke herself had already have career in Indonesia, releasing some albums with hits such as “Asmara”, “Nasi Goreng”, and “Rambut Hitam Matanya Galak”. Furthermore, she was the first ever artist to popularize our lovely cradle “Nina Bobo” (didn’t see that coming, right?).
Sandra Reemer is another notable act. The Bandung born singer tried to compete in Eurovision three times: 1972 as the part of Sandra and Andres placing 4/18, 1976 placing 9/18, and 1979 as Xandra placing 12/19. Justine Pelmelay, representing Netherlands in 1989, is the first Moluccan act sent. She sang a love ballad “Blijf zoals je bent” (Translated: stay the way you are), which was infamous as she failed to hit the long notes at the end of the song. She landed on 15th place in a field of 22.
Not only Netherlands, but it’s also France who had sent Indonesian descent to perform in Eurovision. It was the majesty Anggun C. Sasmi, singing “Echo (You and I)” on 2012 contest held in Baku, Azerbaijan. Receiving lukewarm critics, the song did not go well. It only finished 22nd out of 26 finalists, which was responded by Anggun as deeply disappointing. But no worry, Lady. Indonesians are still proud of you, tho.
Additional info: The winner of 2016 contest Jamala from Ukraine, was once announced as the winner of New Wave 2009 (a contest for Young Pop Singer all around the world) along with Indonesian singer Sandhy Sondoro. We can add Sandhy Sondoro as our wishlist to represent Germany in Eurovision, let’s see.
4. Eurovision is the place to learn about European history and politics
Eurovision has been declared as a non-political event… or so. Despite of the accentuation of the contest neutrality, political issues are still flavoring the contest; historically and geographically. Politics can affect the contest in so many ways: coup d’etat code song, a song with peace message or mocking pun in it, bad bilateral relations as reflected in bloc voting, or to the more extreme, prohibiting a specific singer to join the contest. Here I mention some beneficial and harmful bilateral relations between countries joining Eurovision and their proofs.
Greece, Cyprus, and Turkey. Cyprus is a small island in Eastern Mediterranean, being the subject of fight over between Greece and Turkey for centuries. The World War II brought ownership claims between conflicting countries, separating the island into Greek Southern and Turkish Northern. Greece worked on enosis between Southern and Northern Cyprus, while Turkey was against it. The climax was on 20 July 1974 when Turkey invaded Cyprus as the country itself had another coup d’etat by pro-enosis Greek Cypriot to current leader Nikos Sampson. The result was Greece withdrawal in 1975 contest as Turkey debuted at the song contest — a protest over Turkey’s inclusion. A year later Turkish TV denied to broadcast Greek entry “My Lady, My Lady” since it was assumed of being about the invasion. The animosity continues until now, while Greece and Cyprus are fans of each other, giving their 12 points. Turkey? It left both countries in a cold shoulder during the contest.
The former Soviets love and hate relationships. This is the most simmering on and off relationship in Eurovision (even though they disclaim that the relationship based on culture which is kinda hypocrite). The most notable conflicts are Georgia and Ukraine vs Russia. In 2009 Georgia sent a song titled “We Don’t Wanna Put In” (got the pun?) as a response to Russo-Georgian war a year before, squaring off Russian self-proclaimed South Ossetia and Abzakhia. Thank God EBU prohibits entries to contain any political issue, so the song was rejected, leaving Georgie in devastated withdrawal. Another conflict happens in 2014–2015 as Ukraine struggled to get Russian-self-proclaimed Crimea. 2016 contest allowed Jamala’s winning entry “1944” to be performed on the contest, left Russia questioning since the song reprises the story of Crimean Tatars deportations under the command of Joseph Stalin. The conflict continues next year as Ukraine — the host country — banned Russia’s representative Yulia Samoylova to enter Ukraine with because of her history of performing in Crimea, resulting in Russia’s withdrawal.
