ABSTRACT
The Eurovision Song Contest (ESC), the annual music competition Europeans love to hate, is a study in contradictions, widely celebrated by its fans and just as widely disparaged by its critics. The show always seems to be somewhat behind the times in terms of popular music tastes and trends; there is little that is innovative about Eurovision songs, and much that qualifies as retro and camp. Indeed, the notion of camp provides a key to understanding the complex relationship between politics and aesthetics evidenced throughout the history of ESC. Eurovision's most tormented contradiction is the highly political nature of an event supposedly devoted to the neutral and nonpartisan goals of unity and cooperation through shared musical culture. Germany is somewhere in the middle—in the middle of Europe bridging East and West, a central player in EU politics and economics, and contradictory on Eurovision's camp spectrum—so it lately has to decide whether to be serious or silly about its contest participation.
