Blog Post 2 - Ethno-Jazz Band Iriao, “For You”

Blog Post 2 - Ethno-Jazz Band Iriao, “For You”

The entries into the Eurovision contest, with countries from Ireland to Russia, showcase the culture, politics, and dreams of each country. Songs and performances must appeal to the musical judges as well as the general public who vote. And with so many people watching the competition, the image of a country in the eyes of Europe can be affected by what is represented in Eurovision. Many eastern and not fully westernized european nations often discord their national identity in order to get attention and praise from the western majority and power. Presenting themselves as an orientalised version, exaggerating and highlighting non-western characteristics of a culture as the only way to be interesting to the west(Christensen & Christensen, 2008) or essentializing their culture, “selecting certain aspects”(Baker, 2008) as the most important ones thereby simplifying the culture to be understandable and recognizable to westerners. These things often come together in simulation, creating a false presentation of a national identity and culture to be more palatable to the west. Presentations in Eurovision are also often used to represent a country to have political views or morals that the west deems important, such as diversity and human rights prioritization and democratic ideals. This lets the outsiders to the west participate in western cosmopolitanism, uniteing in western values(Sieg, 2013). Georgia, having gained independence from Russia in 1991, is relatively new to being a modern western nation, so they have faced these same challenges in presenting their nation to a western audience. Through the majority of the 20th century, Georgia’s national identity was mostly defined by its difference from the USSR and Russia. The Georgian language, wine, and polyphonic singing style are all differences to the USSR, nearby eatern countries, as well as Western Europe. In 2018, Georgia entered its twelfth song into the Eurovision contest, “For You” by Ethno-Jazz Band Iriao. The performance was presented as uniquely Georgian, with Georgian language and polyphonic singing. However very few of the typical flares and shocks of a televised singing competition, of Eurovision, were present. Instead, as the 2017 winner suggested in their speech, Georgia focused on just the music. 

As Georgia is an eatern nation, in order to do well in Eurovision, it has had to appeal to western european people who have the power in the competition. Russia and the USSR have been the most important other to Georgia for more than a century now, so much of Georgian national identity has been defined by being different from Russia. The Georgian language is spoken in no other country but Georgia, polyphonic singing is a traditional dual-melody style of folk singing that originated in Georgia, and Georgian wine culture as a separate and unique style of wine and alcohol from Russia and all other countries around Georgia. In “For You”, the Georgian 2018 entry to Eurovision, these pieces of Georgian national identity are put forth as the main points of importance. This is the first Georgian entry with all the lyrics in the Georgian language, and using polyphonic singing. The band is made up of all Georgians, and the song was written by the lead singer in the band and Irina Sanikidze who is also Georgian(Ethno-Jazz band iriao - Georgia - Lisbon 2018, 2018). Iriao took some of the most important parts of Georgian culture and made them the points of importance in their performance. This is essentialism, they reduced the Georgian culture to just a few points that could be remembered and seem interesting to the west. Georgian culture is much more complicated than just having a different language and interesting folk music, however in order to market “For You” and Georgia to a western audience, it must be reduced to more simple for forign audience with very little familiarity with Georgian culture. The lyrics of “For You” also are a form of essentialization, saying, “share with others” and “you own only what you share” (Ethno-Jazz band iriao - Georgia - Lisbon 2018, 2018). This is another piece of Georgian culture that had been selected of Georgian culture, “political elites stereotyped hospitality as a national specific, used to promote the country to outsiders” (Curro, 2017). The selection of these specific pieces of Georgian culture are also examples of Orientalism. Georgia is an eastern nation and therefore exotic to the west, and the use of the solely the Georgian langage and polyphonic singing selects specificaly forign aspects of Georgian culutre. This plays to the western idea of the east as being not fully civilized, having a strange and uniteligeble language and traditional music that is not so civilized as the west. This self-orientalization makes Georgia more intetrsing to the west, making Georgia worthwhile as a spectacle. 

