Critiquing the National Brand

Critiquing the National Brand

            The Eurovision Song Contest has been a stage for the celebration of music, culture, unity, and diversity for many decades in Europe. However, it has also existed as one other thing: a platform for the brand of a nation. Norway has performed on stage and shown what their country has to offer, while maintaining authenticity through the alignments of the performances with their national identity. The blandness and cliche of some of Norway’s performances portrays the idea of moderation that has spread across many of the Nordic States. Ultimately, Norway’s position is one without much political or economic turmoil, and there is little incentive to use the ESC as a platform to market their nation brand.

            Firstly, in Blog Post 1, the aspects of Norwegian identity were determined to be largely composed of their ethnicity, culture, and tradition. The country is largely composed of Norwegians, and their ethnicity determines a dominant part of their national identity. Norwegians have constructed this identity from their culture, music, and traditions as well. After writing Blog Post 1, I learned more about Norway, and discovered that there is an additional element to their national identity, one that can arguably be dominant across most of the Nordic states. Lagom, a principle to living based in Sweden, is a phenomenon where moderation is the key to living a happy life. It promotes not only the idea that “just enough” is enough, but also a sense of community, where regional integration and cooperation are encouraged. Eric S. Einhorn argues that this phenomenon “rationally joins international ‘communities’ to maximize their political, economic, and strategic advantages to minimize risks. They do not see their countries as ‘obsolete’ or dysfunctional (Einhorn).” The philosophy of Lagom has spread across many of the Nordic states, and has taken many different forms, including Hygge in Finland, and Koselig in Norwegian. Although their translations are not the exact the same as Lagom, they could be variations of the word or influenced by its principles. In Blog Post 2, Norway’s performances are analyzed to portray many of their dominant aspects of national identity. Their culture, tradition, and people are reflected by some of the performances. In addition to that, the signs of Lagom and moderation are present in a few of Norway’s rather bland and cliche performances, as well as some movements towards belonging in the “cosmopolitan” vision of Europe.

            Norway’s victory in the ESC in 2009 was obtained by Alexander Rybak’s performance, “Fairytale”. The performance, which was written by Rybak, demonstrated many Norwegian traditions, cultures, and even included myths. The performance adhered greatly to the “national-cultural” dimension of the Eurovision Song Contest. According to Irving Wolther, the national-cultural dimension of the ESC places “great emphasis is placed on presenting something special that sets the national entry apart from other countries’ songs, reflecting and constructing national-cultural identity at the same time (Wolther)”. In the performance, Rybak’s use of his fiddle was a hint at one of Norway’s traditional musical instruments: the Hardanger Fiddle (2009, Norway). He also noted in a press conference after the whole song contest that the lyrics were a reference to a previous love of his, and also referred to a Scandinavian folklore myth called Huldra. Furthermore, the backing dancers in the performance, with their white button-up shorts and suspenders, performed what was known as Halling, a traditional Norwegian folk dance. These elements created a unique piece for the audience to remember when voting. It is likely that Norway won this year because of their portrayal of culture and tradition. Norway’s strong sense of national identity through culture and tradition align with this performance, and show that pride in what kind of norms a country may have can go a long way. A very authentic performance, Rybak’s “Fairytale” demonstrated many of Norway’s qualities, and gave way for Europe to recognize their culture.

            “My Heart is Yours”, performed by Didrik Solli-Tangen demonstrated alignment to the principle of Lagom and moderation that may be an element of national identity, according to Eric S. Einhorn (2003). Norway is part of the Nordic countries in Europe, and have had the fortune of little political or economic turmoil. The wealthy country exports greatly in oil and gas, due to the abundance of it in their region. In addition to that, Norway is amongst some of the most prosperous democratic societies in all of Europe. So much so that “international economic and social surveys consistently place them at the top in terms of their achievements (Einhorn)”. The performance itself was at most, good. It was not great, however it wasn’t an atrocious performance. This reflects some of the elements of Lagom and moderation being spread throughout the Nordic states. The lights, backing singers, and even lyrics of the song portrayed moderation, and the entire show was rather bland, with nothing much to draw from the performance. Moreover, the year Solli-Tangen performed this piece was the year that Norway hosted Eurovision. In the previous year, a high budget was put on the staging of the song contest, with many different LEDs and high functioning technology. This may have been a shot at nation branding taken by Russia when hosting the ESC. In the next year, however, Norway’s stage was lukewarm, at best. With notably less LEDs, and basic broadcasting technology, the show was much less flashy than other years’. The alignment between the country’s economic and political statuses and their performance at Eurovision as well as their decisions in hosting the song contest show that moderation is a large impact on Norway’s way of living, and is a big part of their national identity.

