Certain cherished cultural touchstones don't follow the trend of globalization. For New Yorkers, Dr. Zizmor is well-known for his colorful subway ads, but on a worldwide scale, he will never be as famous as the Statue of Liberty or the Empire State Building. Americans treat the Super Bowl as an unofficial holiday, but the rest of the world could care less about the game and the commercials. Europe has the Eurovision Song Contest, one of the most watched non-sporting events in the world, a multinational version of American Idol that finished its 56th annual competition last Saturday. The Dutch did not make it to the finals, but nonetheless, the event was worth watching for the first time.
My first memory of Eurovision occurred last year after controversy considering Qatar's successful bid to host the 2022 the World Cup. Angry over Australia's failed bid, a newspaper columnist suggested that FIFA should adopt the Eurovision policy: the previous winner gets to be the next host. Last year, Germany triumphed in the Eurovision Song Contest, so yesterday's contest was held in Dusseldorf. Azerbaijan was yesterday's winner, so its capital, Baku, is next year's host.
Indeed, the boundaries of Europe are quite generous for the contest: participants have included Israel and Morocco. There are several countries, such as Algeria, Egypt, and Iraq, that are also allowed to participate but have yet to do so. Next year's contest will be mark the easternmost host location in the history of the contest - the previous such honor went to Moscow in 2009. Remarkably, two decades after the dissolution of the USSR, Azerbaijan is the fifth ex-Soviet country to win the competition (the others are Russia, Ukraine, Estonia, and Latvia).
Eldar and Nikki, the winning Azerbaijani performers, won the contest with the song "Running Scared". My vote for most annoying song goes to "Popular", sung by Sweden's Eric Saade. The song revolves around the refrain, "I will be popular! I will be popular!" I suppose the internet means that we can all bask in the glory of fame. However, some would argue that winning the Eurovision contest is not the best way to long-term popularity. The two most notable exceptions are ABBA, who won the contest in 1974 with "Waterloo", and Celine Dion, who won with "Ne partez pas sans moi" in 1988.
Amid a rare night perched in front of the television, I am reminded anew of the media's potential to shape popular culture. After writing and reading about the ways that travel can change lives, the reality is that what most people know about other countries is mostly based on mediums such as TV and the internet. Perhaps the number of future travelers to Azerbaijan will prove me wrong.
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