ABSTRACT
Israel’s 2000 contest entry, “Be Happy,” performed by the band PingPong, offers a case study of Eurovision’s politicized aesthetic divides. Three different crises impacted this song, its performance, and its subsequent reputation: the fact that is was not intended to be a serious contender for Eurovision, so it had to be improved somehow; the stress caused by the band’s decision to use this platform to advocate for controversial political causes; and the embarrassing outcome of the contest, when it placed second from the bottom in the ranking, which did not redeem the band in the eyes of their compatriots. However, these crises inspired the Israeli director Eytan Fox to turn PingPong’s experience into his 2013 romantic comedy Cupcakes, a celebration and a spoof of Eurovision and its stereotypical music with a particular angle on its very debatable aesthetics.
