“Eurovision is not a political event,” said all the people who desperately need to maintain the fiction that Eurovision is not a political event. This year’s songs have raised questions about freedom of speech, freedom of sexual expression, and whether or not Espresso Macchiato is punching up or down at the Italian people.
It might be more correct to say, “Eurovision is not a big-P Political event.” It’s when you drag political parties in that the contest becomes politicized, with governments using it for their political gain, rather than artists using it to put forth their own ideas. When the contest is used to spread propaganda – that’s when we need to worry.
And that’s why we need to worry about what Mariam Shengelia is bringing to the contest:
Oh, I don’t mean worry about it worry about it – this song isn’t going to win.
But I do mean worry about it in terms of looking at how illiberal governments bring in messaging that seems innocuous to an international audience, but that reinforces other messages to a domestic one. Let’s look, for example, at some of the Georgian lyrics to Freedom:
There’s nothing overtly political there. But if you think about the context of Georgia right now, which is ruled by the pro-Russian, anti-EU Georgian Dream party, the lyrics take on another meaning. This is a text that highlights nationalist messaging about Georgia, and can be seen to subtly endorse a position that would associate the EU (a foreign body that’s not the homeland) with being anti-freedom.
Of course, the Georgian Dream party is the one engaging in anti-freedom activities. They have been accused of using excessive force against democratic protestors, and deploying plainclothes agents known as Titushky into crowds to incite violence. The bank accounts of non-governmental organisations helping the protestors have been frozen. Opposition lawmakers have been expelled from Parliament. Many protests revolve around a bill which is designed to essentially remove all foreign influence from the country – including NGOs helping to provide aid.
(I realize the irony of being an American decrying the anti-freedom activities taking place in Georgia when almost all these same things are happening in the United States – excessive force used against asylum seekers; the censuring of Al Green; the buzzsaw cuts of foreign aid; the weaponization of government to use against the opposition – but this is a Eurovision blog and America isn’t entering Eurovision.)
What does all of this have to do with Mariam Shengelia? Well, Shengelia has performed for Georgian Dream, and is largely seen as the pick of the party – their puppet on a string. She didn’t write the song, but she’s acting as the mouthpiece, ready to sing about the homeland for those that understand Georgian, and freedom for the international crowd. She’s the beautiful woman – the prize that awaits the soldiers that dance behind her in the Georgian portion of the video. She’s held up there to remind people what Georgians should be proud of. But for international audiences, she just looks like a woman in a big dress, singing a ballad about freedom in garbled Eurovision English while ethnic signifiers – dancers in costume, images of the mountains – flash behind her.
Freedom is not a song meant for us. I mean, Georgia is hedging its bets – if it does well, great, because Mariam can claim a victory for the party and the homeland. But it’s not a song designed to do well at Eurovision. It’s a song designed to send a message to Georgians. If it doesn’t do well at Eurovision, that also achieves a goal for the party – Europe has rejected the art of our homeland. Georgia Dream can claim that the elites of the EU don’t get the Georgia people or their culture. They can use the Eurovision placement as a wedge to create a further distance between Georgians and Europe, to build that divide between ‘us’ and ‘them’. Ultimately, this results in eventual non-participation in the contest, as we’ve seen with Russia and Belarus.
So no, I can’t sit back and enjoy this song for being a song, because it’s not intended to just be a song. It’s designed as a specific cultural tool to achieve some specific political objectives and I’m mad at Mariam and Georgia for trying to sneak their big-P politics into my song contest*. Don’t bother listening to this.
(I’m not heartless. I’m also mad at Georgia for all their human rights abuses, but again, this is a Eurovision blog so we tend to look at things from a Eurovision perspective!)
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