            The last performance, Haba Haba, performed by Stella Mwangi in 2011 (Norway, 2011), both had alignments and misalignments with Norway’s qualities and elements of national identity. It is clear that the performance was not performed by a figure that fit the archetypal stereotypical “Norwegian”. Stella Mwangi is both Kenyan and Norwegian; she moved to Norway when she was very young. Mwangi performing to represent Norway shows their global commitment in Europe and beyond, and this is another important principle of Lagom. Norway may have wanted to portray their commitment to the global communities. They wanted to appeal to the international community likely because their economy is largely supported by it. Einhorn notes that “the Nordic countries have global economic interests and collectively represent a substantial global economic power. They are among the most generous and steadfast contributors to international economic assistance and often champion the less developed countries in international organizations (Einhorn)”. Lagom is not only the sign of moderation in the Nordic countries, but also a sign of commitment on a global scale. Although, on a tangent, the performance did have cliche aspects to it: being a normal pop song, with flashy dancers and a catchy chorus. Global commitment is very similar to another hot term in the discussion of the connotations of the Eurovision Song Contest: cosmopolitanism. Norway misaligns with this performance through their first sense of national identity: culture, tradition, and ethnicity. In proving that they wanted to display diversity in their performance and country, they appealed to cosmopolitanism and left their sense of identity through tradition. Having immigrant performers, they wanted to demonstrate their country’s appeal to multiculturalism.  Cosmopolitanism, however, shouldn’t be confused with universal universalism, which Katrin Sieg states, “European universalism mistakes itself for universal universalism (Sieg)”. Norway’s misalignment to their national identity through culture, tradition, and ethnicity in order to promote multiculturalism and cosmopolitanism could be seen as inauthentic, and doesn’t reflect their country as they should be. However, it is also likely they showed Stella Mwangi’s performance as an appeal to the global community in alignment with the principles of Lagom and the Scandinavian commitment to the international community (Einhorn).

            On the topic of nation branding, the Eurovision Song Contest can be seen as a platform in which a country can show itself as not a country or culture, but a brand. This is gone further into detail in Paul Jordan’s book, “The Modern Fairy Tale: Nation Branding, National Identity and the Eurovision Song Contest in Estonia”, where he states that it is a “phenomenon by which governments engage in self-conscious activities aimed at producing a certain image of the nation state (Jordan)”. Norway, uses Eurovision as a stage for the brand of their nation in a very authentic way. The principles behind Lagom, and its influence across all of the Nordic states, demonstrate that moderation, and the “just enough” attitude allows for the Nordic states to be so prosperous in politics and economics. “Fairytale” shows Norway as a nation brand that celebrates their culture and tradition, and showcases Norway’s history as a country. “My Heart is Yours” and “Haba haba” demonstrate some of the principles seen in Lagom, like moderation and the appeal and acceptance of the global community. Jordan notes that performances like “Fairytale” and “Haba haba” advance more towards showing Norway as a country that embraces globalisation and multiculturalism (Jordan).

            Norway’s authenticity through their performances at the Eurovision Song Contest gives them a strong nation brand. Not enticing a competition between other nation’s brands, Norway demonstrates many principles of the phenomenon known as Lagom in both their performances as well as actions. There is a great amount of alignment between Norway’s ESC performances and their dominant elements of national identity. Close to tradition and culture, while maintaining a principle of moderation and acceptance of the global community, Norway doesn’t use the ESC platform as a means of marketing, but a means of displaying their values.

References

Einhorn, Eric S. 2003. “ Just Enough ("Lagom") Europeanization: The Nordic States and Europe.” Scandinavian Studies 74(3):pp 265-286.

Mwangi, S. (2011).  Haba haba (Norway). Eurovision Song Contest 2011. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRhJzdDFFHA

Rybak, A. (2009). Fairytale (Norway). Eurovision Song Contest 2009.  Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXwgZL4zx9o

Sieg, K. 2012. “Cosmopolitan Empire: Central and Eastern Europeans and the Eurovision Song Contest”. European Journal of Cultural Studies 16(2): pp 244-263.

Wolther, I. (2012). More than just music: The seven dimensions of the eurovision song contest. Popular Music, 31(1), 165-171. http://dx.doi.org.proxy.seattleu.edu/10.1017/S0261143011000511 Retrieved from http://login.proxy.seattleu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.seattleu.edu/docview/919021411?accountid=28598