Nation branding is when a country uses the media to portray an image of themselves. In the context of Eurovision, countries nation brand themselves by their performances. For example, the more ‘vacation’ states including but not limited to Greece, Australia, Spain, Italy and Cyprus, they normally use bright and warm colors to portray a touristy and exciting place to visit. Cyprus is an island country in the Eastern Mediterranean. They have been participating in Eurovision for around 35 years. This blog post will explore to what extent Cyprus’s national brand has been portrayed through the performances I analyzed in my blog post 2, and how it aligns with Cyprus’s national identity, which I also talked about in blog post 1. From this, I will discuss the social, political and cultural aspects that Cyprus used in their performances to convey their national brand. Then I will conclude with what alignments and misalignments I uncovered in my findings.
The three performances I looked at of Cyprus were through the years 2010 to 2012. They overall were very different in terms of lighting, staging, dancing and props. The only similarity between the songs were that they were about a type of love. The performances of 2011 and 2012 were the most similar because they had a more upbeat song, with brighter colors and loud music. These two songs also can be linked to the myth history of the country Cyprus. The two singers, Christos Mylordos (2011) and Ivi Adamou (2012) are both Greek-Cypriots. In Mylordos performance, he sang the song “San Aggelos S’Agapisa” in the native language of Cyprus, Greek. Also in this performance, their are these lollipop figures swaying behind the singers, and as they sway the performers are swaying along with them. Towards the chorus of the song, the camera flashes towards this woman who is yelling and swinging around a white sphere on a piece of rope. Since the rope and ball are similar to the figures swaying in the back, it could be inferred that she is controlling that, which in turn means she is controlling the men singing. this could resemble a character greek mythology named Lachesis, who is one of the three fates. This connects to the myth history of Cyprus, which they cultivated from Greece. In the 2012 song “La La Love” performed by Adamou, their are numerous objects floating in the background such as seashells and butterflies. Their is a famous painting called the “Birth of Venus” painted by Sandro Botticelli, which portrays the Roman goddess Venus— who is Aphrodite in Greek mythology— grown up, standing in a seashell. This performance could be connected to this because Cyprus is known to be the birth place of Aphrodite. Once again, bringing the myth history of Cyprus in play of the performances. The first performance in 2010 “Life Looks Better in Spring” sung by Jon Lilygreen & The Islanders does not depict any myth history. This could be because the performers are not form Cyprus, they come from the United Kingdom. Therefore, they do not share the same culture as Greek-Cypriots, which is a misalignment. This could connect to the idea that Cyprus is a diverse country, which could appeal to tourists. This helps their national brand by portraying a diverse and exciting place to visit and vacation at.
In my first blog post, I explored Cyprus’s national identity. National identity is the political and cultural aspects of the country, which define it. Cyprus is broke up into two parts The Republic of Cyprus, which the majority of people living here are Greek-Cypriot, and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus which is made up of Turkish-Cypriots. These two areas differ in religion, politics, language and culture. While the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus calls themselves their own country, they are only formally recognized by Turkey, the European Union and no other countries recognize them as their own country. Therefore, they are not particularly part of the national identity of Cyprus. In my first blog post, I did group them together in their national identity, but my knowledge of this has shifted and I will discontinue putting Northern Cyprus in to the national identity of Cyprus as a whole, and just focus on the Republic of Cyprus. The main religion in Cyprus is Christian Orthodox, and in the second performance by Christos Mylordos, the song he sings brings up religion in it. Saying that he loves someone “like an angel”. The connection is between angels being a heavenly and pure being in the christian religious world. Cyprus has not really relayed any of their politics in their performances, or at least in none of the ones I analyzed. However, they have displayed a sense of diversity within their performances, with Jon Lilygreen & The Islanders being British, but still able to represent Cyprus to the continent of Europe. Especially with the connections of myth history in their performances, they are able to represent the culture of the country. One way that one of the performances may not align with the national identity is in the second song when the singer, Mylordos, sings about his lover, he does not specify what gender they are. He never uses the pronouns he or she in the song, therefore it could be any gender. This misaligns with the politics because Cyprus does not recognize same-sex marriage. They only recognize a marriage between a man and a woman. This also strays away from the religious beliefs of Christian Orthodox because they do not believe in same-sex marriage as well. This is more appealing in a modern-day society because same-sex marriage is now more openly accepted.
While Cyprus has mainly stayed true to their cultural and social factors displayed in their performances, their have been a few misalignments. One misalignment is when they allowed Jon Lilygreen & The Islanders to perform in Eurovision in 2010, even though they were not related to the country. This misaligns because Eurovision is a broadcasting media outlet that allows countries to share their culture and represent themselves to all of Europe. Letting somebody who does not come from the home country, portray themselves as a symbol for the country that year is not very correct. It does not allow for an accurate representation of the country, but it does convey the diversity the country has and is willing to show. Another misalignment is that they don’t project their political beliefs on stage. No where in any of their performances does it suggest that they are a presidential democracy. However, with knowing that information, their is another misalignment in one of their songs. In Mylordos performance of 2011, he sings a love song, but does not direct it towards a specific gender. While this could be coincidence, he could possibly be portraying a small political stance on same-sex marriage. Since same-sex marriage is not acknowledged in Cypriot politics, he could basically and secretly be saying that it should be. Overall though, the national brand of Cyprus has been portrayed to the public in a good extent. Cyprus has managed to allow their religious and culture be known to the rest of Europe. However not their politics. The one big historical event that they could make known to Europe is their crisis which took place form 1955 until 1964. This crisis was the conflict between Greek-Cypriots and Turkish-Cypriots. While Cyprus does not allow the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus to participate in Eurovision, I believe that this should still be taught to Europe because before I studied Cyprus, I had no idea who they were, and especially that they had a revolt. This however could unfold heavy tensions between Cyprus, Greek and Turkey, but I think it should still be taught to those who have never really heard of Cyprus or their history before. Additionally, since it is a historical even rather something political, it should be alright to perform on Eurovision. Overall, Cyprus brands themselves as a country that is diverse, religious, but still has people that are in sync with modern societal beliefs. They also portray themselves as a country that is a touristy spot. However they may still expand their national brand, because they really just haven’t shown Europe all their aspects just yet.
References:
Adamou I, (2012). La La Love (Cyprus) . Eurovision Song Contest 2012 Baku. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ex133UhxB64
Mylordos C, (2011). San Aggelos S’Agapsia (Cyprus). Eurovision Song Contest 2011
Düsseldorf. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxkBW0ey5BU
Jon Lilygreen & The Islanders. (2010). Life Looks Better in Spring (Cyprus). Eurovision Song Contest 2010 Oslo. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGNtoR2hom4
