The United Kingdom's reign in Eurovision has been a reputable one. Since the contest’s inception, the UK has won the song contest five times. However, the most recent win by Katrina & the Waves was twenty years ago. Since then, the United Kingdom has gone through a period of very interesting acts, such as a rapper in 2006 and dirty flight attendants the next year (“UK Entries”). The United Kingdom has also produced acts that have done well over the last two decades. The performances in 1998 and 2002 landed the UK in the top three, and Jade Ewen’s West End-y song in Moscow gave the United Kingdom solace from the right side of the scoreboard with a fifth place finish (“United Kingdom”). Over the past five years, the UK has had the last of it’s internally selected acts and the rebirth of the national selection which was last held in 2010 before its reintroduction in 2016. It has also begun to take the contest a little more seriously which is evident in the quality of the songs compared to those in the late noughties. In this blog post, I will be analyzing the performances since 2012 with the goal of finding what ways each performance reveals about the United Kingdom's appreciation or lack thereof for diversity.
In the past, the UK had tried to send established acts, including famous bands like Blue, to no avail. So, the internal selection committee decided it would be strategic to select veteran singer Engelbert Humperdinck to Baku. Banking on the fact that he still had fans throughout Europe, there was hope that he could perform better than the past few appearances (Adams). The song itself opened the night of competition with a single spotlight and acoustic guitar strumming a waltz-like (3/4) beat. The exposition continued with the introduction of two dancers and cloud-like projections. As the chorus made its rounds and reached the peak, the clouds turned red and pyrotechnics fell from above. The performance ended with even more pyrotechnics, this time spinning, as Humperdinck blew a kiss to the camera. The lyrics of the song spoke about how one should give up their own love if that person has found their soulmate in another. The stage performance itself contained many of the classic tropes of a Eurovision performance - dancers, love, and pyrotechnics. The dancers represented the happiness of the couple comprising of another man and the former lover that, in the case of this performance, Humperdinck must give up. The pyrotechnics served to emphasize the musical peaks of the performance, but did not serve much of a metaphorical purpose. An interesting thing to mark is that in spite of the diversity of the UK, all the performers on stage were white. In that sense, this performance could have been legitimately presented by any other nation in Europe and seemed representative.
The next year in Malmö, the UK was represented by Bonnie Tyler, another veteran of the music industry. Again the BBC was relying on the remnants of her fans throughout Europe as a way to glide through the contest outside the bottom five (Aderemi). The song opened with a trio of guitars, a drummer, and Tyler herself in front of a stage lit in gold. Each time the chorus was sung, the lights grew in intensity. There are no images projected, however, just patterns of gold. The entire audience, wearing LED wristbands, was a sea of gold that at the end of the song converted to a sea of blue. The song had no dancers and no pyrotechnics. It gave off a more country, relaxed feel than in the past entries. The lyrics suggested that when one feels that everything is going downhill and that there is nothing to be done, the singer (Tyler) can be one to believe in and trust for support. The color and growth of the light can suggest the sun which can then suggest hope, which can also be seen in the fact that the song is also relatively upbeat compared to the performance from the previous year. Also, the diversity of the performers has increased as the backing keyboardist is black, but still the majority of performers are white.
When the contest crossed the Øresund to Copenhagen, the UK send a competitor who crossed the generational straight. Molly Smitten-Downes was another internal selection but was seen as the best act the UK had sent since Ewen in 2009. Some even held the hope that Molly could win the contest for the United Kingdom (Adams). The song opened with a gospel sound sung by four backing vocalist. A drummer set the strong beat right from the start, and Molly began the exposition with henna on her hands and similar patterns behind her. The lights started off blue but as the song approached its end, they turned red and pyrotechnics rained down. Finally, the song ended as it began, with the line, “power to the people”. The lyrics describe how everyone is a child of the universe and how together they have the ability to end the suffering of others. The henna patterns, which have a spiritual connection that can often be described as representing a connection between heaven and earth (Preetha) served to represent the unification of all people as children of the universe. Like in 2012, the pyrotechnics and change in light color seem to highlight the climax of the performance alone. Compared to the previous years, this cast was the most diverse as half of the backing vocalists were black and the drummer was of asian descent, making the total makeup half white and half minority, which is more representative of the British population compared to previous acts. In this way, the performance further emphasizes that everyone is a child of the universe, no matter where from.
