Nation branding, as defined by the book Diplomacy in a Globalizing World: Theories and Practices , is “the application of corporate marketing concepts and techniques to countries, in the interests of enhancing their reputation in international relations” (Kerr & Wiseman, 2018). In essence, this concept encapsulates the idea is that a country will attempt to “market” itself to the international community in a way that will emphasize certain elements of itself to create a positive image, while at the same time attempting to minimize or completely ignore its negative attributes. A form of propaganda, nation branding is highly prevalent at the annual Eurovision Song Contest, where it is encouraged for artists to perform in the native tongues of the countries they represent and essentialize their culture into a stereotype. While political pieces are strictly discouraged, many nations, or even just the artists themselves, may still use the event as a pulpit from which to preach their po...
The Eurovision Song Contest is an international song contest televised worldwide on an annual basis. Since its inception in 1956, Eurovision has had fifty-two participating countries, most of which are members of the European Broadcasting Union. Denmark has participated in the contest since the following year, 1957, and has won the event in 1963, 2000, and 2013. In this blog post, I will be evaluating their winning 2013 entry, as well as those of the years that bookend it, as well as judge Denmark’s attitude on diversity and what these performances suggest about the country itself. Denmark’s 2012 Eurovision entry, “Should’ve Known Better,” was performed by Soluna Samay, a Guatemalan singer who moved to Denmark at the age of ten (Soluna Samay, n.d.). The song itself is seemingly about losing faith in God, though the only real hint towards this in the inclusion of “inshallah,” Arabic for “if Allah wills it,” in the brid...