After all, Eurovision explains everything with Dr Catherine Baker

Dr Catherine Baker is Reader in 20th Century History at the University of Hull. Her research on narratives of national and European identity in media and popular culture centres on the post-Yugoslav space and its transnational connections, from the Eurovision Song Contest to the region’s place in global politics of race. She is the author of books including Race and the Yugoslav Region: Postsocialist, Post-Conflict, Postcolonial? and Sounds of the Borderland: Popular Music, War and Nationalism in Croatia Since 1991, and The Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s. She is co-editor (with Bogdan C. Iacob, Anikó Imre and James Mark) of Off White: Central and Eastern Europe and the Global Politics of Race, and editor of three other volumes. She is a former co-convenor of the British International Studies Association’s South-East Europe Working Group.

The Eurovision Song Contest is more than just a music competition — it mirrors European politics, culture, and identity, defying its territorial borders.Eurovision often reflects international relations, national image-making, and political tensions.Voting patterns sometimes align with regional alliances or historical ties, while performances and song choices can make political statements or respond to current events. In this way, Eurovision claims to be unpolitical but acts as a stage where broader political and social dynamics play out, ofiering insight into how countries see themselves and each other within Europe.In this episode I will be joined by Dr Catherine Baker, where together we will explore how Balkan popular culture has shaped and been showcased in the Eurovision Song Contest.

Intro: North-Albanian Instrumental

Interlude: Severina - 'Prijateljice'

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