The Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) needs to be restructured.
Although, undoubtedly the movingly soulful winning song by Marija Šerifović deserved victory, the next nine places in the contest were filled with derivative dross - sexist rural Ukrainian folk music and Russian women dressed as schoolgirls singing about being paid for sex, for example.
This must change. Not only does the current competition format ensure a value in performing lowest common denominator idiot art that appeals to the alcohol fueled European television voters but it also undermines one of the few opportunities of international exposure for talented young musicians from Europe's less powerful countries.
On an artistic level, the songs performed by Sopho Khalvashi and Marija Šestić are among the most beautiful pieces of soul music that I have heard in recent years. Each of these two pieces of music possesses that rare gift of an inner emotional and cultural soul. Effectively, these two artists finished third and second, respectively, once the more flippant entries are removed. And, yet, by finishing in 12th and 11th, the full degree of their deserved international exposure is compromised. For example, there has been a magnitude of difference in the global press coverage of the gutter art of Ukraine and Russia in comparison with the beautiful soundscapes generated by these two performers.
The ESC has several prime issues that need to be addressed in order to protect their brand, plan strategically for the future and to optimise the experience both the artists and the ESC itself.
The focus areas are i) the dumbing down of the competition; ii) the negative impact on the truly talented artists; iii) corruption; iv) regional voting issues; v) promotion of Black artists. These separate issues overlap and we attempt to address the combination of problems with potential solutions in an holistic manner.
The ESC requires financial returns from it's contest and, consequently, the telephone voting mechanism is sacrosanct. The first major adjustment that the ESC should undertake is to divide the ESC into two separate contests each with the same candidates. The mainstream ESC would be decided as is currently the case while a parallel list of the top three artistic performers would be chosen by a panel of judges. These judges would be selected by the ESC on a rotational level (each of Europe's six regions would provide one judge and each judge would sit for just one year). This structure has the additional benefit of controlling any corruptive influences that would accrue through longevity of office. The benefits to the ESC are obvious - they can expand their brand and move upmarket while, much more importantly, the young musical talent throughout Europe will be provided with a more meritocratic route to potential success.
The ESC should also consider including artist's videos as part of the competition. The artistic process is multimedia and the ESC is stuck in a time warp in not assessing the full range of expression. The creative production of the videos for Sopho Khalvashi and Marija Šestić is surely an extra dimension that should be addressed in the determination of winners and losers.
There has been much wailing and gnashing of teeth in the British media complaining about what, through their xenophobic lenses, is seen as corrupt and cartelised voting by countries in the Balkans and Eastern Europe. Not so... Firstly, a type of cultural bias exists throughout Europe and people vote for musical forms and styles with which they are familiar. There is absolutely no difference between the Belgians voting for the Dutch and vice versa merely based on musical taste and the same reality existing between, say, Romania and Moldova... North west Europe should stop bleating and produce some decent music. In addition to the impact of similarity in musical taste, neighbouring countries throughout eastern and southern Europe have hugely mobile population groupings (Russians in Estonia and Hungarians in Romania, for instance) which also leads to voting for your homeland in the same way as the Irish do in England. No problem there then either... If the ESC is to have a truly uplifting cultural impact, it will be through sharing high quality art alongside the mainstream. The impact of this musical fusion of styles will lead to greater numbers of people being able to enjoy and appreciate beautiful music from other cultures within our continent. The nationalistic elements of the competition should be played down for the creation of a continental forum where music is appreciated for it's art rather than it's country of origin. If the countries in the north and west wish to accelerate this process in order to be able to compete on a level playing field sooner, allow devolution for your regions :)
The creation of a second prize within the ESC will also help to address the blatant racism that is exhibited in the voting. Not one Black artist survived the Semi Final. The existence of a widespread continental racism in the ESC - for example, check out which countries gave Poland nil points - is not a surprise when wider society also displays the same racist attitude. Allowing Black performers to compete and win will actively address the rampant racism that exists across Europe.
If the ESC is able to adapt to change quickly, it can become a much more weighty institution while not losing the frivolity with which it has built it's edifice. The ESC can achieve this through providing a route to western audiences for hugely skilled and highly educated musical talent from countries like Georgia, Bosnia-Herzogovina and Serbia that exist in challenging geopolitical conditions. The ESC must recognise that their competition represents one of the few potentially meritocratic links to the west for all the artists involved in the event and should restructure to maximise it's positive impact on the careers of these artists.
And we all gain out of this process too. I have extensive music collections, both here and in Greece, and yet the ESC helps me to fill in the gaps in my musicological knowledge - I will most certainly be checking out the music of the Laz people of Georgia and the output of the Banja Luka Music Academy after this year's event.
On a personal level, there was another surprisingly enjoyable aspect to trading on the ESC markets. Throughout my career as a Market Analyst, I have created profit by analysing and trading on the destructive impact of shareholder capitalism on financial markets. Trading on the ESC provided an almost unique experience of trading on a market that was, to some extent, creative and constructive in form. Making money out of my historical music industry A&R skills together with the artistic talents of the artists from Georgia, Serbia and Bosnia-Herzogovina felt like a whole lot more positive process than trading yet another corrupt market structure. It has even set me thinking as to ways in which to re-explore my personal future investment and project strategy so as to incorporate a creative musical entity of some sort.
If the music world is still myopic by the time this project surfaces, my first label targets would be Sopho Khalvashi and Marija Šestić...
