What the Eurovision Winner and Pandemic Politics Have in Common
From expressions of individualism to nostalgia, there's a growing right-wing trend
I’ve always loved the spectacle that is Eurovision, but I’ve watched it with increasing ceremony the past few years. I might be wrong in thinking that its winners and losers give insight into the pulse of prevailing attitudes. Then again, this year the UK was the only country that received 0 points from both juries and public - gaining last place in 2019 too - with this being the first Eurovision to take place since Brexit was actioned. And justifiably so, as the attitude of self-satisfied incompetence and British superiority that the UK has consistency delivered to Eurovision deserves such low praise, even being read by some as the canary in the coal mine for Brexit itself.
In an article from last December, EU commentators expressed their view of the UK following its departure. For Rem Korteweg, of the Clingendael Institute thinktank in the Netherlands, the UK “has always been seen as like-minded: economically progressive, politically stable, respect for the rule of law… I’m afraid that’s been seriously hit by the past four years.” Nicolai von Ondarza, of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, declared that “particularly over the last year” the UK’s image has been “seriously tarnished”.
Many of the EU commentators cited the ‘take back control’ rhetoric from Boris and fellow conservative politicians as an unprecedented populist deception and they are correct. The UK’s better-than, hardline anti-immigration effort appalled neighbours on the continent when it was backed by lies and bloated to include fellow Europeans. “‘Take back control’ is a nationalist, populist slogan that ignores the reality of an interdependent world” said Jean-Dominique Giuliani.
The most profound insight for me came from the German historian Helene von Bismarck, who doubted that British populism would end after Brexit:
British populism is a political method, not an ideology, and it does not become redundant with Brexit… populists depend on enemies, real or imagined, to legitimise their actions and deflect from their own shortcomings. If the EU has been the “enemy abroad” since 2016, it will steadily be replaced by “enemies within”: MPs, civil servants, judges, lawyers, experts, the BBC.
The historian identifies two key elements in this right-wing political method: an emotionalisation and over-simplification of highly complex issues - such as Brexit, the Covid pandemic or migration - and a reliance on boogeymen or enemies at home and abroad. Brexit is a strikingly clear manifestation of these elements when they are stoked into policy. The UK’s reputation has been tarred in its saga of a hardening right and the danger of a dishonest, populist campaign. But Bismarck is right to suggest that this is far from the end of things.
This week, I learned that alongside the UK, many European countries have turned further to the right during the pandemic. A French think-tank recently found that when closing borders and keeping out foreigners became a government-mandated health priority in 2020, pandemic-led xenophobia rose. This was felt more strongly in the heart of Europe – France, Germany, Italy – where 60% of those polled agreed, “There are too many immigrants in our country.”
An anti-immigration stance is not the sole pillar of the right; its easy to see how this right-wing preference goes hand-in-hand with an individualism that extends to other policies. The study collected insights on social attitudes more generally, including towards pandemic-led assistance. The majority of people (71%) in the heart of Europe and the UK, reported that “many people manage to obtain social assistance to which they have not contributed”.
What might be surprising, and upset traditional views of right vs left wing, is that in the 18-to-24-year-old group 45 percent of respondents were on board with the anti-immigration mindset. As RT reports:
“It’s not just immigration – a traditional battlefield of left and right – but social attitudes where the more individualistic, right-wing feeling has edged out the collective approach of the left.”
This brings me back to Eurovision, and my claim that the winning song was a signifier of this individualistic feeling across Europe. The performance of rock song Zitti e Buoni (Shut Up and Be Good) by Italy’s Måneskin was both a nostalgic expression and a hedonistic call to arms (lead singer Damiano David was only just cleared of allegations that he was on drugs during the night of the finale). The band, whose music influences are described as alternative rock, sang in Italian, and thus the song lyric refrain of “We are out of our minds but different from them” went over most viewers heads. But it coheres with the performance on a whole as a presentation of individualism and a nostalgia for the past, both of which factor into populism.
The fashion aesthetic of the winners in particular evidences a kind of rising nostalgia. Mounting an attack on the stage with sparse set design by Eurovision standards, the band rollicked about in all-out 70s revival aesthetic (a facsimile of Led Zeppelin). Elements of this trend - mullets, shags, platform shoes and flares - have been part of an underground revival as far back as at least 2015, when the New York Times called it. Like all other fizzling outs of fashion revivals, what originated in queer culture gradually bleeds to the centre. In 2021, the 70s revival look on Måneskin is already confidently established, so that it reads as simply fashionable as opposed to controversial or queering norms.
