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"If love was a crime, we would be criminals": the Eurovision Song Contest and the queer international politics of flags

Baker, Catherine

Authors



Contributors

Julia Kalman
Editor

Ben Wellings
Editor

Keshia Jacotine
Editor

Abstract

Baker uses contestations over flags at the Eurovision Song Contest to illustrate the paradox that, while Eurovision is ostensibly ‘non-political’ and prohibits ‘political’ messages and symbols, organisers, hosts, broadcasters, contestants and fans have regularly articulated narratives of European and national identity using performance, participation and commentary, thus engaging in politicized contentions over meanings and boundaries of European belonging. In 2015–16, several controversies about the display of regional, rainbow and disputed flags during Eurovision broadcasts exposed contestations over how producers, journalists, fans and casual viewers understood the boundaries of ‘the political’ in international competition. Baker concludes this revealed that Eurovision’s supposedly transnational public sphere was still officially conceived state-centrically and in ways that separated sexual and gender ‘diversity’ from politicized LGBT rights claims.

Citation

Baker, C. (2019). "If love was a crime, we would be criminals": the Eurovision Song Contest and the queer international politics of flags. In J. Kalman, B. Wellings, & K. Jacotine (Eds.), Eurovisions: Identity and the international politics of the Eurovision Song Contest since 1956 (175-200). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-9427-0_9

Online Publication Date Nov 20, 2019
Publication Date 2019
Deposit Date May 9, 2019
Publicly Available Date Nov 26, 2021
Publisher Palgrave Macmillan
Pages 175-200
Book Title Eurovisions: Identity and the international politics of the Eurovision Song Contest since 1956
ISBN 9789811394270; 9789811394263
DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-9427-0_9
Keywords Eurovision Song Contest; Flags; LGBTQ; Nationalism; Pride
Public URL https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/1762217
Publisher URL https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9789811394263
Contract Date May 3, 2019

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Copyright Statement
©2019 The author, under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte. Ltd. 2019.





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