Blog Post #3 National Branding
National
Branding
There
are many ways a country could express themselves to the world and how they want
to be viewed. One way a nation shares their views and identity is by
participating in international events that will give a country the platform to
perform in front a large group of people.
Eurovision is an event where many countries
participate in and use this opportunity to share their national identity to its
viewers. However, you should not confuse national identity as nation branding.
Whereas, national identity is an idea where there is a common heritage within a
group from culture, traditions, language, government, and religion as stated in
blog post one. National branding is an attempt by a nation to protect or
improve their reputation (Teselik 2007). Since Moldova is a relatively new
country that is not really known to many viewers of Eurovision. Participating
in Eurovision is a way for Moldova to share their culture and brand themselves
in a way where people would like to visit their country. Also, politically Moldova is branding itself
in a way to appeal to the EU so that it could distance itself from Russia,
"Respondents also believe that EU membership would have a positive impact
on relations with Romania, an EU member state, and Ukraine, a country which
shares a border with the EU. In contrast, EU membership would be less likely to
have a positive impact on relations with the US and, more particularly, with Russia"
(Munteanu 2008, P. 374). However, if they embarrass themselves it could affect
the image of their nation.
For example, the
2015 performance, with the song "I Want Your Love," performed by
Eduard Romanyuta, caused a storm because many Moldovans have accused him of
buying jury votes, "helped by a whopping 13,500 televote surge (huge
figure for a small and poor country like Moldova), finished first on the
overall scoreboard. Eduard is also finger-pointed for voting for himself with
200 SIM cards in the Green Room, in plain view of the other contestants"
(Honciuc 2015). Leading to many Moldovans to be infuriated by this revelation
as many Moldovan artists refused to attend the after party (Honciuc 2015).
Furthermore, many Moldovans were not happy with the fact that a foreigner will
be representing them for Eurovision, and many artists and fans expressed their
anger to the press about the fact that Eduard won the national finals, "We
don't belong in Europe, because if we get there, we fill it with sh*t like we
filled Moldova" (Honciuc 2015). However, the Moldovan broadcasters did not
intervene when the voting scandal and the public disapproval was all over
Moldova. This may be an attempt by the Moldovan broadcaster and government to
be viewed as more open which will help them in their bid to join the EU. Also,
Moldova is one of the poorer nations in Europe, allowing a foreigner to
represent them for Eurovision may help relieve the financial strain as the
singer’s record label may help fund the performance. As Moldova was in a
financial trouble because of mismanagement of money in government (Jatras 2015)
where the public funded broadcaster in Moldova does not have a lot of money so
they are limited in how much they could support an artist representing them in
Eurovision. For instance, recently for
the selection of the 2018 selection process the Moldovan Broadcasting company
Tele-radio Moldova was considering a total drop of the semi-final of O Melodie
Pentru Europa (EuroVoix 2018). Being cash-strapped may be a part of the reason
why they decided to go a different direction who will be performing for them in
Eurovision.
However, having
performances that are geared to the west rather than the east may have
unforeseen consequences with their relationship with Russia. For instance, the
three performances performed pop songs that are focused on the west rather than
to Eastern European states. Is their attempt to distance themselves from Russia
which is making aggressive moves towards its neighbors. As well as the fact
they have close ties with Romania who is part of the EU and Ukraine who also
has a strained relation with Russia. By presenting themselves as a westernized
nation it is an attempt to advertise to the big five in Eurovision that they
exist and that we want to have a closer relationship with the west. Politically
the government has taken steps of having a closer relation to the west by
making plans to make a joint battalion with Romania (PopSoi 2018), who is an EU
member allowing Moldova to kindle a relationship with the west. Furthermore, the performers never spoke in
their native tongue while performing rather they sang in English, trying to
touch more viewers in the west as English is one of the official languages of
Eurovision so more people would understand what they are trying to say.
The Eurovision
competition overall is a good event for smaller less known nations to express
themselves, they may want a respectable performance they might not want to win
the whole thing as it there would need a lot of money to host the event.
However, two of the performances did not reach the final as they failed in the
final to reach grand finale. So, when Sunstroke project in 2017 got third place
in Eurovision, many people were surprised that they got that ranking as Moldova
never got into the top 5 before. However, they did perform in Eurovision
previously with a different artist in 2010 where the saxophonist of the group
became an internet sensation. With many videos going around the internet with
the saxophonist as the main feature of these small videos. "Epic Sax guy
10 hours" is one of these videos of just the saxophonist performing on a
10-hour loop, this video received 10 million views on the clip. Even Eurovision
recognizes the internet sensation as it is posted in the bio of Moldova
(Eurovision 2017). Having this reference may help people recognize Moldova from
this fact and could help them find connections to Moldova as it is hard to
remember small countries that do not have a significant role in Europe.
