ABSTRACT
In 1984, George Orwell predicted the automation of song-writingwhen he describes a “versificator” that writes the lyrics for popular songs. In Eurovision, Belgium’s ironic 1980 entry “Euro-Vision” by Telex provides one starting point for this exploration of the contest’s (and popular music’s) Orwellian possibilities, with further case studies on artificial intelligence and algorithmic composition in David Cope’s work on Eurovision songs in 1998, the “Eurosong Generator” interactive online game designed by Matt Round in 2004, the computer-generated Eurovision-derived “Blue Jeans and Bloody Tears” in 2019, and the “A.I. Song Contest” in 2020. These productions point us toward further changes in music-making and musicking that the contest may well reveal in coming years, as well as the underlying values that still persist in its songs.