Out of all the recent performances by the UK, their envoy in Vienna was seen as the most joke-like performance since the stewards and stewardesses in 2007. Electro Velvet, the final internally selected act, went for a 1920s jazz motif including scatting and a big band sound. The performance began with a strong beat and the two performers walking down a set of mirrored stairs in front of a colorful backdrop. On the edge of the stage, two pairs of dancers aggressively danced in a mixture of modern dance and the Charleston. After the first chorus, the stage went dark as the costumes lit up in LED strips. Then, the male singer began to scat, continuing the early century feel. A flash of pyrotechnics followed as the professional dancers made backing vocalists missed various notes. Finally, the background projection became heart shaped and another flash of sparks finished off the performance. The lyrics told the story of two people warning each other to take care of themselves and avoid the influences of other flirtatious folks, then reassuring one another that they will be faithful. The entire stage performance served to emulate the flapper feel while again the pyrotechnics and additionally the LED costumes appeared as ways to highlight certain musical interludes outside the main chorus. The lyrics themselves are slightly misogynistic (Adams), but perhaps this was another way to emulate the 1920s. Both female dancers were black and the remaining performers, including the vocalists, were white. Therefore, the diversity was a little less so this year compared to the last, but the inclusion of minorities continues to better represent the actual diversity of the British population that was not as evident in the performances in Baku and Malmö.
In 2016, the contest went to Stockholm and the UK selected its competitor from a national selection for the first time in over half a decade. Joe and Jake, both former The Voice UK contestants, came together and won Eurovision You Decide with the song “You’re Not Alone”. Its more modern feel and young performers gave the UK hope that they could once again perform well in Eurovision. The song began with Joe singing the exposition and Jake playing the guitar, then Jake finished the intro as they both harmonize and begin the chorus. This same pattern continues, but each time the chorus came around pictures of people are displayed on the stage behind them and the pair of drummers. The next chorus had pictures appear on the floor as well, which then lead into a suspenseful pre-chorus that culminated in a pyrotechnic flash and live projection of the audience on the stage behind the performers. The lyrics of this song were about how the one listening to the song can feel safe and comforted knowing that they are not alone and that the singer(s) are there for them. The pictures projected during the performance were submitted by fans prior to the contest (Westbrook) to further emphasize the message that everyone is in this together. There is not much going on onstage to analyze, but when it came to diversity of performers, it is lacking as they are all white. However, this was atoned for since the pictures displayed all over the stage include people of all colors and creeds.
The past five years have been a mixed bag of slow ballads and upbeat love songs with varying levels of diversity. Many have been about love, but more recently the theme has been unity. Even though, the acts only occasionally represent the actual diversity of the country. The United Kingdom has a white majority (“Census”), but if one looks as the composition of a Eurovision act as a statistical sample of the country’s population, many of the acts of the past five years have failed to be representative. In this way, it is clear that in the music industry of the UK and the UK in general, minorities still struggle to be in the position to take lead roles or even be represented properly in the country’s Eurovision delegation.
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References
Adams, William Lee. “Engelbert Humperdinck: The U.K. chooses elderly legend for Eurovision.” Wiwibloggs, 1 March, 2012, http://wiwibloggs.com/2012/03/01/engelbert-humperdinck-the-u-k-chooses-elderly-legend-for-eurovision/14739/.
Adams, William Lee. “Molly wins Amaury Vassili Award for biggest disappointment.” Wiwibloggs, 5 July 2014, http://wiwibloggs.com/2014/07/05/molly-amaury-vassili-award-disappointment/54235/.
Adams, William Lee. “Wiwi Jury: The United Kingdom’s Electro Velvet with ‘Still in Love with You’.” Wiwibloggs, 2 May 2015, http://wiwibloggs.com/2015/05/02/wiwi-jury-reviews-united-kingdoms-electro-velvet/89065/.
Aderemi, Deban. “United Kingdom: Bonnie Tyler to sing ‘Believe in Me’ at Eurovision.” Wiwibloggs, 7 March 2013, http://wiwibloggs.com/2013/03/07/united-kingdom-bonnie-tyler-to-sing-believe-in-me-at-eurovision/22960/.
Greenwood, Carl. “Eurovision 2015 flop for Electro Velvet who become United Kingdom’s worst-performing act for 12 years.” Mirror, 24 May 2015, http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/eurovision-2015-flop-electro-velvet-5751439.
Preetha, Pushra. “Indian Henna Designs - Unfold Deeper Meaning & Significances.” Fashion Lady, 30 September 2014, http://www.fashionlady.in/indian-henna-designs-unfold-deeper-meanings-significances/13903.
Salmon, Josh. “United Kingdom: Joe and Jake release video for ‘You’re Not Alone’.” Wiwibloggs, 14 March 2016, http://wiwibloggs.com/2016/03/14/united-kingdom-joe-jake-youre-not-alone-official-video/132639/
“UK Entries.” BBC, http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/2p23Z0lyVSX0VHxqNj9kBjH/uk-entries. 6 February 2017
“United Kingdom.” Eurovision, http://www.eurovision.tv/page/history/by-country/country?country=6. 6 February 2017.
United Kingdom, Office for National Statistics. 2011 Census: Population Estimates for the United Kingdom, 27 March 2011. 27 March 2011, http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20160105160709/http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171778_290685.pdf
Westbrook, Caroline. “Eurovision Song Contest 2016: UK act Joe and Jake want to use your selfies in their performance....” Metro, 16 April 2016, http://metro.co.uk/2016/04/16/eurovision-song-contest-2016-uk-act-joe-and-jake-want-to-use-your-selfies-in-their-performance-5820915/.
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