Also, doing well in Eurovision may help grab more
attention from nations participating which would boost their standing in Europe
and how they are perceived. Winning Eurovision comes with many advantages to
the country from a political and social standpoint for a country. For instance,
it could give an opportunity for Moldova to share what their national identity
to the viewers by creating a theme for the event that represents what Moldovans
values. Furthermore, when a country hosts Eurovision the economy improves a
little bit as more tourism flows through the country which helps local
businesses that would benefit from the influx of people into the country. Where
in Sweden they were able to make $38.5 million dollars just through tourism
(Yakutenko, Goncharova. 2017). However, even though this would be beneficial
for them they would have to spend millions to build a venue for Eurovision
which Moldova does not have. Unless a third-party is willing fund the event the
public broadcaster would struggle in finding the necessary money to build the
venue. Nonetheless, winning or losing in Eurovision is not that important for
Moldova, but doing a good performance that reaches the final would be still beneficial
as they would be exposed to a lot of people that watch Eurovision.
While having
performances that are more focused on the west may help boost more friendly
relations with the EU, in turn, it places a strain their relations with Russia.
For instance, few years after Moldova broke away from the Soviet Union a
separatist movement in Transnistria which was backed by the Russian government
(Necsutu 2018) created a situation where Moldova is taking actions to protect
their interest by forming ties with the west and their allies. For instance, on
March 6, 2018, Moldova agreed to a joint trilateral interparliamentary assembly
with Georgia and Ukraine (Interfax-Ukraine 2018). This may be the case as they
want cooperation with their neighbors on how to deal with the Russian
aggression that affecting these countries. However, distancing themselves too
much from Russia may cause a situation like Ukraine where Russia annexed Crimea
and supported the separatist movement (BBC 2016). However, even with aggressive
moves by Russia Moldova still is trying to get a closer relationship with the
west.
In conclusion,
national branding for a country is an important part for a country as it helps
boost people's perspective of a country. Especially for smaller countries that
want the exposure, so they can share their identity and views to the world.
Enabling nations to express their identity during Eurovision helps smaller
nations to be discovered by the viewers.
References
BBC (2016 August 12). Ukraine
crisis: what's going on in Crimea? Retrieved from
European Broadcasting Union. (2017). Sunstroke Project - Eurovision Song Contest Kiev 2017.
Retrieved from https://eurovision.tv/participant/sunstroke-project
EuroVoix. (2018 January 24). Moldova: TRM discussing dropping O Melodie Pentru Europa 2018 semi-
final.
Retrieved from https://eurovoix.com/2018/01/24/moldova-trm-discussing-dropping-o-melodie-pentru-europa-2018-semi-final/
Honciuc B. (2015) Moldovan artists, fans react to Eduard
Romanyuta’s victory. Retrieved from
Interfax-Ukraine. (2018 March 6). Parubiy: Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia to set up
interparliamentary
assembly. Retrieved from https://www.kyivpost.com/ukraine-politics/parubiy-ukraine-moldova-georgia-set-interparliamentary-assembly.html
Jatras J. (2015, May 20). The Unfolding Financial Crisis Threatening Moldova. Retrieved from
Munteanu, I. (2008). Moldova looks westwards, and wins? SEER: Journal for Labour and Social
Affairs in Eastern
Europe, 11(3), 371-398. Retrieved from
Necsutu, M. (2018, February 6). Moldova, Romania boost military
cooperation with joint battalion
Retrieved from http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/romania-russia-strengthen-defence-influence-in-divided-moldova-02-06-2018
PopSoi M. (2018 February 21). Moldova hopes to boost military ties with Romania amid tensions with
Russia. Retrieved from https://jamestown.org/program/moldova-hopes-boost-military-ties-romania-amid-tensions-russia/
Romanyuta E. (2015). I want your
love (Moldova) Eurovision Song Contest
Year City. Retrieved from
Sunstroke project. (2017). Hey mamma (Moldova). Eurovision Song Contest
2017 Kiev,UKR [DVD].
Barrn, NL: Universal music group
[TehN1ppe]. (2012 June 28). Epic sax guy 10 hours [Video file]. Retrieved from
Teslik, L. (2007, November 9) National branding explained. Retrieved
from
Yakutenko A., Goncharova O. (2017
May 12). In money terms, is Eurovision
worth it? Retrieved from https://www.kyivpost.com/business/money-terms-eurovision-worth.html
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