Critiquing the National Brand
Greece has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest thirty-nine times since its first appearance in 1974. The Eurovision Song Contest is a platform for the country or artist because the competition not only presents the opportunity for showcasing an original song, but nation-branding as well. According to Paul Jordan’s The Modern Fairytale, nation-branding is “the phenomenon by which governments engage in self-conscious activities aimed at producing a certain image of the nation state” (Jordan, 16). Through Eurovision, nations have the chance to show off their national identity in these annual performances, because it broadcasts a particular image to outsiders. Previously mentioned in my first blog post, Greece identifies with multiple national identities such as religion, historical culture, and language. In my second blog post, I analyzed two Eurovision performances from 2011 and 2012 to understand what exactly Greece was trying to convey to Europe. In this final b...