Many performances use giant LED screens, pyrotechnics, and costume changes to make thier act memorable. Compared to this, Georgia’s 2018 entry was incredibly simple. With just the band onstage in professional suits, standing still, and simple lighting changes along with the intensity of the music, none of the usaul eyecatching snares were used. Instead, they relied on the features of Georgia that were used as their distinctive factors, as well as being so simple between novelty acts. Georgia was also probably influenced to take this approach after the the winning speech in 2017. Portugal won in 2017 for the first time. Similar to Georgia, Portugal uses portugese which is spoken in few other places, and much of their Eurovision performances have not fit with the norms of Eurovision, and in 2017 that worked for them. So in Salvador Sobral’s winning speech he said, “Music is not fireworks; music is feeling. So let’s try to change this and bring music back.”(Bond, 2017). With Portugal then hosting the 2018 Eurovision, Georgia followed their lead and focused on the music rather than all the frills that Eurovision performances usually have. Not only were the usual Eurovision tropes of pyrotechnics and dancing avoided, but Georgia dded pieces to their performance to make it more focused on the music. The whole band was onstage with one person playing the piano and the other a bass even though live instruments are not allowed in Eurovision performances. The instruments were just for show, representing the performance as being about the music. The lighting was subtle, the band fully illuminated the whole time to bring attention to the song, with simple accompanying blue light in the calm and orange for more intense pieces of music. Instead of the lights being telling a story, they simply reinforce the sentiments created by the song itself. Dry ice was used, not in a dramatic or spooky way as it is in other performances, but as a base that makes the ground not interesting and brings the focus to the faces of the singers. The song was even composed in part by the lead singer himself (Ethno-Jazz band iriao - Georgia - Lisbon 2018, 2018), making the band very invested in the music. With so much expected of a Eurovision performance to grab the attention of the huge audience, Georgia used the strategy of instead focusing on the music itself and ensuring that the cultural points, including the music itself as polyphonics, could stand out.

With very few frill in their performance, “For You” is unable to make some of the mistakes common to larger performances in Eurovision. As it essentializes Gerogian culture, it excludes many of Georgia’s cultural intricacies and reduces Gerogia to an orientalized version of itself. However, it does not infringe on other cultures or use representational diversity to seem more progrssive. It also doesnt use pinkwashing, LGBT represntation when to seem to align better with western morals, or homonationality. There is no direct political messaging, though the lyrics about sharing might be construed as advice for politics or morals of others, instead of just in the conext of romantic love. This pro-sharing and helping one another advice in the lyrics and the focus on Georgian culture also go somewhat against western cosmopolitanism. However, simply entering the Eurovision competition along with the secondary label of jazz for the song both buy into cosmopolitanism to some degree, participating in western traditions. As a whole, “For You”s self essentialism and orientalism along with its focus on the music to gather the attention of the west, rather than frills and politics of many Eurovision entries, allows the entry to avoid hurting other countries and minority groups. But in a competition controlled by the west, essentiallism and orientalism were necessary seen as necessary to get attention and success in the competition.

Words: 1588

References

Christensen, M., & Christensen, C. (2008). The after-life of Eurovision 2003: Turkish and European social imaginaries and ephemeral communicative space. Popular Communication, 6(3), 155-172.

Baker, C. (2008). Wild dances and dying wolves: simulation, essentialization, and national identity at the Eurovision Song Contest. Popular communication, 6(3), 173-189.

Cunha, C. A., & Cunha, R. (2010). Culture and customs of Portugal. ABC-CLIO.

Sieg, K. (2013). Cosmopolitan empire: central and eastern Europeans at the Eurovision Song Contest. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 16(2), 244-263.

Curro, C. (2017). From tradition to civility: Georgian hospitality after the Rose Revolution (2003-2014) (Doctoral dissertation, UCL (University College London)).

Bond, N. (2017). Fans and artists turn on Eurovision winners over controversial speech. Retrieved from https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/tv/fans-and-artists-turn-on-eurovision-winner-over-controversial-speech/news-story/76954a352f42a09efb4af2aa31e15601 

Ethno-Jazz band Iriao. (2018). "Song title" (Country). Eurovision Song Contest 2018 Lisbon[DVD].  Baarn, NL: Universal Music Group.

Ethno-Jazz band iriao - Georgia - Lisbon 2018. (2018). Retrieved February 23, 2021, from https://eurovision.tv/participant/iriao