Eurovision is the most watched song contest in the world– attracting more viewers than the Super Bowl. Over the course of the contests’ long 70-year history, Eurovision songs have charted 28 times in the U.S. And in the first 15 years of the contest, 20 songs charted in America. Americans fell in love with songs like Love is Blue, Save Your Kisses for Me, Al di La, and Volare. But the versions of these songs that charted in the states were not the original Eurovision songs, they were covers by American artists like Dean Martin. Then the music industry moved away from covers, and Eurovision lost its pipeline to the U.S.
The European Broadcasting Union, a consortium of public broadcasters that runs Eurovision, also made a change to the rules in 1977 that required countries to perform in their national language. This drastically reduced the number of Eurovision songs that were in English, making chart success in the U.S even harder for the vast majority of Eurovision artists.
The effect was so dramatic that Eurovision songs went through a near 50 year dry spell on the American charts, where only Gina G’s “Oooh Ah Just A Little Bit” made an appearance.
But then things changed again. Eurovision removed the language requirement. Then, Eurovision started being broadcast in the US in 2016, first on Logo, then on Peacock. Madonna and Justin Timberlake both performed at the contest (and Flo Rida competed!). Most recently, the past three years have seen three Eurovision acts on the American charts (Duncan Laurence, Rosa Linn, and Maneskin). So, you might ask, what happened?
A few theories:
Eurovision: The Story of Fire Saga - the release of this movie during the pandemic brought Eurovision to an American audience. The movie was a hit, streaming #1 on Netflix. Evidence for this theory includes the fact that Duncan Laurence, who broke Eurovision’s spell on the American charts, charted in 2021, despite winning in 2019. In between 2019 and 2021? The Eurovision movie was released.
TikTok: TikTok has provided a way for Americans to watch Eurovision numbers without sitting down for a four hour broadcast (though we highly recommend the full thing!) Also TikTok, like Eurovision, is a visual medium. Eurovision songs have always had to be written slightly differently than radio songs to support staging (including visual metaphors and physical actions in the lyrics), and writing songs for TikTok (including a dance move in the title etc), is actually more similar to writing songs for Eurovision.
Eurovision began changing its rules in the late ‘90s: Allowing for more english songs, making it easier to perform electronic music, allowing artists to use pre-recorded background vocals. Eurovisions songs therefore started sounding more like contemporary pop.
Americans, particularly Gen-Z, are open to a wider array of cultural products than they once were– songs and movies that aren’t in English, folk instruments they haven’t heard, music that draws on inspiration from different eras. Eurovision may have changed its rules to keep up with contemporary pop, but contemporary pop is becoming more like Eurovision.
Gen-Z in America is particularly accepting and supportive of the LGBTQ+ community, and Eurovision has been out front in supporting the community for longer than you’d think.
Putin’s invasion, followed by Ukrainian folk rap group Kalush Orchestra’s win at Eurovision produced a set of stories that introduced Americans to a side of Eurovision beyond the campy silliness. They saw a Eurovision song become an anthem of national resistance and were given a taste of how the contest can sometimes be so much more than a song competition.