Many people mistake the appropriation of queer culture by the centre as still enacting a kind of subversion, so it probably sounds like I’m nit-picking at details. I turn here to Susan Sontag’s Notes on Camp, and its identifying of the subversive mode as a secret code of aesthetics, neutral in regard to content or politics. The full-blown, 70s era glam-rock costumery worn by Måneskin doesn’t read as a Camp reclamation from the past not only because its not a subversion of a presently ‘ugly’ look (think of how Crystal Methyd’s mullet fascinated and perplexed in season 12 of RPDR). Instead, it makes me think of nostalgia as a facet of right-wing over-simplification. Måneskin so perfectly perform the illusion of a band from the 70s era in style, sound and attitude that I am left feeling that the past is being celebrated rather than sent-up.
What worries me about the majority celebrating them is how it coincides with a politics of nostalgia has taken hold in the last decade. Many advanced economies have fallen foul of the belief that life was better 50 years ago, in turn sweeping social progress aside for desire for a more economically stable era. A recent study found that the majority of the European public identify as nostalgic. This study found that men are more likely to express feelings of nostalgia than women, and that nostalgia is correlative to anti-immigrant sentiment: 53 percent of those who feel nostalgic think that immigrants take away the jobs of natives, while only 30 percent of those who do not feel nostalgic think the same.
Its important to note that expressions of nostalgia are not exclusive to those on the right. The scholarship on nostalgia suggests that its feelings are commonly triggered in response to increased anxiety and fear fuelled by processes of rapid personal or societal change (globalisation, the pandemic). I get it. I get why its happening. But if we’re all looking back, having given up on the future, then its easy for standards of living and equality to degrade. What we need to be doing is building towards community, equality and liberation. That might be why I had such a soft-spot for Iceland’s entry, Daði og Gagnamagnið, and their expression of collaboration, humour and love. They’ve gathered elements of an 80s aesthetic, but just as much so use contemporary and novel music arrangements, instruments and dance moves.
Their nods to the past feel self-aware and hopeful, unlike with the winners. Perhaps clouded by my love for Daði og Gagnamagnið and the collectivism they embody, I can’t help but feel deep disappointment at the crowning of Måneskin as it reflects a trend towards individualism. I’ve been mining the comments of Italy’s winning performance on Youtube for what sentiments fans express. The rhetoric of nostalgia (‘bringing rock back’) is definitely a common one. What also seems to appeal to people is the hedonism and individualism embodied by the performance. One commenter writes: “I absolutely love the fact this whole performance is basically about all of them”.
This summer is when lockdowns are finally loosening up in Europe and the West following the devastation of the pandemic. Mostly the easing of restrictions relate to restaurants, bars and pubs. Expressions of looking forward to unbridled hedonism and individualism have been common; last month Twitter all had a good laugh at Chet Hanks’ memetic effort to create the 2021 trend ‘White Boy Summer’. While he called for men to evolve, this related only to an aesthetic, for which he prescribed the solution: a merchandise collection that employed historically white nationalist fonts. Hanks attempted to back-pedal and clarify that the summer shouldn’t be about “having any ill will or prejudice towards anybody from a different background, race, walk of life than you.” But the individualistic, hedonistic motive goes hand-in-hand with right-wing populism. See: these men who used the ‘White Boy Summer’ hashtag on a receipt for a meal after declining to leave a tip.
The pandemic is far from over in much of the non-Western world, and with devastating effects that are yet to reach a relief. To me the Måneskin win feels like a backlash against how the pandemic oppressed individualistic freedoms, a declaration of a perhaps not a #WhiteBoySummer but a hedonistic one, a finger up to marching forward with enlightened awareness following the pandemic. An awareness that could encompass collectivism, community and a necessary restraint of individual freedoms. These are the things we need emerging from the pandemic, but so often instead, we’re seeing the call of the desire to get ‘back to normal’. But normal didn’t work for the majority. So, I’m making the case that yes, we’ve all had a hard year and should enjoy our lives. But we need to be watchful for the lure of our own individual enjoyment as our sole guiding principle, because who, or what, politically benefits from us feeling that way?
A housekeeping note: I’m still here and grateful that you are too! I’m changing my publishing schedule to monthly because I find I can write more organically about what I want to that way, rather than forcing it for the content or to be more of a person online.