CRITIQUING THE NATIONAL BRAND

Hello again!

It's a wrap! We’ve now finished our final blog posts, where we explore the extent to which the “national brand” our country has conveyed through its performances (from our second blog posts) aligns with the country’s dominant national identity (from our first blog posts) and its social/political/cultural context (from presentations we gave in class in the first three weeks of the quarter).

Part of our task is to draw conclusions from this (mis)alignment – whether about the country’s view of Eurovision or its attitudes to nation-branding.

As in previous posts, we’re all using the APA system for both in-text citations and a full references list. Please feel free to ignore those details if they get in the way of your reading.

We DO value your feedback! Please leave your constructive comments at the end of our posts. Although we won’t have opportunity to revise these posts (since it is now the end of Finals Week), your feedback can help us as we think about writing assignments and critical thinking in our remaining studies.

And who might “we” be?

The "we" on this site refers to a group of 20 first-year undergraduate students at Seattle University who, over the space of 10 weeks, have learned more about the Eurovision Song Contest than we could ever have imagined.

We appreciate that you’ve been following us on this Eurovision odyssey. Some of us are hooked on it; some of us can’t get away fast enough. And none of us will ever be quite the same.

Thank you for engaging with our work!

One last time, here are the links our individual country blog sites:

BLR Belarus  |  BEL Belgium  |  BUL Bulgaria  |  CRO Croatia  |  CYP Cyprus  |  DEN Denmark  |  GEO Georgia  |  GRE Greece  |  HUN Hungary  |  ISL  Iceland  |  ISR Israel  |  LAT Latvia  |  MDA  Moldova  |  MNE Montenegro  |  NOR Norway  |  POR Portugal  |  SRB Serbia  |  ESP Spain  |  TUR Turkey

To quote the Eurovision hosts, "Good night, Europe! (And Australia.)" (And maybe America, too.)

THE NATION ON STAGE

Welcome back!

In these second blog posts, we’re exploring the identities that represent our countries on the Eurovision stage in three consecutive performances since 2009, and the literary and visual (and potentially musical) devices by which those identities are expressed.

We’ll each conclude by evaluating what these performances suggest about our country’s attitudes to the many facets of diversity.

So, for example, this means we could be considering: language choices; lyrics; metaphors; musical genres; storytelling; symbolism and imagery; visual devices and staging; and the extent to which our country appears homo- or heterogeneous across these three performances in a row. (But we do have a tight limit of just 1,500 words [give or take 10 percent]!)

We've been asked to use the APA system for in-text citations and a full references list; some people find these a bit disruptive, so we suggest you skip over those parenthetical references as best you can.

We DO value your feedback! Please leave your constructive comments at the end of our posts. For this second blog post, we again have the option of revising the text based on feedback (by March 8), so your thoughts are especially welcome.

All the songs we're analyzing can be viewed via this YouTube playlist (opens new window)
For people viewing in the USA, 2016 and 2017 performances aren't available online, so you'll need to check out the DVDs instead.)

Again, for your convenience, here are the links our individual country blog sites:

BLR Belarus  |  BEL Belgium (updated)  |  BUL Bulgaria  |  CRO Croatia (updated)  |  CYP Cyprus  |  DEN Denmark  |  GEO Georgia  |  GRE Greece  |  HUN Hungary  |  ISL  Iceland  |  ISR Israel  |  LAT Latvia  |  MDA  Moldova  |  MNE Montenegro  |  NOR Norway  |  POR Portugal (updated)  |  SRB Serbia (updated)  |  ESP Spain (updated)  |  TUR Turkey

About us

We are a group of first-year undergraduates who are learning about Eurovision (in most cases for the first time ever) through a humanities inquiry seminar as part of the Core Curriculum at Seattle University in Seattle, Washington, USA.

We’ll be continuing our studies in fields like environmental studies, finance, computer science, film studies, psychology, Asian studies, and biochemistry, so for most of us, this course is quite a step outside the ordinary.

THE NATIONAL SELF (and the Other)

In our first blog posts, we're looking at what makes the national identity of our twenty chosen Eurovision countries.

We've been asked to explain "national identity" in our own words, then use evidence from our research to identify key aspects of our country’s national identity.

In addition, we'll discuss what types of Othering, if any, help generate and maintain that national identity.

We've been asked to use in-text citations and a full list of references using the APA system. If you find these references off-putting, we suggest you skip over them while reading.

Your feedback is appreciated, so please leave your constructive comments at the end of our posts. For this first blog post, we have the option of revising the text based on feedback (by February 8), so your thoughts are especially welcome.

Once again, here are our blog sites:

BLR Belarus  |  BEL Belgium  |  BUL Bulgaria  |  CRO Croatia  |  CYP Cyprus  |  DEN Denmark  |  GEO Georgia  |  GRE Greece  |  HUN Hungary  |  ISL  Iceland  |  ISR Israel  |  LAT Latvia  |  MDA  Moldova  |  MNE Montenegro  |  NOR Norway  |  POR Portugal  |  RUS Russia  |  SRB Serbia  |  ESP Spain  |  TUR Turkey

Who are we?

You might be asking yourself who "we" are in this post. We are a group of 20 first-year undergraduate students at Seattle University who are mostly not majoring in the humanities, but are learning about Eurovision and national identity through a humanities inquiry course as part of the university's Core Curriculum. We'll be going on to major in such fields as civil engineering, nursing, business, criminal justice, biology, and communication.

For most of us, this course is our very first encounter with the Eurovision Song Contest. We hope Eurovisionistas won't hold that against us!

WE HAVE A RESULT!

Students had just a couple of days to choose their top three countries to study this quarter, and now the results are in.

Everyone is creating their own blog for their country and will be writing three posts over the next ten weeks on the following topics:
(1) National identity and the Other,
(2) The nation on stage (with a focus on three recent Eurovision performances), and
(3) Critiquing the national brand

Each student's site will be linked from the list below; the links open in a new window so that you can easily get back to this hub.

Here are the students' chosen countries:

BLR Belarus | BEL Belgium | BUL Bulgaria | CRO Croatia | CYP Cyprus | DEN Denmark | GEO Georgia | GRE Greece | HUN Hungary | ISL Iceland | ISR Israel | LAT Latvia | MDA Moldova | MNE Montenegro | NOR Norway | POR Portugal | RUS Russia | SRB Serbia | ESP Spain | TUR Turkey

WINTER/HIVER 2018 – WELCOME/BIENVENUE

Welcome to the winter 2018 edition of Three-Minute Europe: Nation, Identity, and the Eurovision Song Contest – an inquiry seminar in the humanities as part of Seattle University's Core Curriculum.

First-year students from across the university will each be exploring one country participating in the Eurovision Song Contest. Their individual country blogs will be linked from this "hub" site once they go live.

This year, students can choose from the following countries:

BLR Belarus | BEL Belgium | BIH Bosnia and Herzegovina | BUL Bulgaria | CRO Croatia | CYP Cyprus | DEN Denmark | EST Estonia | GEO Georgia | GRE Greece | HUN Hungary | ISL Iceland | ISR Israel | LAT Latvia | MDA Moldova | MKD FYR Macedonia | MNE Montenegro | NOR Norway | POR Portugal | RUS Russia | SRB Serbia | ESP Spain | TUR Turkey