Another conflict within former Soviet countries is happening between Armenia vs Azerbaijan. Both countries are in notorious 30-year-feud, fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh region. The region is self-proclaimed country, whose independence supported by Armenia. But international does not acknowledge the independence, agreeing it to be Azerbaijani part. The conflict spills over on Eurovision stage, as both countries always rank each other low. In 2012 contest held in Azerbaijan, Armenia decided to withdraw from the contest. Another provocation happened in 2016 when Armenian representative, Iveta Mukuchyan, waved Nagorno-Karabakh’s flag during interval act — resulting fine penalty of the country.
Other geopolitical relationships exist between Israel vs the Arabs (some Arabian countries in fact broadcast Eurovision), Balkan bloc, the Scandinavian neighborhood, and UK-Ireland. The three former relationships I mentioned are reflected in a thing called bloc voting. Bloc voting in Eurovision is a tendency by several countries to give other countries (considered as having close bilateral relationship either politically or geographically) higher scores. The voting diaspora also seen in Romania and Poland, whose descents are spread all over Europe.
Eurovision has a credit of contribution in Portugal’s history. In Eurovision 1974, Portugal was represented by Paulo de Carvalho, singing “E depois do adeus” (Translated: and after the farewell). The song might be not received well, as landing dead last together with Germany, Switzerland, and Norway. But what the spectators did not know that the song was one of two signals to launch Carnation Revolution in 1974. The revolution aimed to bring down Estado Novo regime of Marcelo Caetano. The song was broadcast in Portuguese state TV on 24 April 1974 at 10.55 PM. The second signal followed was “Grândola, Vila Morena” by Zeca Afonso. The signal was aired through Portuguese radio one day later at 12.20 AM. The revolution itself worked anyway.
5. Eurovision is the place to indulge your European linguistic and cultural enhancement
The last reason of why Eurovision is cool because the contest itself offers diversity. Diversity in Eurovision is brooded in the variety of songs competing. They usually own English modern-pop/ballad/dance tracks, tailored with the music trend happening in that year. But several countries are brave enough to send their representatives to perform a song with ethnic elements or non-English lyrics. Greek traditional (“My Number One” by Helena Paparizou, 2005), Balkan ballad (“Lane Moje” by Zeljko Joksimovic, 2004), electronic flamenco (“Bandido” by Azucar Moreno, 1990), Celtic folk (“The Voice” by Eimar Quinn, 1996) and Turkish rhythm (“Every Way That I Can” by Sertab Erener, 2003) are some examples of traditional music offered in Eurovision; many of them gained stellar results by being the winner.
Language of the song is one contentious issue in Eurovision. Using English as the main language in a song is viewed as an effort to reach better result as it is predicted to reach broader audience. For some music critics, this method is viewed as unpatriotic and sometimes overdone. Songs with grammatical errors or singers with bad English pronunciation are not rare (Of course we can exercise English writing and speaking skills there). One example is Swedish Sanna Nielsen who sang “Undo” in 2014 contest. She sings in sorrow “Undo my sad, undo what hurts so bad” that we know term “sad” is an adjective rather than a noun.
There’s a period when countries are obliged to send song performed in their official national languages. Here the linguistic heterogeneity of Europe comes from. And even though there are no language restrictions currently, there is always at least one song with partially in English or full in national language every year. This language diversities allow me to learn about various words or sentences in various languages (mostly Italian, where I learn a lot from Emma’s “La mia citta” — translated as “my city” — in 2014 contest). France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy are countries sending entries with their own languages consistently. In 2003, Belgium entry “Sanomi”, sung by Urban Trad used imaginary language that let us imagine what the song was about.
In the end, Eurovision is an extravagant event. It is more than just a song contest, it is a reflection of how Europeans living their days. The stories behind it are always exciting and surprising. I love Eurovision so much. Most people won’t understand this die-hard affection. Me myself doesn’t understand as well why I love it so much that I even know the history of its executions. But what matters is, Eurovision is created to be enjoyed and I cherished every updates on it.
